History.Workshoppin’: Issue 7 (September 2025)
Updates, cool stuff, an announcement, and a cat
Welcome back from an extended summer hiatus for this newsletter. Since last we spoke, we had a whole mayoral primary; I went to Gettysburg, Philadelphia, and New Haven; and DC became an occupied city (ugh). A whole lot of peaks and valleys of late (and we’ll get into some of the former below).
Before I get into the tour listings and other whatnot below, two announcements:
I have made the decision to change my tour price structure. When you head to my website or direct to my FareHarbor booking page, you will now see effectively a sliding scale for all my tours, starting as low as $5 (except for the Green-Wood tour, which starts at $10 due to its length and $5 donation to the Green-Wood Historic Fund). While I feel like my initial pricing for these tours reflects the value of my research and presentation of these tours, ultimately I just love doing them, and I don’t want price point to be a hindrance to booking.
To that end, I encourage you to tell a friend or colleague about my tours, including the availability for gift cards and private tours for birthdays, corporate outings, or generally fun hangs for up to 25 people. (If you’re interested in a private tour, email me.)
Coming Up Next
As part of the fall programming, I am putting on a weekend series I’m calling Water Weekend, featuring my two NYC water supply tours and (in the absence of the ferry project’s unveiling to this point — I’ve been told it’s shelved, but coming eventually) a special live edition of my illuminated history of the NYC Ferry’s South Brooklyn route, all for free. And later this fall, the return of my Dyker Heights Christmas Lights tours (now with a sweet sizzle reel featuring yours truly).
September 2025
September 14, 11:00 a.m.: Greenwich Village
September 20, 1:00 p.m.: Lost Theaters of Bay Ridge
September 28, 11:00 a.m.: Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn
October 2025
October 11, 3:00 p.m.: Quenching Gotham’s Thirst (Water Weekend; use code WATERWEEKEND for free tickets)
October 12: 1:00 p.m.: Quenching Brooklyn’s Thirst (Water Weekend; use code WATERWEEKEND for free tickets)
October 13, 11:00 a.m.: Ferry Tales: South Brooklyn Route (Water Weekend; email dp@history.works for details and to RSVP)
October 19, 10:00 a.m.: Green-Wood Cemetery
November 2025
November 1, 2:00 p.m.: Green-Wood Cemetery
November 8, 3:30 p.m.: Bridges of Gowanus: Rezone Remix
November 9, 1:00 p.m.: Lower East Side History and Foodways
November 15, 2:00 p.m.: Quenching Gotham’s Thirst
November 16, 1:00 p.m.: Quenching Brooklyn’s Thirst
November 22, 1:00 p.m.: Lost Theaters of Bay Ridge
November 28, 7:00 p.m.: Dyker Lights
November 29, 2:00 p.m.: Bridges of Gowanus: Rezone Remix
November 29, 7:00 p.m.: Dyker Lights
November 30, 1:00 p.m.: Lower East Side History and Foodways
Doors I Knocked
So about that mayoral primary! In the last issue of this newsletter, I gave my coveted History.Workshoppin’ endorsements for citywide and Brooklyn offices, including for Zohran Mamdani for mayor. What I didn’t get into in early June was the joy I got to experience talking to voters from Harlem to Bay Ridge, from Cobble Hill to Rosedale, and a whole lot of places in between, from January(!) up through the primary. First as a canvasser, and then as a field lead (running trainings, taking attendance, handing out turf lists, generally serving as a beacon of good vibes), I walked up countless flights of stairs and talked to ever—more—countless registered voters about the campaign, about the platform, and about Zohran as a person. It brought to mind the last time I had really hit the bricks for candidates in 2018, for Ross Barkan (whose campaign was where I first met Zohran, and which Ross himself covered in great detail with his own reminiscence) and then Andrew Gounardes and Max Rose. I got to have a better connection to the community, and especially with my Bay Ridge neighbors. And (unlike a lot of the phonebanking/textbanking/registration drives last summer and fall) the work made a difference at the polls. Michael Lange has it covered in a couple forums, but the sum total of it is: where we canvassed, we won. I’m back at it again for the general (you can find me basically every Thursday evening in Bay Ridge, and for some upcoming Southeast Queens canvasses with We Grew Here) to push for a city we can all more readily call home.
Something from the Archives
Big UNGA week is coming up this month(our first with congestion pricing, so hopefully less gridlock?), so what better time to highlight this visitors guide to the UN from 1962. The headquarters was only a decade old by then, but apparently by that point had already run out of room and had started renting office space around what was only recently christened Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (the guide refers to U Thant as acting Secretary-General, following Hammarskjöld’s untimely and mysterious death en route to the Congo).
The guide is a lengthy foldout, complete with information on all the buildings of the campus and the organs of the UN. (At the time, you could just walk in and attend a meeting, in addition to the tours, bookshop, and post office that continue today.)
Sadly the Delegates’ Dining Room no longer welcomes guests (they had a monthly prix-fixe brunch pre-Covid that I never had the chance to go to), and I don’t think the United Nations Review is still in publication. But this guide is a fascinating look at tourism and world governance amid the Cold War.
Some Sensory Stimuli
This issue’s sensory stimuli is borderline propaganda, but I’m a public transit nerd (surprised?), so in it goes. I only recently came across the MTA’s This Week in Construction newsletter, which pretty much does exactly what it says on the tin: highlight key capital projects, from train yards and bus depots, to revenue line rehabilitation (like replacing track on the Flushing Line above), to ADA accessibility work. It’s a great way to see the work that MTA construction crews take on around the clock, and proof that weekend service changes, as annoying as they can be, are an investment rather than an endurance test, and the trade-off of an otherwise 24/7 system.
A Cat
Meet Keko! This two-and-a-half year cutie actually got adopted, but her adoptive home didn’t work out for her, so she’s with us getting settled before going back up for adoption. She should be back on the café floor, and into her true forever home, in no time!
Hope to see you in the streets soon! I’ll be back in touch in mid-November. Until then, consider forwarding this newsletter to a friend, and stay safe out there.