Kayaking the waters that shaped New York City
“Yet,” thought Jacob, seeking to see the whole truth, “there is the other side, which always exists. They say of New York that it is like an apartment hotel. And they say: ‘It’s fine for a visit, but I would not want to live here.’ They are wrong. It’s fine to live here, but exhausting on a visit. “Once New York was the small handsome self-containe
... See moreDelmore Schwartz • In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories (New Directions Paperbook)
As I lowered the beam from my headlamp, it struck me that people in SoHo go through a lot more toilet paper than those up in the Bronx.
Erling Kagge • Walking: One Step at a Time
In 1920, New Orleans boasted six pumping stations, including the Melpomene. These allowed “the old swamps” to be drained and converted into new communities, like Lakeview and Gentilly. Today there are twenty-four stations, which together operate one hundred and twenty pumps. During a storm, rain is funneled into a Venice’s-worth of canals. Then it’
... See moreElizabeth Kolbert • Under a White Sky
But on Saturday, May 1, 1934, the weather turned balmy, and, as they do on the first warm Saturday of every spring, New Yorkers poured into their parks. Seventeen hundred of the eighteen hundred renovation projects had been completed. Every structure in every park in the city had been repainted. Every tennis court had been resurfaced. Every lawn ha
... See moreRobert A. Caro • The Power Broker
The canal, which was planned in the closing years of the nineteenth century and opened at the start of the twentieth, flipped the river on its head. It compelled the Chicago to change its direction, so that instead of draining into Lake Michigan, the city’s ordure would flow away from it, into the Des Plaines River, and from there into the Illinois
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