New York Daily News: Borough Bloggers Reveal Secret Gems of NYC Neighborhoods

BY WENDY MITCHELL
Thursday, June 11th 2009, 4:00 AM

Read the whole article HERE.

Think you know everything cool to see in your city? These boro bloggers comb the streets of their nabes every day for new finds to chat about. And not surprisingly, they've got plenty of secret gems that, well, aren't a secret anymore!

STATEN ISLAND
Blogger: Cynthia von Buhler
Blog: www.prodigalborough.com
What she's blogging about: Prodigal Borough covers a variety of Staten Island interests including art, parks, the ferry, beaches, parks, real estate and preservation, and food.
Her gem: Staten Island is one big wonder full of eccentric oddities, and my favorite is the easiest to find. Take the scenic ferry ride, and then follow the neon sign to Theo Dorian's gallery SHOW. The current show at the gallery is “Lost & Found,” an exploration of earnestness in art, and in mid-June, the gallery will feature sculptures of hard, mundane forms like axes and logs cast in fine white porcelain by Victoria Munro. The gallery also offers workshops (like guitar lessons during an upcoming exhibit of photographs of glam rock icons by Mick Rock). While on the island, get directions to nearby wonders like the shrine built of found objects, the Chinese koi pond and gardens, and gorgeous Victorian houses. Address: SHOW, 156 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island, www.showhownyc.com, 718-524-0855.

Art Recycle Opportunity with Day de Dada: Reduce – Reuse - Recreate

Art Recycle Opportunity with Day de Dada: Reduce – Reuse - Recreate

Do you have extra art that you're not using? Maybe you have some leftover concepts in the closet or cluttering up the basement of your mind.

Here's your chance to reduce, reuse, and recycle your extraneous art. Bring your leftover canvases, sculpture bits and unused creative ideas to "Van Duzer Days" on Saturday August 1st and work together with Artists from Day de Dada to create a masterpiece of repurposed art.

It will be live, it will be creative, it will be videotaped, it will be Dada!

Meet at "Van Duzer Days" on Saturday August 1st from 1:00 to 4:00 on Van Duzer Street between Wright and Beach Streets, Staten Island .

Van Duzer Days is part of Summer Streets NYC and is sponsored by Sicolab.

While at Van Duzer Days also check out "We-Cycle" - A community upcycling bike advocacy installation.

More info at www.daydedada.com

Prodigal Borough's Name Has Changed

In homage to Forgotten NY, which first helped us find Staten Island, we are changing our name to Forgotten Borough. Forgotten NY features overlooked, ancient sites in New York City. Staten Island is the most overlooked borough in the city, and it has a plethora of ancient sites. We are here to make you more familiar with the most mysterious borough of New York City: Staten Island. Using the term "forgotten borough" to describe Staten Island isn't new; it was first coined in 1928 by The New York Times.

15 July 1928, New York Times, pg. RE1:
Urging Staten Island operators to be cautious about pricing their realty, W. Burke Harmon, President of the Harmon National Real Estate Corporation, yesterday declared that sudden price increases on properties at this time might well result in halting the normal development of what he calls "this forgotten borough that has suddenly stepped into the limelight."

19 October 1950, New York Times, pg. 35:
Speaking at a borough-wide rally last night in the Boulevard Hotel, Grant CIty, S. I., Mr. Corsi described Staten Island as the "forgotten borough" by the present Tammany administration at City Hall.
(Edward Corsi, Republican candidate for Mayor - ed.)

23 November 1958, New York Times, pg. R1:
Staten Island rates high as the possible scene of New York's next boom in industrial construction, according to city and Chamber of Commerce officials. The fact that the commerce group's members come largely from Richmond is not expected to lengthen the odds against "the forgotten borough," as some of them have named it.

I'm attaching a few of my pictures of Fort Wadsworth. Forgotten. Ancient. You see what I mean.

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