A collection of the best essays and reportage from The New York Times City section over the past four years includes contributions from such literary luminaries as Phillip Lopate, Vivian Gornick, Thomas Beller, and Laura Shaine Cunningham, among others. Simultaneous. The City Section of The New York Times shows us "real New Yorkers". Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1(6) Part I A Sense of Place 1 The House on West 11th Street 7(10) Three Decades After Young Radicals Blew Up an Elegant Brownstone in Greenwich Village, Echoes of the Blast Linger. Mel Gussow (March 5, 2000) 2 Spanish Harlem on His Mind 17(8) As Latinos From Many Lands Stream Into New York, Puerto Ricans Watch, Remembering a Time El Barrio Was Theirs Alone. Ed Morales (February 23, 2003) 3 The Old Neighbors 25(7) Who Lives Where We Live? Who Sprinted Down This Hall Smelled Spring From This Window? In a City Where the Past Is Ever Present, Tracing the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Is a Haunting Journey. Jim Rosenberger (March 9, 2003) 4 Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere, Part I 32(4) An Englishman Finds Himself in the City of His Childhood Dreams, a Strange, Lofty, Urgent Presence, Beckoning Westward. Glyn Maxwell (April 27, 2003) 5 Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere, Part II 36(5) He Journeyed From the Frozen Wastes of the Great Plains in Search of New York City Cool. He May Have Found It. Chuck Klosterman (April 27, 2003) 6 Nothing But Net 41(8) The Basketball Court Was Just a Patch of Asphalt in a West Village Playground, an Empty Page in the Urban Landscape. It Needed Players to Give It Meaning. Thomas Beller (May 18, 2003) 7 New York's Rumpus Room 49(6) For Nearly 150 Years, Central Park Has Been the City's Endlessly Changing, All-Frills Heart. It's Hard to Imagine New York Without It. Witold Rybczynski (June 22, 2003) 8 Manhattan '03 55(8) The Attacks of September 11 Prompted People Around the World to Articulate How Much New York Means to Them. Jan Morris (September 7, 2003) 9 Back to the Home Planet 63(4) My East Side, No-Name Nabe. Robert Lipsyte (September 7, 2003) 10 Latte on the Hudson 67(8) New York's Original Starbucks Has Closed. But 162 Remain, and a Day Idled Away in One of Them Reveals That These Marvels of Engineered Mood Have Become the City's Ultimate Study Halls, Offices and Village Green. Patricia Volk (September 21, 2003) 11 Screech, Memory 75(6) The No. 2 Train Roared By Not 25 Yards From His Childhood Bedroom, Punctuating All the Rites of His Bronx Youth. Richard Price (March 28, 2004) 12 Bungalow Chic 81(6) Discovering the Romance of Rockaway, That Peninsula With an Esteem Problem. Jill Eisenstadt (April 18, 2004) Part II Moods and Mores 13 The Allure of the Ledge 87(8) Working Close to the Clouds, the Window Washer Is the Ultimate Risk Taker, the Ultimate Voyeur. Ivor Hanson (January 23, 2000) 14 There's No Place Like Home. But There's...No Place 95(10) A Long Hunt for an Apartment Uncovers Triple Bunk Beds, a Kitchen-Cum-Shower-and Some Insights Into the True Meaning of Home. Tara Bahrampour (December 31, 2000) 15 The Town That Gags Its Writers 105(6) The Buzz and Banter of New York, a Novelist Argues, Can Make It Hard to Hear Your Own Voice. Try Gainesville. David Leavitt (February 18, 2001) 16 Rockaway Idyll 111(8) Eight in a Bungalow, $250 Each, for a Summer of Stars and Waves. Field Maloney (September 2, 2001) 17 Waiting to Exhale 119(8) In a Town of Towers and Tight Spaces, Claustrophobics Yearn to Breathe Free. Katherine Marsh (January 27, 2002) 18 A "Law and Order" Addict Tells All 127(8) The TV Series Is a Hit Around the Country. But Its Heart Beats to a New York Rhythm, for Us and Us Alone. Molly Haskell (April 7, 2002) 19 Look Away 135(4) The Unwritten Law of Survival in the Teeming City. Siri Hustvedt (December 8, 2002) 20 On the Run 139(8) New York, Fast Paced and Deeply Social, Taught Him to Love to Smoke. Now the City Has Changed Its Mind and Demands That He Do the Same. Denny Lee (June 8, 2003) 21 Marriage of Inconvenience? 147(4) She Was Living Young and Carefree in the East Village. Then Came the Robbery. Suki Kim (June 22, 2003) 22 Rain, Rain, Come Again 151(4) When It Pours in the City, There's a Sense of Limited Possibilities. That's Not So Bad. Meg Wolitzer (June 29, 2003) 23 The Agony of Victory 155(8) The Yankees Have Won 26 World Series Titles and 38 Pennants. The Giants, Knicks, Jets, Rangers- Even the Mets-Win Once in a While, Too. So Why Do New York Fans Whine So Much? Joe Queenan (July 20, 2003) 24 Street Legal, Finally 163(8) Married. Divorced. In Your 40's. Life Has Its Stops and Starts. Getting Your Driver's License Is One of Them. Suzanne Vega (August 24, 2003) 25 Time Out 171(4) Loving the Sport. Hating the Scene. Confessions of a Reluctant Soccer Dad. André Aciman (November 9, 2003) 26 Wild Masonry, Murderous Metal and Mr. Blonde 175(6) An Electrical Mistake, an Accidental Death. New Yorkers Learn That Even Their Powerful City Must Kneel Before the Random Hand of Fate. Jerome Charyn (February 1, 2004) Part III New Yorkers 27 Love's Labors 181(8) She and Her Husband Roamed the World in Search of Exotic Plants. Now, Alone in a Bronx Office, Celia Maguire Tends to His Legacy. Laura Shaine Cunningham (July 21, 2002) 28 Ballpark of Memory 189(8) Decades Ago, Lawrence Ritter Journeyed From the West Side to Roam the Country in Search of Baseball's Past. He Came Back With Perhaps the Best Book Ever Written on the Sport. David Margolick (October 13, 2002) 29 The Paper Chase 197(8) The Collyer Brothers, Harlem's Legendary Pack Rats, Offer a Gruesome Cautionary Tale. Franz Lidz (October 26, 2003) 30 The War Within 205(8) A Brand-New New Yorker, He Is Enchanted by the Storied City. But His Tour of Duty in Iraq Has Clouded His View of Himself and of His Adopted Home. David C. Botti (November 16, 2003) 31 Uptown Girl 213(8) In Researching Her Book on the South Bronx, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Absorbed Its Poverty, Its Toughness, Its Glacial Pace. She Also Rediscovered Herself Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (February 1, 2004) 32 My Friend Lodovico 221(4) Finding a Soul Mate on Upper Fifth Avenue. David Masello (February 8, 2004) 33 Fare-Beater Inc. 225(4) A Former Seminarian Found His True Calling in the Subtle Art of Sluggery. Jim Dwyer (March 28, 2004) 34 The Ballad of Sonny Payne 229(10) The Subway Is Filled With Panhandlers. But Perhaps None Is as Beloved as the Man With the White Beard and Gentle Eyes Who Moves Through the F Train. Steven Kurutz (May 16, 2004) Part IV City Lore 35 The White Baby 239(8) In the Botanicas of Spanish Harlem, the Spirits Are Asked to Grant Prayers. But Long Ago, a Visitor Learns, the Gods Cruelly Mocked One Man's Wish. Ernesto Quiñonez (June 4, 2000) 36 New York, Brick by Brick 247(6) The AIA Guide, That Admiring, Classic Work on New York's Ad Hoc, Additive Architecture, Offers Its First New Edition in More Than a Decade. Phillip Lopate (June 18, 2000) 37 Memory's Curveball 253(8) Thick With the Glaze of Age, the Baseball Evoked Thoughts of a Legendary Team. But It Was Not What It Seemed. Dan Barry (June 10, 2001) 38 My Neighborhood, Its Fall and Rise 261(8) Safe But Dreary in the 50's, the West Farms Area of the Bronx Had Grown Desolate in the 70's. Now It's on the Mend. Vivian Gornick (June 24, 2001) 39 Ship of Dreams 269(8) In 1780, H.M.S. Hussar Sank Near Hell Gate. Joseph Governali Was in Hot Pursuit, With Good Reason: Legend Says the Frigate Was Laden With Gold. Tom Vanderbilt (February 17, 2002) 40 The Day the Boy Fell From the Sky 277(8) Decades Later, a Park Slope Nurse Remembers. Wendell Jamieson (March 24, 2002) About the Contributors 285(6) About the Editor 291