This article appeared in the 17 July issue of am New York.

For better and for worse, Howard Beach, Queens, has long been a neighborhood on the periphery and an area defined by sharp contrasts. It’s where tradition is confronted by modernism, and old and new stand side by side on the borough’s border with Brooklyn.

Houses lining Hawtree Basin in Howard Beach keep their boats parked out back. (Katya Pronin / amNewYork)

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This article appeared in the 17 July issue of The Canarsie Digest.

Simon Belsky says he gets no respect. And he may just have a $200 ticket and the pictures to prove it.

Though he sports an uncanny resemblance to late comedian Rodney Dangerfield (with the voice and shtick to boot), Belsky isn’t laughing about the summons he received over a year and a half ago, which he has been fighting ever since.

Sheepshead Bay resident Simon Belsky shows where he got the $115 ticket on Ave. U. “Even my dog can’t find the hydrant they’re looking for!” he said. (Steve Solomonson)

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This article appeared in the 17 July issue of The Williamsburg Courier.

Kings Highway ice cream truck driver is serving up more than just sweet treats this week by hosting an indulgent fundraiser for a sick Brooklyn teen.

Maria “The Ice Cream Girl” Campanella will throw the 2nd annual Famous Ice Cream Eating Contest in Manhattan Beach to raise money for Ciro Patalano, an 18-year-old diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Maria “The Ice Cream Girl” Campanella organized a fundraiser ice cream eating contest for a sick Brooklyn teen.

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This article appeared in the 3 July issue of The Williamsburg Courier.

Though Brooklyn’s concert venues have been struggling in recent years, a new program by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy is music to their ears.

Music at the Bridge is a free summer concert series with a twist. Each week, a different Brooklyn venue will showcase three hours of hand-picked music from the best bands in their genre.

Las Rubias Del Norte, comprised of Emily Hurst, Olivier Conan and Allyssa Lamb (left to right), kick off Music at the Bridge on July 9th.

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This article appeared in the 3 July issue of The Greenpoint Courier.

It is alleged that an aide at a Greenpoint junior high school repeatedly behaved inappropriately — and in several cases made sexual advances — toward at least 10 students over the past year and a half, an investigation has found.

The nine-page report, filed this week by the Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) Richard J. Condon, recounted months of allegedly inappropriate advances by 28-year-old Johnathan Williams toward children at J.H.S. 126, John Ericsson Junior High School (424 Leonard Street).

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This article appeared in the 27 June issue of The Williamsburg Courier.

At the bottom of the uneven cement staircase, patrons squeezed through two shoddy wooden double-doors. Ten bucks got them past the bar and down the bench-lined corridor, lit mostly by gaudy gold-painted walls. But in the cavernous back room, their surroundings mattered little as the dulcet tones of the Dirty Boogaloo began to fill the performance space.

The Dirty Boogaloo doin’ what they do best.

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This article appeared in the 27 June issue of The Williamsburg Courier.

The Brooklyn Museum has appointed you the judge, jury and exhibitioner for their latest photography project, “Click!”

The exhibit, which runs from June 27 until August 10, is half-art show and half-psychology experiment that engages the public at every level of the artistic process.

The theory is that a diverse sample of citizen curators can make wiser decisions than just a handful of art experts. Photographers were asked to submit works that follow a theme, then each anonymous piece was publicly evaluated online, and finally each photograph will be displayed according to its relative ranking.

A submission by Tamara Porras of the changing face of Brooklyn.

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This article appeared in the 26 June issue of am New York.

On Staten Island, all buses, trains, taxis and yes, the ferry from Manhattan lead to St. George.

And while proximity to Manhattan is the chief reason why it’s such a big hub, St. George is experiencing a renaissance that is making the borough’s northernmost tip a destination in its own right.

A man muses over his wine choice at Enoteca Maria on Hyatt St. in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island. (Emily Anne Epstein / amNewYork)

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This article appeared in the 26 June issue of The Bay News.

Whether it’s shaken or stirred, the martini just got a whole lot cooler thanks to one Greenpoint resident.

Mia Ferrera Wiesenthal, 29, was recently named the U.S. winner of the 2008 Designer Glass Competition. “On the Rocks,” her sleek ice-crystal design of a stemless martini glass, beat out 40 other submissions from all over the country in Bombay Sapphire’s annual contest.

Mia, the winner of the 2008 Designer Glass Competition, working in her studio.

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This article appeared in the 19 June issue of The Kings Courier.

As the sun’s rays began to pierce the starry horizon at 3 a.m., Robin Schoenfeld looked out over Portland, Ore., with a proud smile and a full heart. Despite the wind-swept slopes of the volcano she was climbing and the brick of ice on her back that was once her water bottle, she pressed on toward the top of Mt. Hood to help find a cure for breast cancer.

At 10,500 feet from sea level, Brooklyn native Robin Schoenfeld has a lot to smile about in the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer.

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