RJ White
City’s First Subway Car Found
The second week of June 1901 saw the formal opening of the City’s first subway- what was to become today’s Brown Line- a modest straight line connecting the old Central Depot (across from Old City Hall, now Ludlow Plaza Station) and the Ostahanoc River, taking in the Downtown/Central Corridor areas, as well as the bustling… »
The Board of Trusts and the City’s Generous Dead
The current economic situation has given our already cash-strapped City a rough go of it, especially with regard to any funds tied into the stock market. Its pension fund alone has lost millions over the last two years and now officials are scrambling to work on ways to patch the gaping hole. There is one… »
The Blotter: Shots, Sheep, Sno-Cones
As a public service, The City Desk periodically offers up selected items culled from recent City police reports. (Note: More violent, standard items do not frequently show up here, as they are covered in the local papers with regularity.)
9:45 pm
Corner of Simcoe and Newbury Streets: Officers from the 27th Precinct respond to reports of shots… »
Friday Facts: Charlie’s Angels Lunchboxes, Roadside Cabbage, Fake Squid
:: A City Council ordinance passed on this date in 1975 expressly prohibited the “display of images of a licentious, erotic, salient or pornographic nature, or which otherwise arouse the prurient interest for the sole purpose of titillation” on children’s metal lunchboxes.
:: The Seventh of the Eight Great Zoo Hoaxes was committed on this day… »
The Brothel Five Levels Below the Street
The old Central Depot, which sat across across Ludlow Plaza from Old City Hall from 1896 until its demolition in 1968, was a wonderful, massive gothic structure, covered in ornament and decoration which one doesn’t find much in today’s construction. It certainly isn’t found in its replacement, the City Centre Square building, a long rectangular… »
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 200th birthday at… »
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 an… »
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 and Roosevelt) remembers… »
Friday Facts: Budget Woes, FDR, Himmler Bay
:: Estimated five-year city budget deficit awaiting Maribeth Cosgrove when she is sworn in as mayor on Monday: Over $650 million
:: Portion of the city budget in ten years that will have to be paid for pension and benefits, according to current union contracts : 61%
:: City union contracts up for renewal this year: Police,… »
The Santamobiles of Bradburn’s Department Store
Through the mid part of the century, the City’s Downtown was home to several large department stores, most of which were flagships of local or regional chains- Osberger’s, Whitestone’s, Bradburn’s, Foster & Asher’s, Harriman Bros. and even a branch of Gimbels. Of these, only Whitestone’s is still extant and the Macy’s in the old Bradburn’s… »
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