History in Green and White: Stories Told by New York City’s Streets

By Emilie Pons and Chau Ngo In 1888, the wealthy furniture-man-turned-politician James J. Coogan woke up a day after losing a mayoral election to discover a potent signal that his influence over the city had disintegrated. Someone, presumedly his opponents, had taken down all the street signs on his street, Coogan Avenue, in what is […]

Street Signs: A Comprehensive Guide to Government Control

By Frank Thurston Green Naming the street you live on would be like naming the back of your hand. The signs staked at modern intersections are a weird shorthand for the landmarks locals actually use to find their way around—for the cafe, for the dumpster painted like a cow, for their neighbor’s green door. Signs […]

Street Beats

By Thad Komorowski Street Beats The streets of New York City have proved an endless inspiration to the arts for as long as they’ve existed. Music in particular has benefited from having Broadway as a muse, but the focus of this playlist is the streets themselves. Like walking down the streets themselves, you’ll never know […]

Master of the Map: 1600 streets, 1600 stories

This post has been corrected. By Terence Cullen After retiring from a 40-year career in urban and environmental studies, Gilbert Tauber dove into researching the city’s historic street names. Late last year, Tauber, 78, got into the backstory of the honorific co-named streets in the city – sifting through New York City Council documents for […]