Exploring New York City’s Ghost Airport – A Trip To Floyd Bennet Field
This is the entrance to New York City’s ghost airport: Floyd Bennett Field.
Artificial Legs on Livingston Street
I was walking to pick up a fire hydrant permit in Brooklyn yesterday when I noticed a really interesting ghost sign on the side of 208 Livingston Street: For anyone unfamiliar with the term, a “ghost sign” is an ad for a company that no longer exists. This one is an ad for a company…
Eagles on the BQE
The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, or BQE, is one of New York’s more miserable driving experiences. For some reason, the BQE is endlessly under construction (yet never seems to get any better), is barely wide enough to support its six lanes, and at any time of day, there’s a solid chance you’ll hit bumper to bumper…
Exploring An Empty Church In Brooklyn
This is Greenpoint’s beautiful St. Elias Church, located on shady Kent Street. And yes, that’s a FOR RENT sign on the front. Once serving the community as both a church and Sunday school for more than 140 years, St. Elias is now completely empty, and has been since 2007, when the property was purchased by…
Magic In An Old Vacuum Bag Factory – The World of Tom Otterness
Down among the industrial warehouses in Gowanus… …bordering on the canal… …is an old vacuum cleaner bag factory. Today, there’s something very special going on inside: This is the studio of artist Tom Otterness. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ve almost certainly run into Otterness’s sculptures on the streets of New York (or…
1920’s Atlantic City in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
After watching the premiere of Boardwalk Empire last night, I was really excited to check out the Atlantic City set for myself, which was built in a parking lot in northern Greenpoint. A locations friend who lives in GP pointed me to a vacant lot on Commercial Street and Clay Street, and I hopped on…
How To Make Friends In Brooklyn
Spotted on a wall in Williamsburg… -SCOUT
Scouting The Occult in Brooklyn
On two different movies I’ve scouted for recently, I was asked to find a genuine “occult store.” Of course, by occult, they actually mean cliched movie magic shop ala the curio shop in Gremlins. Sadly, the reality is that such shops SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST. Literally, there is not a single store in New York…
A NY Road Sign the DOT Forgot About
I think this is quite possibly my favorite road sign in New York: You can find this decaying sign on Seagirt Boulevard just before you cross the bridge to Atlantic Beach in south Queens. But the real question is: what the heck does this sign mean? You’re already in the middle of New York when…
Abandoned Coney Island – Last Chance To See?
Note: Most of this has since been torn down. When I heard the rumors that Satan’s real estate division, Thor Equities, was allegedly planning to tear down some of the last remaining historic buildings in Coney Island in fear they might acquire landmark status (including the old Coney Island Bank below), I actually felt a…