A Guide to Native Plants of the New York City Region


Book Description

It is no secret that with each new office park, strip mall, and housing development that slices through the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut landscape, more and more indigenous plant habitats are being destroyed. Concrete, after all, is not a friendly neighbor to vegetative life. Less common wisdom, however, holds that plants native to this region have been disappearing rapidly for a variety of reasons, and some of the causes can be avoided, even as construction projects continue to move in. One of the most serious threats to indigenous plants is the introduction of invasive non-native species by landscapers after new developments are built. In this unique guide, ecologist Margaret B. Gargiullo presents a detailed look at the full scope of flora that is native to this region and available for propagation. She offers practical advice on how to increase the amount of indigenous flora growing in the metropolitan area, and in some cases, to reintroduce plants that have completely disappeared. More than one hundred line drawings of plants and their specific habitats, ranging from forests to beaches, help readers visualize the full potential for landscaping in the area. A separate entry for each plant also provides detailed information on size, flower color, blooming time, and its possible uses in wetland mitigation, erosion control, and natural area restoration. Some plants are also highlighted for their ability to thrive in areas that are typically considered inhospitable to greenery. Geared specifically for landscape architects, designers, land managers, and restorationists, and easily searchable by plant type or habitat, this guide is an essential reference for everyone concerned with the regionas native plant life. Since most of the plants can also be grown well beyond the New York City metropolitan area, this book will also be useful for project managers doing restoration work in most of southern New England and the mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland."




A People's Guide to New York City


Book Description

This alternative guidebook for one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations explores all five boroughs to reveal a people’s New York City. The sites and stories of A People’s Guide to New York City shift our perception of what defines New York, placing the passion, determination, defeats, and victories of its people at the core. Delving into the histories of New York's five boroughs, you will encounter enslaved Africans in revolt, women marching for equality, workers on strike, musicians and performers claiming streets for their art, and neighbors organizing against landfills and industrial toxins and in support of affordable housing and public schools. The streetscapes that emerge from these groups' struggles bear the traces, and this book shows you where to look to find them. New York City is a preeminent global city, serving as the headquarters for hundreds of multinational firms and a world-renowned cultural hub for fashion, art, and music. It is among the most multicultural cities in the world and also one of the most segregated cities in the United States. The people that make this global city function—immigrants, people of color, and the working classes—reside largely in the so-called outer boroughs, outside the corporations, neon, and skyscrapers of Manhattan. A People’s Guide to New York City expands the scope and scale of traditional guidebooks, providing an equitable exploration of the diverse communities throughout the city. Through the stories of over 150 sites across the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island as well as thematic tours and contemporary and archival photographs, a people’s New York emerges, one in which collective struggles for justice and freedom have shaped the very landscape of the city.




Brooklyn


Book Description

A major new history of Brooklyn, told through its landscapes, buildings, and the people who made them, from the early 17th century to today.




A Kid's Guide to Native American History


Book Description

Hands-on activities, games, and crafts introduce children to the diversity of Native American cultures and teach them about the people, experiences, and events that have helped shape America, past and present. Nine geographical areas cover a variety of communities like the Mohawk in the Northeast, Ojibway in the Midwest, Shoshone in the Great Basin, Apache in the Southwest, Yupik in Alaska, and Native Hawaiians, among others. Lives of historical and contemporary notable individuals like Chief Joseph and Maria Tallchief are featured, and the book is packed with a variety of topics like first encounters with Europeans, Indian removal, Mohawk sky walkers, and Navajo code talkers. Readers travel Native America through activities that highlight the arts, games, food, clothing, and unique celebrations, language, and life ways of various nations. Kids can make Haudensaunee corn husk dolls, play Washoe stone jacks, design Inupiat sun goggles, or create a Hawaiian Ma'o-hauhele bag. A time line, glossary, and recommendations for Web sites, books, movies, and museums round out this multicultural guide.




Native's Guide to New York


Book Description

The completely updated "Native's Guide to New York" is the quintessential insider's guide, "filled with the outrageous to the obvious: a must read for any New Yorker claiming to be a New Yorker" ("New York Daily News"). Laermer clues readers in to all manner of diversions from where to find the best party at 5 a.m. and where to find the best bagels afterward.




Before Central Park


Book Description

Winner - 2023 John Brinkerhoff Jackson Book Prize, UVA Center for Cultural Landscapes With more than eight hundred sprawling green acres in the middle of one of the world’s densest cities, Central Park is an urban masterpiece. Designed in the middle of the nineteenth century by the landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it is a model for city parks worldwide. But before it became Central Park, the land was the site of farms, businesses, churches, wars, and burial grounds—and home to many different kinds of New Yorkers. This book is the authoritative account of the place that would become Central Park. From the first Dutch family to settle on the land through the political crusade to create America’s first major urban park, Sara Cedar Miller chronicles two and a half centuries of history. She tells the stories of Indigenous hunters, enslaved people and enslavers, American patriots and British loyalists, the Black landowners of Seneca Village, Irish pig farmers, tavern owners, Catholic sisters, Jewish protesters, and more. Miller unveils a British fortification and camp during the Revolutionary War, a suburban retreat from the yellow fever epidemics at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the properties that a group of free Black Americans used to secure their right to vote. Tales of political chicanery, real estate speculation, cons, and scams stand alongside democratic idealism, the striving of immigrants, and powerfully human lives. Before Central Park shows how much of the history of early America is still etched upon the landscapes of Central Park today.




Native Plants of the Northeast


Book Description

Includes nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers from the northeastern quarter of the U. S. and all of eastern Canada. Discusses restoration of native plant habitats and offers practical advice on cultivation and propagation in addition to descriptions, ranges, and hardiness information. An appendix recommends particular plants for difficult situations and for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. Original.




Native and Cultivated Conifers of Northeastern North America


Book Description

This useful manual provides a means for easy identification of the native and cultivated conifers of northeastern North America. The territory covered is roughly eastern Canada and the northeastern fourth of the United States, from Maine south to the southern border of Pennsylvania, west to Kansas, and north to North Dakota. Because it includes so many cultivated species, the book treats the great majority of conifers found in the western United States and Europe as well. Twenty-seven genera and 130 species are included.




NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette


Book Description

New York Times Bestseller Living in New York City for five years as a transplant from Ohio, illustrator and T-shirt designer Nathan Pyle was fascinated by the unique habits and unspoken customs New Yorkers follow to make life bearable in a city with 8 million people (and seemingly twice the number of tourists). In NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette, Pyle reveals the secrets and unwritten rules for living in and visiting New York including the answers to such burning questions as, how do I hail a cab? What is a bodega? Which way is Uptown? Why are there so many doors in the sidewalk? How do I walk on an escalator? Do we need be touching right now? Where should I inhale or exhale while passing sidewalk garbage? How long should I honk my horn? If New York were a game show, how would I win? What happens when I stand in the bike lane? Who should get the empty subway seats? How do I stay safe during a trash tornado? Each tip is a little story illustrated in simple black and white drawings.




111 Places in New York That You Must Not Miss


Book Description

- The ultimate insider's guide to New York City - Features interesting and unusual places not found in traditional travel guides - Part of the international 111 Places series with over 650 titles and 3.8 million copies in print worldwide - Appeals to both the local market (nearly 8.5 million call NYC home) and the tourist market (over 50 million people visit NYC every year) - Fully illustrated with 111 full-page color photographs - New revised and updated edition New York, New York - a crazy quilt of evolving neighborhoods, trends, and tastes, and home to natives and newcomers of every nationality, ethnicity, and outlook. New York City's history and grand ambitions live in every street, park, and hidden alleyway. This unusual guidebook invites the adventurous and curious to explore a wildly diverse selection of little-known places, including: a trapeze school, a giant Buddha in a former porno theater, a Coney Island sideshow, Louis Armstrong's home, a Central Park croquet court, a Gatsby-era speakeasy, and a secret balcony where slaves worshiped 200 years ago. Play chess with the masters on a Midtown office-tower wall; have a pint at a legendary prizefighter's hangout in Soho; whisper messages across a crowded train station. Unexpected and quirky, most of these destinations are so under-the-radar they will astound even longtime New Yorkers who thought they knew it all! Revised and updated edition.