The Neighborhoods of Queens


Book Description

This up-to-date, intimate portrait of the 99 neighborhoods of Queens is a wonderful tribute to the borough’s past history and present diversity. Detailing the history, people, and cultural activities of each neighborhood, the book is generously illustrated with more than 200 photographs, both contemporary and historical, and over 50 new maps that chart the precise neighborhood boundaries. With two airports (La Guardia and JFK), Shea Stadium, and Aqueduct Racetrack, Queens is a destination for millions of travelers and visitors each year. But those who live in the borough’s neighborhoods know that it offers much more: parks, bridges, colleges and universities, museums, shops, restaurants, and other institutions and sites that testify to its more than 350-year history. From Astoria to Woodside, with points in between, Queens, the most diverse county in the country, offers a cornucopia of cultures, sights, tastes, and sounds. With input from residents, historians, demographers, politicians, borough officials, shopkeepers, and many others, The Neighborhoods of Queens captures the unique character of each neighborhood. The book features practical tips (subway and bus routes, libraries, fire departments, hospitals), quirky and unusual neighborhood facts, and information on famous residents. For anyone who lives in Queens, visits its neighborhoods, or remembers it from earlier times, this book is an unsurpassed treasure.




The Drag Queens of New York


Book Description

Meet the drag queens of New York in this illustrated field guide about dragging. From club queens and theatre queens to singing, dancing, acting and disc jockey queens, we get a brief history of New York drag and a glimpse of all the major players who pass behind the footlights.




New York's Legal Landmarks


Book Description

This volume is a joy for anyone even the least bit interested in New York's legal culture and landmarks. . . . The book belongs on your shelf and in your lap. -Albert M. Rosenblatt, former Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals and President of The Historical Society of the New York CourtsNew York's Legal Landmarks Second Edition takes you on a tour of Gotham through the eyes of a history-loving New York City lawyer. You'll visit courthouses past and present that were sites of sensational trials (both actual and in film), locations that figured in the nation's constitutional history, law firms where great Americans practiced law and the homes, schools and final resting places of Supreme Court Justices. Whether you want to stroll down the Lower East Side's Attorney Street or re-open the cold case of Judge Crater's disappearance, New York's Legal Landmarks is the guidebook for you.Hats off to Robert Pigott for shining a bright light on this unexplored corner of New York City history. This updated edition of New York's Legal Landmarks is a valuable research tool sprinkled with unexpected and delightful nuggets of legal, social, and architectural history. -Michael Miscione, Manhattan Borough HistorianThis is the second edition of the original book that was released in 2014. The 2014 first edition had nine customer reviews with average rating of 4.8 stars.




Old Queens, N.Y., in Early Photographs


Book Description

Recalls "good old days" in Maspeth, Jamaica, Astoria, Jackson Heights, other areas: DeWitt Clinton mansion, hotel where Washington slept (1790), plus recent landmarks — Astoria Studios, 1939 World's Fair, more. 261 prints.




Forgotten Queens


Book Description

In the early years of the 20th century, Queens County underwent an enormous transformation. The Queensboro Bridge of 1909 forever changed the landscape of this primarily rural area into the urban metropolis it is today. Forgotten Queens shows New York's largest borough between the years 1920 and 1950, when it was adorned with some of the finest model housing and planned communities anywhere in the country. Victorian mansions, cookie-cutter row houses, fishing shacks, and beachside bungalows all coexisted next to workplaces and commercial areas. Beckoning with the torch of the new century and a bright promise for those who dared to pioneer its urban wilderness, Queens flourished as a community. Through vintage photographs being seen by the public for the first time, the five wards of Queens are highlighted for their unique character and history.




The Signals Are Talking


Book Description

A Fast Company best book of the yearA Washington Post bestsellerWinner of the 2017 Axiom Business Book Award in Business Technology How do you tell a real trend from the merely trendy? How, for example, will a technology--like artificial intelligence, machine learning, self-driving cars, biohacking, bots, and the Internet of Things--affect us, our businesses, and workplaces? How will it eventually change the way we live, work, play, and think--and how should we prepare for it now? In The Signals Are Talking, noted futurist Amy Webb shows us how to analyze the "true signals"--those patterns that will coalesce into a trend with the potential to change everything-and land on the right side of disruption. The future, Webb shows, isn't something that happens to us passively. Using a proven, tested methodology, she enables us to see ahead and forecast what's to come--challenging us to create our own preferred futures.




Patriot Number One


Book Description

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY New York Times Critics • Wall Street Journal • Kirkus Reviews Christian Science Monitor • San Francisco Chronicle Finalist for the PEN Jacqueline Bograd Weld Biography Award Shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize The deeply reported story of one indelible family transplanted from rural China to New York City, forging a life between two worlds In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar—pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch. In Patriot Number One, Hilgers follows this dauntless family through a world hidden in plain sight: a byzantine network of employment agencies and language schools, of underground asylum brokers and illegal dormitories that Flushing’s Chinese community relies on for survival. As the irrepressibly opinionated Zhuang and the more pragmatic Little Yan pursue legal status and struggle to reunite with their son, we also meet others piecing together a new life in Flushing. Tang, a democracy activist who was caught up in the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, is still dedicated to his cause after more than a decade in exile. Karen, a college graduate whose mother imagined a bold American life for her, works part-time in a nail salon as she attends vocational school, and refuses to look backward. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Hilgers captures the joys and indignities of building a life in a new country—and the stubborn allure of the American dream.




The Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusion


Book Description

With contributions from over fifty architects, planners, geographers, historians, and journalists, The Arsenal offers a wide-ranging view of the forces that shape our cities. Who gets to be where? The Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusion examines some of the policies, practices, and physical artifacts that have been used by planners, policymakers, developers, real estate brokers, community activists, and other urban actors in the United States to draw, erase, or redraw the lines that divide. The Arsenal inventories these weapons of exclusion and inclusion, describes how they have been used, and speculates about how they might be deployed (or retired) for the sake of more open cities in which more people have access to more places. With contributions from over fifty architects, planners, geographers, historians, and journalists, The Arsenal offers a wide-ranging view of the forces that shape our cities. With contributions from some of the best minds in architecture, such as Julie Behrens, Bill Bishop, Lisa Brawley, Ava Bromberg, Marshall Brown, Common Room, Charles Connerly, Nathan Connolly, Margaret Crawford, Alexander D'Hooghe, Elizabeth Evitts Dickenson, David Freund, Gerald Frug, Vincent James, Jeffrey Johnson, Michael Kubo, Kaja Kuhl, Matthew Lassiter, Amy Lavine, Setha Low, Thomas Oles, Michael Piper, Wendy Plotkin, Jenny Polak, Albert Pope, Mathan Ratinam, Brian Ripel, James Rojas, Theresa Schwarz, Roger Sherman, Susan Sloan, Lior Strahilevitz, Meredith TenHoor, William TenHoor, Thumb Projects (Graphic Design), Stephen Walker and Jennifer Yoos, among others. This publication won a Graham Foundation Grant




Growing Up in the Gutter


Book Description

Scholars interested in Graphic Arts, Postcolonial & Decolonial Studies, Global South Studies, Diaspora & Migration Studies, American Literature, African American Studies, Asian & Asian American Studies, Chicanx & Latinx Studies, and Gender and Sexuality Studies.




Walking Queens


Book Description

Home to more than 2.3 million people who speak at least 150 different languages, Queens is heralded as the most multicultural place on Earth. People go there to watch Major League Baseball or the U.S. Open. Perhaps they venture just across the river, to check out a trendy new restaurant, bar, or performance space in Long Island City or Astoria, or ride the train all the way out to the beach on a summer's day. Now, with Walking Queens by local author Adrienne Onofri, readers get to know the whole borough. Each walk tells the story of a neighborhood: how it developed originally and how it's transformed over the years. Readers are pointed to distinctive architecture, landmark buildings, popular eateries, ethnic enclaves, celebrity residences, art and performance spaces, and natural scenery. There are tours that reveal forgotten moments in Queens history, or position you for a stunning view, or immerse you in all the sights, scents, and sounds of a melting pot. Maps and transportation directions make it easy to find your way. Whether you're looking for an afternoon stroll or a daylong outing, grab this book and start walking Queens!