On May 6, 1626, the Dutch purchased the island of Manhattan from a local Native American tribe for $24. Or did they? There are dozens of articles online about the purchase of Manhattan, yet few paint a coherent narrative about what actually took place or properly acknowledge the limit to which we will ever be certain of…
On a dreary winter night in Pittsburgh, 1885, a dispirited father wrote the Pittsburgh Dispatch asking what to do with his five unmarried daughters. The paper responded with an editorial explaining that women were only good for housework, and that America must have sunk pretty low if a father didn’t have time to find suitable…
Fiorello La Guardia is widely regarded as the best mayor in New York City’s history, and on 4/20 we remember his impressive and forward-thinking approach to marijuana. La Guardia served as mayor from 1934 to 1945, and during the early years of his administration, weed use barely registered as an issue. Annual arrests for sales…
Article by Janos.nyc guest writer, Crispus Knight. This might just be the craziest NBA story of the year. On the night of April 7th into the early hours of April 8th, Chris Copeland, an NBA journeyman currently on the roster of the Indiana Pacers, was out in Manhattan with a close female friend. They visited…
We all know how frustrating it is when your morning train has issues. (I’m looking at you, L line!) Now imagine eleven days without subways or buses. By 1980, the city had started to recover from the mid-70s fiscal crisis, but dealing with union contracts, many of which had been frozen or taken a hit…
New York City has sent legions of legendary players and coaches into college and professional basketball. When you kick back and watch the Final Four this weekend, however, you might wonder why you hardly ever see New York City teams play deep into March Madness, or see March Madness played in New York City. The answer…
(The following article was published in Salon on April 1) “You guys are just scrambled eggs. You call yourselves professionals?” Michael Shnayerson had the misfortune of releasing his Andrew Cuomo biography, “The Contender,” after Cuomo’s time has passed as a serious presidential contender. There was a time when Cuomo’s presidential stock was on the rise.…
