Greetings from the first weekend of Zohran’s New York. This was the first mayoral inauguration in my lifetime where random people are excited to see it happen (as the block party of thousands on Thursday showed), a strange phenomenon in a city where the mayor pretty regularly gets booed wherever he goes. 2025 was a year filled with personal, municipal, national, and global challenges (and 2026 has kicked off with more of the same, complete with what feels like the run-up to the Iraq war but significantly dumber). But it was also a year flecked with small joys, fun trips (including to Monterrey to see Gotham complete what turned out to be the first leg of a continental double), successes on both the day-job and the side work that is the ostensible focus of this newsletter, and many cats having come into my life. And by the end of it, embers of hope have begun to flicker, which I hope will burn brightly for all of us in the year ahead.

Since I last wrote, I had a great time with about twenty NYC history buffs at my Quenching Brooklyn’s Thirst talk at the Brooklyn Brainery. (Many thanks to Jen at the Brainery for believing in the tour and talk and hosting, a win-win-win all around!) Great questions from the audience kept me on my toes, and in large part led to this month’s archives feature. Very much looking forward to doing that again. (And if you happen to be associated with another somewhat irreverent space for lifelong learners with a little bit of pocket money, and want me to come give a different talk on an understudied bit of NYC arcana, get in touch.)

Coming Up Next

I am easing into the late winter/early spring schedule, following a hectic Nov/Dec/first days of Jan leading Dyker Heights tours (and ahead of a January trip funded thanks to those self-same tours, which may end up as a travelogue in the March edition of this newsletter). Dates and times subject to change (especially since Gotham’s schedule isn’t out yet), and new dates may be added, but here’s what I’ve got cooking for as little as $5 a pop (bookable on Fareharbor):

February 2026

• February 21, 1pm: Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn

March 2026

• March 1, 1pm: The Bridges of Gowanus: Rezone Remix

• March 15, 1pm: Greenwich Village: Activists and Agitators

April 2026

• April 4, 1pm: Green-Wood, Sunset Park, and LGBTQS Lives [I am hoping the Weir Greenhouse is officially open by this point]

• April 12, 1pm: The Bridges of Gowanus [I’m hoping the Carroll Street Bridge will be back open for this one]

• April 25, 1pm: Lower East Side: History and Foodways

May 2026

• May 1 through 3: Jane’s Walk NYC! I have a few ideas kicking around, but nothing determined, yet; watch this space…

• May 9, 3pm: Meatpacking District and Chelsea

• May 17, 10:30am: The Lost Theaters of Bay Ridge (the annual tour offering ahead of the Norwegian Day Parade, my second-favorite day of the year in the neighborhood)

Looking to book a private tour? Email me.

Something from the Archives

One highlight from my NYC water supply research shows the public commemoration of the Croton system’s opening in 1842 (which I think I initially found in the New York Public Library’s collections). When the system officially commenced service on October 14, cannons blasted at the Battery, fountains at Union Square and (pictured above) City Hall splashed, and church bells rang throughout town. And to top it off, George P. Morris (lawyer, editor, poet) composed a song for the occasion, “The Celebrated Croton Ode”:

Gushing from this living fountain,
 Music pours a falling strain,
As the goddess of the mountain
 Comes with all her sparkling train.
From her grotto-springs advancing,
 Glittering in her feathery spray,
Woodland fays beside her dancing,
 She pursues her winding way.

My sight-reading is poor (especially without access to a piano), and my MIDI skills are nonexistent, so every time I have referenced the ode, I’ve put out a call for those more musically talented than I to help bring this song to life. And, luckily, Brainery class attendee Lee and her friend Abby were able to do just that over the holidays. The flute takes the place of the vocal melody, so you can follow along Morris’s purple prose to sing “The Celebrated Croton Ode.” Use this link or click the sheet music below to hear the mp3.

“SWIPE CARD AGAIN AT THIS TURNSTILE”

In lieu of Some Sensory Stimuli this issue, I wanted to use this space to consider the MetroCard upon its impending retirement (though, sight unseen, the exhibition at the New York Transit Museum on this very topic is probably stimuli enough). I was an early adopter to OMNY (being a cyber-savvy ‘90s kid, bay-beee), and have been using my dedicated OMNY card to connect to my non-chipped transit benefits card for going on four years. But for an inadvertent double-payment on the X38 bus, later refunded, and a turnstile at my local station with a reader that just never works right, the new payment system’s worked well for me. (Well, that and not seeing transfers in real time, but I haven’t been burned by that yet.) The promise of a single payment system for “One Metro New York” may for now be unrealized, but at least the bones are in place for a structure combining the subway, bus, tramway, regional rail, ferry, and bike share. (PATH sounds like it’s a lost cause in that regard, even if the new TAPP system is just re-skinned OMNY.)

I do not want to wax nostalgic for fare media that was basically the technological cousin of Diners Club, especially since so much of said nostalgia ends up tying back to “I used this when I was in my teens/twenties.” (Even the remembrance of swiping someone in with an unlimited monthly just makes me think of the drudgery of coming into Manhattan for work five days a week.) For every perfect swipe through the persnickety readers, there were moments like the ones Streetsblog’s and NYU’s Nolan Hicks remembered on Bluesky:

That said, I will miss the feeling of that perfect swipe— and indeed, my OMNY adoption led to that skill atrophying in recent years. I’ll miss the special variant cards (the Grand Central card most of all), though I suspect we will get some designs for OMNY in the years ahead. I already miss the multicolored vending machines, its intuitive, accessible, whimsical design (green for where the money went, gold for where the MetroCard went, the flashing red box for one’s receipt and change) replaced by the coldness of the new OMNY machines. And in a new era of fare capping, I’ll miss the purchase prompt/philosophical quandary the MVMs brought to the for: Add Value, or Add Time? This may not be the fondest of farewells; I’m not in mourning for a piece of magnetized plastic, no matter how iconic, and the only constant in this city is change. But with that change comes loss, which should not be forgotten.

A Cat

And speaking of not forgotten: We were Reuben’s home for the holidays in November and December, and had a (mostly) good time with this boy! He’s a gentle giant, a sensitive soul, and a real-life Garfield, and would make a great addition to the home of anyone who loves exceptionally stupid orange boys. Coming soon to Essex Street off Grand and from there to his forever home.

Hope to see you in the streets soon! I’ll be back in touch sometime around Pi Day. Until then, consider forwarding this newsletter to a friend, and stay safe out there.