Local questions in New York

Hylan Boulevard in the borough of Staten Island is the longest street in New York City, at around 14 miles (or 23 kilometers) long. The boulevard runs northeast-southwest from Rosebank in northeastern Staten Island, along the entire East Shore, to the Tottenville neighborhood on the South Shore. Hyland Boulevard was named in 1923 in honor of John Francis Hylan, mayor Read more...

American artist, designer and sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s red Cube sculpture is located at Broadway and Liberty Street in Manhattan’s Financial District. Officially called The Cube, the red 28-foot- (or 8.5-meter-) high steel and aluminium rhombohedron, perched on its corner with a cylindrical hole punched through its center, was installed in the public plaza opposite Zuccotti Park (formerly Liberty Plaza Park) Read more...

The Q train on the New York City Subway uses the Manhattan Bridge to cross the East River between Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Known as the Q Second Avenue/Broadway Express, the service operates at all times between 96th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The immediate stops either side of the Manhattan Read more...

Throgs Neck in the Bronx, New York City, is named after English immigrant John Throckmorton, whose surname is also variously spelled as Throgmorton and Throggmorton. He settled on the peninsula for a period from 1642 when it was part of New Amsterdam and under the control of Dutch colonialists. Also known as Throggs Neck, road signage favors spelling with one Read more...

The Spotted Pig gastropub in Manhattan’s West Village closed permanently in January 2020 after employees accused owner Ken Friedman of sexual harassment. The popular Michelin-starred restaurant opened to much fanfare in 2004 when Friedman and investor Mario Batali launched the venture, with British chef April Bloomfield appointed to run the kitchen. It attracted a big following, including a well-heeled celebrity Read more...

Renowned electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla had an apartment in the Radio Wave Building in New York City in the late 19th century, when it was known as the Gerlach Hotel. He emigrated to the United States in 1884, establishing laboratories in Manhattan where he experimented with electrical energy and patented many discoveries. He stayed at the Gerlach for Read more...

The Boerum Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, is named after the Boerum family who farmed land in the area in the 18th century. Despite the implied historical connection, Boerum Hill is a relatively recent name, only coined in the mid-1960s by a new resident of the neighborhood, known as North Gowanus up to that point. Recognizing the architectural significance Read more...

The Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City, is named after prominent German-American businessman John Jacob Astor, said to be the first multi-millionaire in the United States. In the first half of the 19th century, much of the then-rural area, including the village of Hallett’s Cove, was owned by wealthy fur trader Stephen Halsey. His older brother, John Halsey, was Read more...

The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (or FALN), in English: Armed Forces of National Liberation, claimed to have planted the bomb at Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan’s Financial District on January 24th, 1975. An attaché case packed with explosives, placed in the tavern’s entrance hallway, detonated during a busy Friday lunchtime, killing four people and injuring more than 50 others. The Read more...

Vinegar Hill in Brooklyn, New York City, is named after the Battle of Vinegar Hill, a major clash between the United Irishmen and British forces that took place in Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The neighborhood was named by John Jackson who was developing his land holdings on this stretch of the East River waterfront in the early Read more...

John F Kennedy International Airport was officially called New York International Airport-Anderson Field, after it opened in 1948, but was more commonly known as Idlewild Airport. The airport in Queens, New York, was developed on land once occupied by the Idlewild Beach Golf Course, leading to it being referred to as Idlewild, and even used IDL as the FAA and Read more...

The suggested dress code for Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City is smart casual. Jacket and tie are not required for men and smart dark jeans may be worn, but sleeveless shirts are not permitted. Sports and athletic wear is not acceptable attire for the main restaurant although patrons in such clothing are allowed in the Tavern Read more...

New York’s WPIX TV, known as PIX11, is located in the News Building at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan. WPIX was once the TV broadcast subsidiary of the New York Daily News newspaper, and the building housed the Daily News operations until 1995, but PIX 11, by then under separate ownership, remained Read more...

BMW of Manhattan is located on West 57th Street at 11th Avenue with a street-level showroom in the building known as the BMW Building, previously occupied by Ford Motor Company until 1997. The dealership offers new and pre-owned BMW cars and is also home to BMW of Manhattan Motorrad, the authorized BMW Motorcycle Centre for New York City, carrying an Read more...

The Edge observation deck on Level 100 of New York’s 30 Hudson Yards skyscraper is 1,131 feet (or 345 meters) above the ground. The cantilevered outdoor platform extends up to 80 feet (or 24 meters) from the building and offers views across Manhattan and the Hudson River, and visitors can stand on a glass floor panel looking straight down to Read more...

The New York City Marathon starts from Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. The 26.2-mile (or 42.2-kilometer) marathon route passes through all five boroughs of New York City before finishing in Manhattan’s Central Park. It is usually held annually on the first Sunday in November and is the world’s largest marathon by participation. Read more...

Father Francis Patrick Duffy was a Canadian-American Catholic priest and military chaplain, recognized for his service during World War I on the Western Front in France. Duffy served on the battlefield as part of the Rainbow Division, helping to recover many injured soldiers, and became the most decorated cleric in the US Army. He was later pastor of Manhattan’s Holy Read more...

Train services on the New York City subway carry a white number or letter in a colored circle or diamond, called a bullet, identifying the route that the train service takes along the various lines. Those lines are grouped by color denoting that at some point on their route they share a common section of track, but they do not Read more...

WNYU-FM is a student-run college radio station owned by New York University, broadcasting to the New York metropolitan area on FM at 89.1 MHz between 4 pm and 1 am weekdays and streaming online 24 hours a day. The station shares the 89.1 FM frequency with WFDU, Farleigh Dickinson University’s radio station, under a shared-time agreement with the FCC, which Read more...

Actor Michael K Williams was found dead, aged 54, in his penthouse apartment at the Schaefer Landing North condo building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on September 6th, 2021. The cause of his death was determined to be accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin and he had previously spoken in interviews about his history of drug use. Williams, a native of Brooklyn, rose Read more...