#fordham marble

[cattenkitten]

Dining Kitchen New York Example of a mid-sized classic u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen design with an undermount sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartz countertops, gray backsplash, glass tile backsplash, paneled appliances and a peninsula

[rabbitcruiser]

Central Park, Manhattan (No. 3)

There are four different types of bedrock in Manhattan. In Central Park, Manhattan schist and Hartland schist, which are both metamorphosed sedimentary rock, are exposed in various outcroppings. The other two types, Fordham gneiss (an older deeper layer) and Inwood marble (metamorphosed limestone which overlays the gneiss), do not surface in the park. Fordham gneiss, which consists of metamorphosed igneous rocks, was formed a billion years ago, during the Grenville orogeny that occurred during the creation of an ancient super-continent. Manhattan schist and Hartland schist were formed in the Iapetus Ocean during the Taconic orogeny in the Paleozoic era, about 450 million years ago, when the tectonic plates began to merge to form the supercontinent Pangaea. Cameron's Line, a fault zone that traverses Central Park on an east–west axis, divides the outcroppings of Hartland schist to the south and Manhattan schist to the north.

Various glaciers have covered the area of Central Park in the past, with the most recent being the Wisconsin glacier which receded about 12,000 years ago. Evidence of past glaciers can be seen throughout the park in the form of glacial erratics (large boulders dropped by the receding glacier) and north–south glacial striations visible on stone outcroppings. Alignments of glacial erratics, called "boulder trains", are present throughout Central Park. The most notable of these outcroppings is Rat Rock (also known as Umpire Rock), a circular outcropping at the southwestern corner of the park. It measures 55 feet (17 m) wide and 15 feet (4.6 m) tall with different east, west, and north faces. Boulderers sometimes congregate there. A single glacial pothole with yellow clay is near the southwest corner of the park.

The underground geology of Central Park was altered by the construction of several subway lines underneath it, and by the New York City Water Tunnel No. 3 approximately 700 feet (210 m) underground. Excavations for the project have uncovered pegmatite, feldspar, quartz, biotite, and several metals.

Source: Wikipedia

[glompcat]

lololololol the Washington Post asked Mary Trump if she can back up any of the allegations she made in her book, so she provided them with fifteen hours worth of recordings of conversations she had with her aunt - Trump’s older sister - where she complains about how her brother is a cruel brat.

For example, his sister used to be a federal judge and Trump loves to promise his base he’s going to put her in charge of the border. Her thoughts on that?

“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”

Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”

Lamenting “what they’re doing with kids at the border,” she guessed her brother “hasn’t read my immigration opinions” in court cases. In one case, she berated a judge for failing to treat an asylum applicant respectfully.

“What has he read?” Mary Trump asked her aunt.

“No. He doesn’t read,” Barry responded.

and of course:

Barry told how she tried to help her brother get into college. “He was a brat,” Barry said, explaining that “I did his homework for him” and “I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college.”

Then Barry dropped what Mary considered a bombshell: “He went to Fordham for one year [actually two years] and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.”

“No way!” Mary responded. “He had somebody take his entrance exams?”

“SATs or whatever. . . . That’s what I believe,” Barry said. “I even remember the name.” That person was Joe Shapiro, Barry said. 

Donald Trump was friends with a person at Penn named Joe Shapiro, who is deceased. Shapiro’s widow and sister told The Post last month that he never took a test for anybody, including Trump. Mary Trump has said it was a different Joe Shapiro, but that person has not surfaced.

Fifteen hours of this, all handed directly over the Washington Post. They have some of the recordings of Trump’s sister saying these things sprinkled throughout the article.

I know people are really cynical and like to dismiss these things these days (”We all already know he’s scum” etc) but honestly? Having recordings of people this close to the President saying these kind of things might possibly help those who think he’s not so awful realize just how conned they have been. This might help sway some people who have been in denial. Maybe. Hopefully. Who knows anymore.

“Donald is out for Donald, period,” Barry said.

Mary questioned Barry about what he had accomplished on his own.

“I don’t know,” Barry said.

“Nothing,” Mary responded.

“Well he has five bankruptcies,” Barry said. (Trump’s companies filed for six corporate bankruptcies but he has never declared personal bankruptcy.)

“Good point. He did accomplish those all by his self,” Mary said.

“Yes, he did. Yes, he did. You can’t trust him,” Barry said.

Like honestly, anyone who engages with what his sister has to say about him, in private conversations with her niece, would have to conclude that the guy is a real asswipe.

One of the most emotional conversations between Mary and her aunt occurred when they discussed the 1999 funeral of the family patriarch, Fred Sr., at Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City. During that ceremony, Donald spoke more about his own accomplishments than his father’s life, Barry said.

“Donald was the only one who didn’t speak about Dad,” Barry said. She told Mary that “I don’t want any of my siblings to speak at my funeral. And that’s all about Donald and what he did at Dad’s funeral. I don’t know. It was all about him.”

“I remember,” Mary responded.

[enamoured-x]

Can I please request 99) "You know, there wasn't a single thing to eat in the kitchen until you walked in” for Sonny?

*gif not mine*

Warnings: NSFW, 18+ Only, Oral (F receiving) 

Your eyes fluttered open as the natural light coming in from the window finally pulled you from your sleep. You went to roll over to cuddle against Sonny but he wasn’t there. You strained your muscles to get you out of bed to go look for him. You were sore thanks to Sonny and all the positions he had you in last night, but you were not complaining by any means. It was a rare day where you and Sonny had the same day off so you took advantage of that fact when you both got home from work yesterday. Making love into the early hours of the morning knowing you could rest all day today. But Sonny seemed to have other ideas. You slid on your panties and one of Sonny’s old fordham shirts and went out to look for him. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes and stretching some more as you walked down the hall. You found him in the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge. 

“Why aren’t you still in bed?” You glanced at the clock on the microwave. It was noon but you and Sonny had barely gotten any sleep and you always stayed in bed on your days off. 

Sonny turned and shut the fridge door. Smirking at you in his shirt. 

“I got hungry…” He walked over to you and placed his hands under your shirt and right on your ass. 

“You know, there wasn’t a single thing to eat in the kitchen until you walked in.” He added and squeezed your ass. You let out a gasp as you felt your core throb. Leave it to Sonny to get you going with just his words and after just waking up.

“Sonny…” You whined. You didn’t know what you were asking for but he seemed to know as he leaned down and kissed you. You groaned into his mouth as he pulled you closer to his bare chest. The kiss was sloppy and all tongue and it riled you up even further. Sonny pushed you against the island and then picked you up and placed you on top of it. You were desperate for more but you didn’t want to break the kiss. Sonny had other ideas as he pulled away and lifted up your shirt to your hips. 

“Lay flat.” You did as he said and laid back against the marble top. He pushed your shirt higher and started to slide off your panties.

“Don’t know why you bothered to put these back on, doll.” He said and kissed your thighs softly as he opened your legs. You were fully exposed to him and aching with need. You sat up to lean back on your elbows to see him better.

“So fucking pretty like this, all spread out for me.” You whimpered as he started to place kisses on the bruises and marks he had left last night. You sighed softly at the way his lips met your skin, goosebumps rising. His blue eyes locked on yours as he kept making his way higher and higher to where you wanted him, where you needed him. 

“Sonny, please…”

“Please what, doll?” He asked as he nipped the meat of your thigh, so close to your core. 

“Please lick me, do something.” You bucked up but he was quick to hold down your hips and throw your legs over his shoulder.

“Gonna devour you, doll.” Is all he said before his tongue and lips met your center. You cried out as he wasted no time sucking your clit into his mouth. Your body was vibrating with want and need, last night not being nearly enough to sate you. Not nearly enough of Sonny. You took hold of his hair and tried to rock despite being pinned down. He was not holding back as he moaned and lapped you up. You were close to tears with the way Sonny was using his mouth. Shaking his head to lick every inch of you and to dive in deeper. When his tongue dipped down to your entrance you whimpered. He licked into you and brought his thumb up to rub at your clit. 

“Sonny! Fuck, baby. I’m close.” You arched your back and pulled harder on his hair. It only spurred him on more as he groaned at your tug and kept his pace. You were going to fall off the edge any second now. The way his eyes kept meeting yours, the way his lips closed around you as he pushed his tongue further into you, the way his thumb was running over your clit just right. 

“Come on my tongue. Taste so fucking good.” He mumbled, barely able to get the words out as he didn’t want to stop the onslaught of pleasure. 

At Sonny’s words, you felt yourself fall over that cliff. Your orgasm rolled through you as you screamed his name. You were seeing stars as he continued to work you through your climax, as you pulled on his hair and closed your thighs tight around his head. He didn’t seem to care though. Sonny was fucking loving it. 

You whimpered as you came down, Sonny still lapping at you. You tried to push him away but he grabbed your hands.

“Sonny, m’sensitve.” You cried out. He still continued to clean you up and although you squirmed, part of you was getting ready for another round. 

“God, doll. Could eat you out all fucking day.” He groaned into your thigh after he finally pulled his mouth away. 

“That’s a nice thought.” You panted. Still reeling from your high. He pulled you up to sit, his hips in between your thighs now. 

“Let’s go make it a reality. I’m fucking starving.” He said and lifted you up to carry you back to the bedroom. You clung to him and laughed into his neck, basking in your post orgasm haze and excited for more. Sonny was happy to spend his day off with his head in between your thighs. 

[queenofangrymoths]

Book Log of 2019

I kept a record of how many books I read in 2019. I liked most of them so I would recommend you give any of them or read.

So on with the list! If it has an X next to it then it means I didn’t finish reading it. 

#1: Warcross by Marie Lu.

#2: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

#3: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.

#4: Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova.

#5: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Roshani Chokshi, Alyssa Wong, Lori M. Lee, Sona Charaipotra, Aliette De Bodard, E. C. Myres, Aisha Saeed, Preeti Chhibber, Renée Ahdieh, Rahul Kanakia, Melissa De La Cruz, Elsie Chapman, Shveta Thakrar, Cindy Pon, and Julie Kagawa.

#6: The 57 Bus by Daska Slater

#7: The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White.

#8: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

9#: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver.

10# The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

11# A Study In Charlotte by Arthur Doyle

12# Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli

13# The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

14# Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

15# The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

16# Carry On by Rainbow Rowel

17# Teen Trailblazers, 30 fearless girls who changed the world before they were 20 by Jennifer Calvert

18# Evermore by Sara Holland

19# The White Stag by Kara Barbieri

20# One Dark Throne by Kendra’s Blake

21# Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

22# A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

23# King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo X

24# Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

25# The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

26# Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

27# Mythology by Edith Hamilton

28# Percy Jackson Greek Gods by Rick Riordan 

29# Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus

30# The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

31# Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

32# Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt De La Peña

33# The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux

34# Roseblood by A.G Howard X

35# Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J Maas

36# Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

37# Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown

38# Through The Woods by Emily Caroll

39# The Wicked Deep by Shes Ernshaw

40# Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

41# Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

42# Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward

43# Modern Herstory: Stories Of Women and non binary people rewriting history by Blair Imani

44# White Rabbits by Caleb Roehrig

45# To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Adapted by Fred Fordham

46# Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

47# Ever The Hunted by Erin Summeril

48# Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

49# Lost Souls, Be At Peace by Maggie Thrash

50# Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

51# The Giver by Lois Lowry adapted by P.Craig Russell

52# My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand. Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

53# What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera X

54# An Assassin’s Guide to Love & Treason by Virginia Boecker

55# The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas adapted by Nokman Poon and Crystal S. Chan

56# The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

57# What is someone I know is gay? By Eric Marcus X

58# Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

59# The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien

60# The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien X

61# The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien

62# Lafayette by Nathan Hale

63# Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

64# We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

65# The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

66# Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

67# Norton Volume Of English Literature

68# Beowulf by Unknown

69# The General Prologue by Chaucer

70# 20/20 by Linda Brewer

71# Always in Spanish by Agosim

72# The First Day by Edward P. Jones

73# Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff

74# Writing Fiction by Burroway

75# Murderers by Leonard Michaels

76# Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases by Lars Gustaffson

77# Cathedral by Raymond Carver

78# A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley

79# Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov

80# The Lives of the Dead by Tim O’Brien

81# Head, Heart by Lydia Davis

82# Richard Cody by Edwin Arlington Robinson

83# “Out- Out-“ by Robert Frost

84# The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy

85# I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth

86# Poem by Frank O’Hara

87# On being brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley

88# On her loving two equally by Aphra Behn

89# Because you asked about the line between Prose and Poetry by Howard Nemerov

90# Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish

91# Ars Poetica? By Czeslaw Milosz

92# Ars Poetica #100: I believe by Elizabeth Alexander

93# Poetry by Marianne Moode

94# “Poetry makes nothing happen”? By Julia Alvarez

95# Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

96# In Memory Of W.B. Yates by W. H. Auden

97# The kind of man I am at the DMV by Stacey Waite

98# The Changeling by Judith Oritez Carer

99# Going to war by Richard Lovelace

100# To the Ladies by Mary, Lady Chudleigh

101# Exchanging Hats by Elizabeth Bishop

102# History Of Ireland Volume 1 by Lecky X

103# A Modern History of Ireland by E. Norman X

104# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

105# Gender by Lisa Wade & Myra Marx Ferree

106# Trifles by Susan Glaspell

107# The Shroud by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

108# King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison

109# Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

110# Fences by August Wilson

111# Where are you going, where have you been? By Joyce Carol Oates

112# Daddy by Sylvia Plath

113# What is our life? By Walter Raleigh

114# May I compare thee to a midsummer day? By William Shakespeare

115# The love song of J. Alfred Prufruock by T. S. Eliot

116# À unr passante by Charles Baudelaire

117# In a station of the metro by Ezra Pound

118# The Fog by Carl Sandburg

119# The Yellow Fog by T.S. Eliot

120# On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats

121# the Road Not Taken by Robert Frisr

122# Paradise Lost  Book 1 & 10 by John Milton X

123# The Victory Lap by George Saunders

124# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

125# The Vanity Of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson

126# Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

127# When to Her Lute Corinna Sings by Thomas Campion

128# Sir Patrick Spens by Anonymous

129# Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

130# A Prayer, Living and Dying by Augustus Montague Toplady

131# Homage to the Empress of the Blues by Robert Hayden

132# The Times They Are A-Changin’ *

133# Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005!by Linda Pastan

134# Hip Hop by Mos Deff

135# Elvis in the Inner City by Jose B. Gonzalez

136# Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost*

137# Terza Roma by Richard Wilbur

138# Stanza from The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats

139# Stanza from His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

140# Stanza from Sound and Sense by Alexander’s Pope

141# Stanza from The Word Plum by Helen Chasin

142# Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

143# Myth by Natasha Trethewey

144# Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

145# Sestina: Like by A.E. Stallings

146# l)a by E.E Cummings

147# Buffalo Bill by E.E Cummings

148# Easter Wings by George Herbert

149# Women by May Swenson

150# Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair by Franceso Petrarch

151# My lady’s presence makes the roses red by Henry Constance

152# My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare

153# Not marble, nor the gilded monuments by William Shakespeare

154# Let me no to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare

155# When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton

156# Nuns Fret Not by William Wordsworth

157# The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth

158# Do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

159# In an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti

160# What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay

161# Women have loved before as I love now by Edna St. Vincent Millay

162# I, being born a woman and distressed by Edna St. Vincent Millay

163# I will put Chaos in fourteen lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay

164# First Fight. Then Fiddle by Gwendolyn Brooks

165# In the Park by Gwen Harwood

166# Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley by June Jordan

167# Sonnet by Billy Collins

168# Dim Lights by Harryette Mullen

169# Redefininy Realmess by Janet Mock

170# Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood

171# The House Of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges

172# Death Fuge by Michael Hamburger

173# Clifford’s Place by Jamel Bickerly

174# We are seven by William Wordsworth

175# Lines written in early spring by William Wordsworth

176# Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth

177# The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth

178# Lines by William Wordsworth

179# Recitatif by Toni Morrison

180# Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer

181# The Management Of Grief by Bharati Mukherjee

182# Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

183# Jesus Saves by David Sedaris

184# Disabled by Wilfred Owen

185# My Father’s Garden by David Wagoner

186# Practicing by Marie Howe

187# O my pa-pa by Bob Hicok

189# Mr. T- by Terrance Hayes

190# Late Aubade by James Richardson

191# Carp Poem by Terrance Hayes

192# Pilgrimage by Natasha Trethewey

193# Tu Do Street by Yuaef Lomunyakaa

194# Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

195# Elena by Pat Mora

196# Gentle Communion by Pat Mora

197# Mothers & Daughters by Pat Mora

198# La Migra by Pat Mora

199# Ode to Adobe by Pat Mora

200# Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

201# The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

202# Metaphors by Sylvia Plath

203# The Vine by James Thomsen

204# Questions by May Swenson

205# A Just Man by Attila József

206# the norton anthology of world literature

207# Pan’s Labyrinth by Gullernio de Toro and Cornelia Funke Xw

208# The prince and the dressmaker by Jen Wang

209# Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath

210# The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

[ao3feed-barisi]

Rafael Barba and Sonny Carisi Are Youtubers: A Drabble Series

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2RCgbpa

by FreckledSkittles

Rafael Barba: skit actor on YouTube with friends, grew from the channel for a teaching gig at a university, now makes videos on the weekend for fun.

Sonny Carisi: runs a cooking channel, modernizes old recipes or makes changes to them.

They make videos. A good chunk of them are dumb, but some of them are clever and actually interesting. All of them are proof that they are perfect for one another and utterly into each other like the weenies they are.

Inspired by YouTubers Jenna Marbles and Julien Solomita.

Words: 672, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Law & Order: SVU

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Rafael Barba, Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.

Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.

Additional Tags: YouTuber Barisi, Alternate Universe, Dogs, Dating, Established Relationship, Cooking, Professor Rafael Barba, he teaches at fordham im emotional, but he still makes funny vids with his boyfriends

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2RCgbpa

[welcome2thebronx]

The following was originally published over at Hidden Waters Blog, a companion blog to the amazing Hidden Waters of NYC book by Sergey Kadinsky, and reprinted with permission.

It’s a fascinating look into our borough’s past and a search for the Kingsbridge neighborhood’s namesake: The King’s Bridge.

What do you know about this part of our borough’s history?

In search of the historic King’s Bridge on Bronx-Manhattan border

The oldest active bridge in New York City isn’t Brooklyn Bridge. It is the Roman-inspired High Bridge that connects western Bronx to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Further north there was a much older bridge that connected Manhattan to the mainland. King’s Bridge crossed over Spuyten Duyvil Creek that passed by the northern tip of Manhattan.

In the above 1906 photo of King’s Bridge, the crossing appears virtually unchanged from its appearance in 1766 when it opened as part of Albany Post Road. The creek was buried and rerouted in 1914, but are there any traces remaining of the city’s first bridge?

Where it Was

On the 1887 Edsall historical survey of this area, I highlighted the present path of Spuyten Duyvil Creek and circled King’s Bridge in orange. The knob of land between the highlight and the bridge is Marble Hill. To its east in red is Albany Crescent, a remnant of the old Albany Post Road. I also noted School Brook and Bronx River, which I’ve written about in prior posts.

This map is the Bronx equivalent of J. H. Innes’ 1908 Queens maps, which attempt to recreate the landscape at it appeared when the Natives were pushed out and the earliest European landowners staked their claims. The Native name for Spuyten Duyvil appears as Shorach Kappock, with 1645 as the year of “acquisition.” The Kingsbridge neighborhood appears as Paparinamin. The largest property on the map is the Manor of Fordham, which remains on the map as a neighborhood and street name.

The old bridge dates to 1693, constructed by Frederick Philipse at a spot known to Natives as the Wading Place, the narrowest point on the creek between Manhattan and the mainland. As Lord of Philipse Manor, he ruled over a vast property that stretched along the Hudson from Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Croton River, with slave labor working on its farms, gristmills, and docks. The bridge’s name was given out of loyalty to the king and the toll exemption given to British military personnel. As the family was loyalist, the property was confiscated and subdivided during the American Revolution. By then, the competing toll-free Dyckman Bridge on 225th Street had siphoned most of the traffic from King’s Bridge.

Straightening Spuyten Duyvil

As early as 1817 when the Erie Canal was under construction upstate there were plans to straighten Spuyten Duyvil Creek. That year a narrow ditch was carved in the lowland separating Marble Hill from Inwood. But at only 4 feet in depth, it could not transport anything larger than a small boat.  On the 1892 map above, the planned shortcut is labeled as “Government Cut in Progress.” The three highlighted bridges across Spuyten Duyvil Creek are King’s Bridge, the new Broadway bridge, and Dyckman’s Bridge.

That year engineer Louis A. Risse published a survey of the shortcut canal and Spuyten Duyvil Creek along with a grid of streets that would gradually cover the landscape. Annexed by New York City in 1873, the streets of western Bronx were an extension of the Manhattan grid, interrupted in many places by topographical obstacles. The rail line curving around the creek is the Hudson Line while the one running straight is the Putnam Line, which was abandoned in 1980. highlighted is Tibbett Brook, which was covered in the early 1900s. Tibbett Avenue runs atop the former waterway. Risse is a familiar name in Bronx cartography, having laid out the route of Grand Concourse.

Last Photos at King’s Bridge

From the Municipal Archives collection, city photographer Eugene de Salignac visited King’s Bridge on October 21, 1913 to document progress on the filling of the creek. The bridge is show running across land. Its wooden planks have been removed with paving stones to arrive by the end of the day. In the background a “for sale” sign on Dyckman Estate. After more than two centuries in the neighborhood, the family’s sizable property was shrinking as urbanization was reaching Kingsbridge. The gothic revival building on the hilltop is Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church.

Another view taken on that day shows a horse-drawn cart delivering paving stones for the roadway. On the side are wooden planks that were removed from the former bridge. A survey of the creek published a year earlier is detailed enough to show a sandbank near the bridge. It had the name Godwin’s Island after a nearby landowning family. Perhaps the smallest island in the city, although there are plenty of other named rocks and sandbanks in the city’s waterways.

The view north on the site of King’s Bridge would be unrecognizable to De Salignac. The Manhattan-Bronx border runs across the road here. At the border, Marble Hill Avenue becomes Kingsbridge Avenue. On the right is Marble Hill Playground, built in the 1950s together with the nearby NYCHA Marble Hill Houses.

The playground appears standard and likely in need of an update. One unique element here is the paving stone indicating the Manhattan-Bronx border that runs through this 1.65-acre park.

As a tour guide, I can brag about standing atop Mount Marcy and Todt Hill. I also straddled the New York-Quebec borderline. Now I can say the same after visiting Marble Hill Playground. The paving stone is likely an idea of Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, who ran the parks from 1983 to 1990, and again from 1992 through 2000. He gave names to the unnamed playgrounds and green traffic triangles. This border stone seems like something he would have done.

Broadway Crossing

With the grid imposed on northwest Bronx, the old Road to Kingsbridge and Albany Post Road were straightened as the northern extension of Manhattan’s Broadway.

Remnants of the old roads appear today as Marble Hill Road, Albany Crescent, and further north as Post Road. Of particular note, the ornate railing and light fixtures on this bridge, highly detailed at a time when public structures were renowned as works of art.

Zooming in on this 1901 shot of Broadway at Spuyten Duyvil Creek, we see the plant-like curls and spiral roundels that would have made this bridge a landmark had it survived to this day. Further downtown, the stations on the Third Avenue El featured similar nature-inspired art on their railings and stained glass windows. I describe this bridge as Broadway crossing so an not to confuse it with Broadway Bridge, which was built in 1895 when the shortcut canal was completed. For a time Marble Hill was an island between the old creek and the new canal but by 1913 the old Spuyten Duyvil Creek was entirely filled and the fancy bridge above was dismantled. Its railings disappeared.

Searching for the Bridge

In 1929, De Salignac visited the site of the former bridge, taking photos from atop the former creek. The elevated tracks were built here in 1906, serving the 1 subway line. They descend below the surface at Dyckman Street, terminating at South Ferry.

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Comparing a south-facing Salignac photo of the Bronx-Manhattan border to a Google street view from today, the former creek’s course is still barren as part of the Marble Hill Houses superblock. The photo was taken in the Bronx, facing towards Manhattan. Perhaps the ornate railing of the Broadway crossing can be replicated for the fence that border the lawn on Broadway’s west side.

On the wall of the public housing project facing Broadway is a plaque commemorating the Original King’s Bridge, used by Gen. George Washington on his northward retreat in 1776.

The northern tip of Manhattan was dotted with forts built by patriots to defend their newborn nation. Some were renamed by the British upon capture. The collection included: Fort Washington, Fort George, Cox’s Hill, Fort Prince Charles, Fort Number 4, and Negro Fort.

Some of the forts became parkland while others were forgotten beneath layers of urban development.

Dyckman’s Bridge

The third bridge across this vanished stream was Dyckman’s Bridge, built in 1758 by Jacob Dyckman as the toll-free alternative to King’s Bridge.

Muscoota Street led to Dyckman’s Bridge, a local Native name that was later applied to a marsh bordering on Inwood Hill Park. With the extension of the Manhattan grid into the Bronx, it was numbered as W. 225th Street.

The last photo of this bridge dates to 1910, where it is labeled as Farmers Bridge. In the background the elevated tracks run above Broadway. This section of Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled in the following year. The scene today would also be unrecognizable to Dyckman. In the foreground today is a Target shopping center and on the other side of the road are public housing towers.

Today’s W. 225th Street retains one element from Dyckman’s Bridge: the mid-block bend on its way east as seen in the above 1910 map from Municipal Archives. The other bridge on the map above is Broadway Bridge. From 1922 through 1930, the filled land on the south side of Dyckman’s Bridge was the site of New York Velodrome, a 16,000-seat circular arena for bike racing and boxing. MyInwood blog tells its story in detail.

The Exact Border

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  1955 G. W. Bromley map

Comparing the 1930 and 1955 G. W. Bromley maps from the NYPL Digital Collections, we see the lines marking the former shoreline of the creek, highlighted route of the road to King’s Bridge, and the Morse-like border line (.___.___.) separating Manhattan from the Bronx. I have not spoken to residents of apartment buildings that straddle this line but I presume their addresses are based on the streets that face their buildings.

King’s Bridge has been buried for more than a century. Its name lives on in the Kingsbridge neighborhood and Kingsbridge Avenue.

About the Author

Sergey Kadinsky is an analyst at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and an adjunct professor of history at Touro College.

He is a licensed tour guide who paid his way through college atop the double-decker Gray Line buses.

Kadinsky is a contributor to Forgotten New York, a local history website. His articles on the city’s history appeared in New York Post, New York Daily News, and Queens Chronicle, among other publications.

Read more fascinating New York City history in Sergey Kadinsky’s book! (click to purchase)

Check out this fascinating post filled with tons of history and old photographs of The King's Bridge in The Bronx! The following was originally published over at Hidden Waters Blog, a companion blog to the amazing…

[morethanonepage]

Some Of The Realest Reasons To Love NYC Are Found In This 1976 Listicle

Certainly there are some through lines connecting our communal love for the city, though—many listicles have tackled this, but the closest-to-perfect list we've ever seen comes from The NY Times circa June 1976, if only for its brutal honesty and specificity. 

1. Being nostalgic about things in New York that never were so great. 2. Ethnic impurity. 3. Habitually fitting your thumbnail in the Y-cutout of a subway token. 4. Leaving New York. 5. Coming back to New York. 6. The Staten Island Advance. 7. The night they move the jet pattern over another neighborhood. 8. Dialing 873-0404. 9. Not having defaulted yet. 10. Not writing your Account Number in the box on the Con Edison envelope. 11. Hating Con Edison. 12. It's 10 P.M. Do you know where YOUR children are? 13. Libraries that haven't closed yet. 14. Hospitals that haven't closed yet. 15. Day-care centers that haven’t closed yet. 16. People who haven't left yet. 17. How no one ever takes the top newspaper off the pile. 18. Getting off the Roosevelt Island tramway. 19. Volunteers. 20. Zip 10001 . 21. The night sound of a distant fire engine that comes closer and closer, and then passes your street. 22. New York's proximity to Montauk. 23. Its distance from Washington. 24. A broken parking meter. 25. The best water-supply system in the nation. 26. The worst public image in the nation. 27. Bus herds.

28. Bus drivers who get coffee in mid-route, and the restaurant countermen who get them out quick. 29. How everyone else hates New York. 30. Hating New York. 31. Imagining New York without  anyone in it. 32. Losing yourself in a crowd. 33. A really good street musician. 34. Alternate side of the street parking suspended. 35. Flipping the change tray in the plastic taxicab divider. 36. Austin Street, Queens. 37. How 9 out of 10 people on the subway platform move back when the train approaches. 38. Thinking -that iridescent pigeon necks are beautiful. 39. Hating pigeons. 40. Army-Navy store windows. 41. The orange highway lights on the Henry Hudson under the George Washington Bridge. 42. The little red lighthouse still under the great gray bridge. 43. Page 1,029 of the Manhattan telephone directory under "Ng." 44. How no one moves to the back of the bus. 45. Degree days. 46. More movies, plays and ballet than anywhere else, and not going. 47. The coldest wind in the world on 125th Street and 12th Avenue. 48. Intake workers. 49. Standing on the elevated platform and feeling it sway as trains stop down the line. 50. The Parachute Jump In

51 . Northern Boulevard. 52. Demanding a refund of less than a dollar on Line 25 or the New York City Tax Return ("Amount of $1.00 or less will be refunded only if requested"). 53. Never having been to Grant's Tomb. 54. Manhattan schist. 55. Inwood marble. 56. Fordham gneiss. 57. The personals in The Irish Echo. 58. Pvt. Joseph Merrill, Staten Island ferryboat. 59. Cornelius J . Kolff, Staten Island ferryboat. 60. A winning OTB ticket. 61. The Episcopal Bishop of New York. 62. Hero sandwiches that are called hero sandwiches. 63. The ragweed count. 64. W.P.A. park benches. 65. The background teletype noise on WINS. 66. Bags a beer. 67. Dead Horse Bay. 68. A wino with a theatrical talent for abuse. 69. East Siders on the West Side. 70. N.Y.U. 71. L.I.U. 72. Pace. 73. The Brooklyn Museum serving Nathan's hot dogs. 74. The smell of malathion. 75. Firemen in your supermarket doing a week's shopping for the firehouse kitchen. 76. Looking for a place you know on the dirty restaurant list.

77. Elevator repairmen. 78. People who whistle down cabs using thumb and pinky finger. 79. The exactly even number of seats in the City Hall marriage bureau. 80. Brooklyn Day. 81. "Power Dept." lettered on city trucks. 82. Cream soda in Van Cortlandt Park. 83. The Sea Beach Express. 84. Thinking what New York could be, if only. 85. The rabbit hanging out near the World of Birds at the Bronx Zoo. 86. Japanese tourists. 87. The day the old snow disappears from Jerome Avenue. 88. The fourth-floor brontosaurus in the Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 89. The Fennel Cab Company. 90. Blue and white police-horse trailers. 91. The apostrophe missing from DONT WALK. 92. Johnny Carson is gone. 93. Chevy Chase isn't. 94. Zeppole vans. 95. Subway cars with public-address speakers that don't work. 96. American flags on Bay Ridge houses. 97. The rush of relief when you're not mugged after you thought you would be. 98. Tickler Numbers in Toe City Record. 99. No tornadoes. 100. Strikes that arc over. 101. Aviso: La via del tren subterraneo es peligrosa.

[seuzz]

Story: “The Resurrection of Meleck-Taos”

What infernal life lay slumbering in the crib?

"It is well the infant has been recovered," my colleague Dr. Percy Belknap told the police sergeant. "Where is it now?"

"Returned to the maternity ward at the hospital," he said. "Unharmed."

"And the nurse who abducted it?"

"Still missing." The sergeant pointed to a black jitney parked down the street. "But that's her car. We're making house to house inquiries."

My mentor pulled me aside as the policeman left us.

"We will leave them to search this side of the street," he murmured. "But you and I—" He nodded at the cemetery that glimmered in the moonlight. From the trunk of his touring car we removed lanterns, an iron stake, and a silver dagger.

The kidnapping of a newborn infant, though tragic, would not have concerned us, save that our trail and that of the police had intersected in one person: the nurse who snatched the child from the hospital. Our own researches had suggested—and our questions at the hospital confirmed—that she was an initiate of that most infernal of cults, the Temple of Meleck-Taos!

We had thought the Temple derelict, until news came that its most verminous relic had been stolen from the vault where our own society kept safe from evildoers the most terrible and potent of occult artifacts. In hasty fear we had mobilized.

Hunched over, with our faces turned to the ground, Belknap and I found a set of tracks through the graveyard, and our boots sank into the soft turf as we followed them.

"Look, there!" Belknap lifted his lamp and pointed. Something in white garb was stretched on the grass in the shadow beneath the bone-white wall of a marble mausoleum. He lifted his lantern over it.

"The nurse!" I exclaimed as the shadows fled from the woman's pinched and bony face. "But why?" I asked. "Plain murder after she had served her purpose?"

"Don't forget the tattoo that was observed on her wrist. She was one of them!"

"Are we successful then despite ourselves?" I asked. "Did the tools break in their hands?"

Belknap didn't answer right away, but mused to himself.

"A sacrifice was necessary," he said, "if they were to employ the altar-stone. These are fanatics, and we must put neither murder nor willing suicide beyond them. Yet it is more likely they would murder an innocent if they had one to hand."

"The child? But it yet lives!"

Belknap glanced about with a frown until something caught his attention. He plucked my elbow and drew me around first one corner of the mausoleum and then the next, until we stood, staring aghast, at the object that sat opposite the side where the nurse sprawled.

It was a crib. My brain was hot as I comprehended the concrete proof of the intended depravity implied by its presence. Still—

"Were they interrupted?" I asked. "The child recovered before they could—?"

Belknap made a circuit of the mausoleum, examining it from every angle. "Look," he said, lifting his lantern to illuminate the lintel over the door. "Here is confirmation of their intention at least. The name of Ulysses Fordham, last high priest of the Temple!"

"And the last to attempt the ceremony," I observed.

"Exactly. Remember the description of his death. A blue flame like a finger burst from his forehead and burnt there for some minutes before expiring even as he did. The demon, baulked by the holy water surreptitiously traced there by my old teacher DeCamp, was prevented transference into a terrestrial abode until death had embraced the would-be host. And so here," he grimly concluded, "trapped within desiccating bones, hath the terrible Meleck-Taos slept these five decades. Until another acolyte was able to steal the altar-stone and effect the ceremony!"

"Monstrous!" I exclaimed. "Monstrous! To sacrifice any living thing to resurrect that—! But to snatch from its mother's arms a—! Faugh! At least they failed to carry out their scheme!"

"It is indeed monstrous," Belknap agreed in a voice husky with fear. "But you speak too quickly if you think they failed. You do not read the signs as I do!"

"What do you mean?"

He pointed. "See where they placed the crib. On the east side of the mausoleum! Facing the Luciferean star!"

Indeed, now that he drew my attention to it, I saw that he was right. But that meant—

We hurried around to the other side. Belknap gripped the nurse's corpse by the shoulder and turned her onto her face. Beneath her lay a slab, and by our lanterns we saw the horned star carved into its center.

"The altar-stone of Meleck-Taos!" my teacher whispered.

"Why did they abandon it?" I asked.

"Do you not see? They came within a whisker of failure! They must have heard the police, seen their lights, and fled ere they could remove all their vile tools! Oh, but they didn't neglect to pluck and carry off the foul fruit of their labor!"

"The child?"

"Indeed," he groaned. "It was the nurse they sacrificed to effect the exchange. The vessel for the demon—" He tramped around the mausoleum to point a shaking finger at the crib. "Lay there!"

It took a moment for my horror-benumbed brain to comprehend what he was saying. "Then the infant that she stole from the hospital—"

"Is now the physical embodiment of the resurrected fiend!"

I felt myself reel, and put my hand on the crib to steady myself. It was hot beneath my palm.

Still, I tried to rally. "There is yet time to stop them," I said. "If we could not prevent his resurrection, we may yet—"

"No. We have lost," Belknap murmured.

"It is loathsome," I admitted, "but is it really cause for despair?"

"Oh, see you not the deviltry of it?" he cried. "Even if we found it, and even knowing what it really was—!" He showed me the cruelly sharp iron spike he clutched. "Could you drive this into the beating breast of a newborn babe?"

Prompt: A cradle in a graveyard.

[mlorenzetti]

The Invisibile Gorilla Cornelous Marble bench, terrace The Detroit Public Library, 8/4/17 #8x10 gelatin silver contact

Born in Detroit, Cornelous earned his undergraduate degree from Fordham University in criminal justice and social work. He's currently working on his masters in business management. "I want to open a youth center for underprivileged children in the city."

Marco Lorenzetti

Published by Crown in 2010, "The Invisible Gorilla," was written by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. The book explores the dangers of trusting one's intuitive assumptions, unsullied by rational deliberations, of how the mind works. The title of the book refers to an earlier research project by Chabris and Simons revealing that people who are focused on one thing can easily overlook something else.

[casorasi]

Massachusetts salesman extradited for cashing bogus Stamford checks

STAMFORD-A Massachusetts man was extradited to Stamford Thursday to face charges that he helped steal $54,000 from the bank account of a Stamford marble company. Salesman Joel Sanchez, 29, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was charged with second-degree larceny and two counts of forgery for allegedly cashing two checks from the Stamford company worth $12,800, his three-page arrest warrant said. After being brought to Stamford the single father of three posted a $15,000 court appearance bond and was released. In early January police received a complaint from the owner Fordham Marble Company on Fairfield Avenue that nine checks worth $61,000 had been cashed on Dec. 22, 2016 from the company’s business account. Massachusetts salesman extradited for cashing bogus Stamford checks

[davidoespailla]

Say ‘Hola’ to 9 Spanish-Style Homes on the Market—All Priced Under $400K

realtor.com

Enter an arched doorway or a tiled courtyard, and you might think you’ve been transported to Spain or Mexico. Inspired by Spain and built in the early 20th century, Spanish-style homes often feature stucco exteriors and telling details such as ornamental stonework, carved doors, and colorful tiles. These stylish homes sometimes borrow from Mediterranean style as well as indigenous Southwest design.

But you can live in a Spanish-style home without ever leaving the country. While opulent structures like Mar-a-Lago represent the pinnacle of this coveted style, there are affordable options available across the country. We dug through our listings to find nine Spanish-style homes, all priced below $400,000

We invite you to say hola to these stylish Spanish-style homes on the market right now. Olé!

6901 Rockhill Rd, Kansas City, MO

Price: $244,950 Spanish specs: While you’ll find many of the Spanish-style abodes in warmer climes, the style also made its way to the Midwest. One of two Mexican farmhouses, this property was built by Kansas City architect Edward Tanner in 1925. In 2013, a master suite was added to the distinctive dwelling. We especially love the glassed-in sunroom, designed for maximum sunlight year-round. The space also includes a large front patio and a side deck. 

Kansas City, MO

realtor.com

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1705 Rodman St, Hollywood, FL

Price: $289,900 Spanish specs: This stucco home from 1940 actually offers many modern updates, including a new industrial-modern bath, an updated kitchen, and plenty of storage. There’s a fenced-in yard with room for outdoor barbecues and entertaining. Plus, the address is just minutes from the Hollywood beach, restaurants, and Arts Park.

Hollywood, FL

realtor.com

  ———

3131 N E St, San Bernardino, CA

Price: $319,900 Spanish specs: Historic charm oozes from every inch of this 1940 gem. Through the carved wood door, you’ll find a spacious living area with built-in shelving and a decorative fireplace. The living room and bedrooms feature hardwood flooring. The Spanish influence continues in the kitchen and baths with colorful tile work on the walls and floors.

San Bernardino, CA

realtor.com

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305 E 1st St, Sonora, TX 

Price: $159,500 Spanish specs: Ornate flourishes add a jolt of personality to this two-bedroom home. The property features arched doorways, stucco walls, and an adobe fireplace. The exterior boasts ornamental designs, and niches for your favorite flowerpot. The interior space features refurbished hardwood floors and tiled baths. Loaded with character, the property is surrounded by mature shade trees. 

Sonora, TX

realtor.com

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1119 W Middleton Rd, Tucson, AZ 

Price: $365,000 Spanish specs: This adobe brick home built in 1975 retains some hallmarks of Spanish style, including arched doorways and windows, an adobe fireplace, and an open kitchen. The large lot also features a garden, lime and lemon trees, a patio, a deck, and a pool.

Tucson, AZ

realtor.com

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2533 Prospect St, Reading, PA 

Price: $289,900 Spanish specs: The “one-of-a-kind” design from 1930 features Spanish detailing inside and out. Start with the simulated terra-cotta tiles, ornamental details, and the wood front door. Inside, there are arched doorways, decorative tile, and wrought-iron hardware. There’s an eat-in kitchen, plus a bonus room that could be an office. Downstairs you’ll find a wet bar and bathroom. The property comes with a newly renovated, two-story guesthouse.

Reading, PA

realtor.com

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709 Hunter St, West Palm Beach, FL 

Price: $278,000 Spanish specs: We instantly fell for this renovated cottage from 1922. The two-bedroom home also comes with a separate studio. Period details include hardwood flooring, plaster walls, arched doorways, and a living room with fireplace. We love the updated kitchen with red cabinets and decorative wall tile, stainless-steel appliances, and granite counters. The courtyard entry includes a fountain. The detached studio includes a full bath and could be used as a guest bedroom, home office, or a rental. 

West Palm Beach, FL

realtor.com

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238 Fordham Dr, Lake Worth, FL

Price: $390,000 Spanish specs: This historic residence in an appealing shade of teal features a two-bedroom main house and a separate one-bedroom, in-law suite. The main home features an updated kitchen with granite counters and stainless-steel appliances, and opens to a formal dining room. Other features include refinished wood flooring and a marble bathroom. The in-law suite also has updated kitchen appliances and a new shower. Outdoors, you’ll find patio space for alfresco dining. 

Lake Worth, FL

realtor.com

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2206 2nd Ave N, Great Falls, MT 

Price: $169,000 Spanish specs: Old World meets Old West! This four-bedroom home features an open kitchen with an eating and living space. Arched doorways and windows, high ceilings, and a fireplace are some of the details of the 1928 residence. A fenced-in yard completes the offering. 

Great Falls, MT

realtor.com

The post Say ‘Hola’ to 9 Spanish-Style Homes on the Market—All Priced Under $400K appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Say ‘Hola’ to 9 Spanish-Style Homes on the Market—All Priced Under $400K

[picardonhealth]

Should Canada embrace the Netherlands' 'coffee shops'?

Instead of legalized cannabis, Dutch have opted for a philosophy of tolerance since 1980s

Saturday, August 18, 2018

ANDRE PICARD, The Globe and Mail 

From the outside, Boerejongens ("Farmer Boys" in Dutch) looks like an old-style apothecary. The only clue of what it might be is a small sticker on the door reading "coffeeshop."

Inside, there is a wine-bar vibe - polished marble floors and counters, and gold fixtures, and only the slightest hint of background music.

At the counter you are greeted by a cannabis sommelier, dressed sharply in a crisp white shirt, bow tie, suspenders, dress pants and shiny shoes.

On the touch screen, you can scroll through the offerings on the menu - cannabis, hashish and mooncakes (baked goods made with cannabis). You can also sniff samples.

"My role is to guide customers in the right direction, to help them make the choices that are right for them," says Damien Loe, the store's manager.

With 20 years' experience - "personal and professional," he says with a smile - he speaks knowledgeably about the relative merits of Sativa strains, a sweet mild smoke that leaves people feeling high and creative, and Indica strains, a more pungent smoke that leaves users feeling stoned and relaxed.

Mr. Loe patiently guides clients through the menu, from "white choco guava haze" (a high-end product that sells for 18 [$26.96] a gram) to "Kabouter amnesia" (a more pedestrian product at 6.50 [$9.74] a gram), to the Spacetrip Brownie, which contains 0.33 grams of "fine weed." Amsterdam is the stoner capital of the world. It is estimated that as many as one in three visitors to the Dutch capital will visit a coffee shop to purchase pot or hash.

Yet, cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands, as it soon will be in Canada.

The Dutch approach is remarkable for its hazy ambiguity: the guiding philosophy is tolerance, not legalization.

Possession of up to five grams is tolerated (meaning you won't be prosecuted). You can smoke legally in coffee shops, but not really anywhere else, though it is commonplace. Shops that sell cannabis cannot sell alcohol or tobacco.

And while coffee shops are licensed to sell cannabis, they aren't legally allowed to purchase it, so the supply comes from the black market.

"It's a weird system and increasingly being questioned," says Ann Fordham, executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium in London.

At the same time, she notes that the Dutch approach seems to work - at least on the ground. "If you've been to Amsterdam, you will know it's one of the most well-organized, orderly cities in the world.

"Cannabis is not creating a public nuisance - certainly not in a way that alcohol creates a nuisance in most cities."

What remains to be seen, Ms.

Fordham says, is whether Canada's more formal, corporate approach will be better, from a legal and public-health perspective.

The principal distinction between Canada and the Netherlands is that Canada will regulate not only retail sales, but suppliers.

As a result, Canada is experiencing a "green rush," with cannabis company stocks soaring.

Governments will collect far more taxes on pot in Canada than they do in the Netherlands. Yet, cannabis prices will be markedly lower.

There are 166 coffee shops in Amsterdam. When you walk through the front door, what you see is what you get - they sell cannabis and related products openly.

But what comes in the back door, and especially where the remarkable variety of cannabis products come from, is a lot murkier.

Coffee shops are not allowed to keep more than 500 grams on the premises at any given time, so squads of young men on mopeds make regular trips to restock stores.

When the coffee shop phenomenon began in the 1970s, Amsterdam had a serious heroin problem.

In a bid to separate the market for hard and soft drugs, the authorities stopped prosecuting possession of cannabis. Pot and hash were sold and smoked freely, and coffee shops like the legendary, now-defunct Mellow Yellow sprang up.

In 1980, coffee shops were legalized and they thrived - with as many as 1,500 in Amsterdam alone. The Dutch are renowned for their horticultural skills and shops were supplied mainly by "Mom and Pop" growers.

It was not until 1995 that coffee shops were licensed - and 350 licences were issued in the capital.

Since then, there has been a steady increase in rules and red tape, and a gradual decline in the number of stores. There was even talk of banning foreign tourists from the shops.

The supply chain has also come to be taken over, at least in part, by organized crime. Canada has decided to tackle that problem with legalization while, in the Netherlands, that discussion is just beginning.

At the legendary Bulldog coffee shop Dan, one of a quintet of Canadians from suburban Toronto, says he is looking forward to legalization, but nothing beats the coffee shop atmosphere.

"We should have these back home," he says. "I mean, there are bars where you can drink, why not coffee shops where you can smoke?" Ms. Fordham of the IDPC says it's not a half-bad idea. "There are many restrictions about where people can smoke so, from a policy perspective, if you're going to legalize, it makes sense to have places where people can consume the product."

But, for now, coffee shops remain an exclusive trait of Amsterdam, one that Tony Balboa, manager of the Coffeeshop Information Centre, says really makes the city memorable for many.

"Canals are nice, Van Gogh is nice, but coffee shops are what really makes Amsterdam special."

[investmart007]

Chicago Luxury Condo for Sale: Pure Modernism at The Fordham

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/C4SXgg

Chicago Luxury Condo for Sale: Pure Modernism at The Fordham

CHICAGO/ SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 (STL.News)

A penthouse-level, ultra-luxury Chicago condo in the Fordham has just been listed by Dream Town agents Sheldon Salnick and Julius Dickens. The 3,700 square foot, 3 bedroom unit has been custom designed and boasts features like 180-degree views, a private garage, a custom kitchen and the highest solarium in the city. This Fordham luxury condo is offered at $4 million.

“You’ll think this condo came straight from the pages of a design or architecture magazine,” said Salnick. “Every cutting-edge detail and feature has been masterfully executed.”

The property is ideal for the discerning modernist: art collectors, architects and other creative types will appreciate the careful, elegant contemporary design. Stand-out features include:

The highest solarium in the city, which serves as a huge, open space for dining and entertaining A private penthouse entrance and lobby, plus an express elevator and private garage A minimalist kitchen with clean lines, showcasing sleek Italian cabinetry, Gaggenau and Sub-Zero appliances and a floor-to-ceiling spice rack. Two large outdoor terraces complete with custom landscaping and views, with remote screens and bi-fold doors Special details like heated, white marble flooring and flush outlets/switches for a seamless design aesthetic. Located in the Near North neighborhood, The Fordham is a pillar of luxury living in Chicago. Residents here enjoy amenities like a 24/7 doorman, pool deck, curbside assistance, exercise facilities and more. The Fordham location puts residents within walking distance of many downtown destinations for culture, entertainment and upscale dining, plus the Magnificent Mile and Millennium Park.

For full details, photos and more about this luxury Chicago condominium in The Fordham, visit https://25superior4902.com.

Sheldon Salnick is a specialist in luxury real estate in Chicago, having sold condominiums, lofts and single-family homes ranging from $1 million to $5 million over the last 25-plus years. He is particularly well-versed in modern design, having become very fond of the city’s Mies van der Rohe buildings and Chicago’s superb architectural landscape. Sheldon is part of Dream Town Realty in Chicago.

_____ SOURCE: https://www.prweb.com/releases/chicago_luxury_condo_for_sale_pure_modernism_at_the_fordham/prweb15730770.htm

[williamemcknight]

Shortlisted design concepts for restoration and rebuilding of Clandon Park go on display

Six design concepts are going on display at Clandon Park in Surrey as part of the next stage in a competition which will eventually create a final design for the 18th-century Palladian house.

An international design competition was launched in March this year to find a design team to bring the National Trust property back to life after a devastating fire in 2015. Six architect-led design teams have now produced concepts visualising their interpretation of the future restoration, reimagining and rebuilding of Clandon Park.

Visitors to Clandon will be able to see the concepts from 23 August, which are based on a comprehensive competition brief in which architect-led teams were asked to:

• Work with the existing building structure, but consider its immediate setting within the garden • Restore damaged historic interiors and principal state rooms on the ground floor and basement – including the Marble Hall, Saloon, Library and Speakers’ Parlour, State Bedroom and the vaulted historic kitchen • Introduce new flexible event spaces on the first floor to be used for gallery and exhibition programming • Consider visitor facilities including catering and retail outlets • Create a careful and accurate restoration, making use of salvaged materials, with the introduction of more modern spaces and technology where appropriate

The brief is informed by the extensive research that’s been carried out at Clandon Park since the fire as part of a comprehensive conservation planning exercise, as well as feedback from heritage and architectural specialists, the local community and visitors.

To demonstrate how they will incorporate Clandon Park’s rich history, personalities and stories into their creative design, each of the teams has created a physical model. This sits alongside display panels summarising each concept, an overview of the design brief and a video submission from each shortlisted team explaining their design concept.

Paul Cook, project director at Clandon Park commented: “It’s exciting to be at this stage in the design competition, when we can see the thought processes and ideas from the six shortlisted teams come to life. Whilst the concepts are not final designs for Clandon, they take us a step closer to choosing a team who will help us restore and rebuild this grand place.”

The six shortlisted teams, selected from sixty entrants the competition, are each led by an architect but include design, conservation, structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, interpretation and landscaping experts. They were selected on the basis of project understanding and approach, team composition and relevant experience.

The international design competition is organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants and judged by a jury consisting of heritage, architectural and local experts who will select the winning team in autumn 2017. The National Trust will then work closely with the winning team to produce the final design for the future of Clandon Park. This is expected to be revealed mid-2018 with construction work expected to begin in 2019 subject to planning permission and listed building consent.

The six design concepts are on display in the grounds of Clandon Park from 23 August – 1 October 2017, Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm.

For more information about the competition, the shortlisted design firms and to see a digital gallery of the design concepts visit https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/clandonpark/shortlist.

For more information on the display and opening times for Clandon Park visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/clandon-park.

The shortlisted teams are: • AL_A and Giles Quarme & Associates with Arup and GROSS.MAX • Allies and Morrison and Feilden + Mawson with Price & Myers, Max Fordham, Tom Stuart-Smith and Nissen Richards Studio • Donald Insall Associates and Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Price & Myers, Max Fordham, Tom Stuart-Smith and Barker Langham • Purcell and Sam Jacob Studio with Arup, QODA, Churchman Landscape Architects and Brendan Cormier • Selldorf Architects, Martin Ashley Architects and Cowie Montgomery Architects with Arup, Vogt Landscape and Jorge Otero-Pailos • Sergison Bates Architects and AOC Architecture with Philip Hughes Associates, Price & Myers, Ritchie + Daffin, Tom Stuart-Smith and Graphic Thought Facility

[brooklynlocalnews]

Watch Democratic NYC councilman Fernando Cabrera tell supporters "it's harder being rich than being poor" while blaming low wages on laziness. Fernando Cabrera is a Democrat Party politician in the Bronx, New York. He currently represents the 14th District in the New York City Council, including the neighborhoods of Claremont Village, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Marble Hill, Morris Heights, Mount Eden, Mount Hope and University Heights. by Brooklyn Local News