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 […]
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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 […]
“Barbers, Veterans, and Astronauts: The Spirits Behind Our City Streets”
By Victoria Johnson
Do-gooders, Artists and Victims: What 15 Years of Honorific Street Names Tell Us About NYC
By Allegra Abramo and Rebecca Bratek Stroll through any New York City neighborhood, and you’ll notice that many streets carry two names: the name on the map, and the name of a person. Unless you happen to be on a street named after a major cultural or historic figure, such as Gershwin Way (West 50th […]
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 […]
How to Get Your Street Name Changed in Six Easy Steps
By Jake Becker
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 […]
How likely are you to see your name on a street sign?
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