I covered The Rockaways, Alley Pond and the NYC Aquarium for the Village Voice summer special issue.

Rockaways

Alley Pond and Aquarium

My first job in high school wasn’t scooping ice cream or tearing movie-theater tickets. Instead, I spent a summer working at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, where my mother, a Foreign Service officer with the State Department, was stationed. I was assigned to the “visa barn”—aptly nicknamed because of the building’s shape, and its chaotic interior with rows of benches for applicants to wait.

In the Barn, I Realized Just How Lucky I Am

With a milling crowd on the sidewalk, mornings at the new Balducci’s on Eighth Avenue at 14th Street are reminiscent of another Chelsea institution, the mega-club.

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CHELSEA; Lining Up at Balducci’s, And Not for the Salmon