Blog Archives

Friday Facts: Abe Beats Chuck, Budget Fun, The Old Condor

Friday Facts: Abe Beats Chuck, Budget Fun, The Old Condor

:: 565-acre Pratt Park disappeared into a sinkhole on this day in 1905. ::  Number of people who showed up for the ceremony and forum commemorating Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday at Bowman House (the city’s longstanding Republican club): 470 :: Number of people who showed up for the ceremony and symposium commemorating Charles Darwin’s...

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The Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes

The Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes

It’s for no small reasons that our fair city is often called “The Home of Zoo Hoaxes.” What follows are the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes, as determined by the Board of Directors of the Zoo Hoax Historical Society, an informal group that keeps track of this odd aspect of our city’s heritage. A Zoo...

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Nice Work If You Can Get It: Larger Parking In Rear

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Larger Parking In Rear

An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Although his business card describes him as merely an engineer, Hank Beck’s assistants and partners have more colorful terms for his area of expertise. “Well,” he says, smiling under his dark, serious eyes, “Some of the interns took...

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Divers Unable to Find Source of Oil Sheen

Divers Unable to Find Source of Oil Sheen

Despite a day-long search, scuba divers from the city’s police and fire departments were unable to locate the source of a thin slick of oil that spread yesterday over the western half of Micshcoon Lake, the disused reservoir on the northern edge of the city. While divers plunged into Mischcoon’s cold, gray, frigid waters,...

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Snapshots: Last Days of the Riverfront Transit Center, 1933

Snapshots: Last Days of the Riverfront Transit Center, 1933

April, 1933 – This photo was taken one week before construction was “temporarily” halted on the City Transportation Company’s (Now the City-Suburban Transit Authority) planned transit center on the Ostahanoc Riverfront. To be built in stages, the center would have facilities for regional and local buses, planned subway and elevated train lines and even...

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A look back: City Timeline 1600 – 1899

A look back: City Timeline 1600 – 1899

By no means complete, this timeline serves to give a general overview of major events in the city’s history, from previously posted items here on The City Desk. Please note that contradictions to this list may crop up in the future, as history is a rather tricky thing, indeed. – Ed. 16?? -  Oldest...

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Friday Facts: Impes, “Leapin’ Lepean,” Debtors Prison

Friday Facts: Impes, “Leapin’ Lepean,” Debtors Prison

:: Mayor Cosgrove is expected to deliver to City Council on Monday her administration’s plan to make up the city’s now $728 million five-year deficit. :: Expected remedies: Rec Center  and library cutbacks, trash collection, city vehicle usage cuts, wage rollbacks, hiring freeze. :: The plaque on the Trade and Securities Building (43rd Ave...

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Will The City’s Modern Architecture Masterpieces Be Destroyed?

Will The City’s Modern Architecture Masterpieces Be Destroyed?

The start of the City’s modern preservation movement can be traced back to one date: August 19th, 1959. That’s the date that demolition started on Davis Hall, the historic structure that stood in the center of the City for more than a century.  With its massive marble columns, soaring vestibule and granite interior the...

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Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Man of a Thousand Theraputic Faces

Nice Work If You Can Get It: The Man of a Thousand Theraputic Faces

An occasional survey of jobs both unusual and extraordinary, and the people who make them happen. Your average celebrity impersonator finds themselves working along the Las Vegas strip or in dinner clubs just outside the theater district, belting out pitch-perfect Lizas or Franks, sweating through motion-for-motion imitations of Rodney Dangerfield or Madonna. Not so...

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Dockside Residents Will Finally Ride Like The Rest of Us

Dockside Residents Will Finally Ride Like The Rest of Us

The City-Suburban Transit Authority has agreed to add full-length buses to lines serving the Dockside community, in a reversal of current policy and in response to harsh, ongoing criticism from local activists. For years, the CSTA had maintained that Dockside’s narrow streets made maneuvering full-size buses dangerous and difficult, while residents charged that the...

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