Manhattan

By Gary Walther Online, it’s Keens Steakhouse, but on the awning it’s Keens Chophouse. (No apostrophe, please.) This is just one of the quirks that make this venerable Manhattan meat-eater’s sanctuary on West 36th Street so endearing. It was opened independently in 1885, when the area was part of the

By Shari Hartford Hotel design is a very subjective topic. Some travelers like traditional dark wood furnishings and deep-pile carpet, some want a hotel room that looks like home, clutter and all, and some just want a comfy bed, good lighting and quiet…they’re oblivious to color scheme or décor. Me?

By Shari Hartford One of the first hotels I visited for this column was the Conrad. And, I loved it. That was in early 2012 when the landscape of downtown was changing, but not yet changed. That was then. With the opening of the September 11 Museum and Memorial, the

By Shari Hartford In the not too distant past, the Lower East Side was synomous with immigrants and crowded apartments buildings that were cold in the winter and broiling hot in the summer. The fire escapes that draped the structures provided the only indoor/outdoor amenity. That was then. The now

By Shari Hartford Who doesn’t like gooey, stringy mozzarella on everything that is Italian? On pizza, dripping from lasagna and sliced over a just-picked tomato with a drizzle of excellent olive oil. Ah, the taste of Italy. Murray’s Cheese Shop, a New York institution since 1940, is a one-stop shopping

By Shari Hartford When you’re standing at the crossroads of Times Square, it is easy to forget that this wondrous city is really an island. To gain a completely different perspective this summer, view the coastline from the water. Once again, the luxury yacht, Zephyr, will be calling an “All

By Shari Hartford Downtown New York City has taken quite a hit the past years…9/11, two hurricanes, Occupy Wall Street and a myriad of financial and building woes. But with the fighting spirit that has made this city, and this community, the center of the universe (at least to me)

By Steve Jermanok One of my favorite topics to write about the last couple years is how urban designers and landscape architects have recently created parks from contaminated settings, landfills, abandoned manufacturing plants, and no longer viable space such as an elevated train track on the lower West Side of

  By Bobbie Leigh When Joshua David and Robert Hammond met for the first time  at a community board meeting in  1999,  they were dumbfounded.  Not one other person was there to  protest the destruction of  a decrepit,  elevated rail structure that snaked around the far West Side of Manhattan.