Last year, New York spent about $81,000 per person living on the streets. For comparison, that’s nearly equal to the city’s median household income ($81,228) and almost twice what the city spends per public school student ($42k). “Street homeless” refers to people who live permanently on the streets, rather than in shelters or temporary housing…
One of the most remarkable things about museums in the U.S. that I’ve come across is that on museum ships, the guides are often people who once actually served on those very vessels. For example, in the photo is Jean Austin at the Intrepid Museum. During the Cold War, he served on the ship for…
A very unusual museum story happened in New York: a large and famous museum, while moving to a new and more spacious building, gave a small park a piece of its old structure. What park was it? In Queens, right on the banks of the East River, there is Socrates Sculpture Park. It isn’t as…
A fun new tradition has appeared in New York: parties for people who share the same name. In the photo there’s a great example — a sheet of paper taped to a pole that reads: “Party for people named Chuck. Charles and Charlie are welcome too.” And it all started with an epic story about…
Alexander Molochnikov’s production Seagull: True Story is like a true New York phenomenon: it first appeared at La MaMa, then traveled around the world, including London. And, as often happens with successful hits, has now returned back, this time to the legendary stage of the Public Theater. The Public Theater is one of the city’s…
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is the kind of place that reveals itself differently with every visit and every season. You go once for the cherry blossoms and find yourself returning in October for the maples, in June for the roses, in January for the orchids. It is 52 acres that somehow contain the whole world’s…
On March 10, a portrait exhibition by photographer Kirill Simakov titled “ON THE OTHER SIDE” will open. The idea is beautiful: we know the works of artists, producers, musicians, and architects very well, yet the creators themselves often remain behind the scenes — their faces are far less familiar to us than their art. This…
70 Pine Street, also known as the Cities Service Building or the American International Building, is one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in New York. It also happens to be the last of the great pre-war skyscrapers built in Lower Manhattan. Interesting Facts About 70 Pine Street Henry Doherty — Creator of 70 Pine Street…
The Staten Island Museum is officially the oldest cultural institution on the island, and the only remaining general-interest museum in all of New York City. That last distinction matters more than it sounds. Most museums specialize — contemporary art, natural history, a single culture or era. The Staten Island Museum does something increasingly rare: it…
Tucked into 731 Washington Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Kvartira Books (formerly known as MyBiblioteka) is a bookstore, a library, a community center, a cultural anchor and a classroom. What also makes this place stand out is that there are carefully gathered books in Russian and Ukrainian. It is a small, woman-owned business. A home…
