(no subject)

[camwyn]

Dear City of New York:

Relocated graves from potter's fields.
Thirty-two years of immigrant in-processing.
The largest hospital complex on the planet in the 1850s.
The largest psychiatric institution in the world at the start of the twentieth century.
An insanely dangerous stretch of river off one coast.
Multiple historical renamings of the island.
Pedestrian access via footbridge.

…. I really don't think you could have written a better setting for stuff to do with Ghostbusters, unless … no, I was wrong; it was even a British military post during the Revolutionary War.

THANK YOU, REAL WORLD CITY OF NEW YORK. I love you. You're much better than fiction.

Comments

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

This wouldn't be Roosevelt Island, would it?

[camwyn]

Nah. Wards Island, the one they joined to Randalls Island.

Bonus: the insanely dangerous river section is the Hell Gate. Admittedly it's because of a Dutch word, hellegat, meaning 'beautiful pass'- but STILL.

[the_croupier]

That's so true. It turned out to be even better a setting for a modern horror campaign than I expected. It just keeps giving!

[camwyn]

Doesn't it, though? Man, I don't think I would even have thought of it if I hadn't gotten frustrated with the general ickiness of the East Side greenway and decided to walk over to the island and see what it was like, instead of circling the rest of Manhattan.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There's a book about all the other islands of New York City that we own. If you want, I'll try to track it down for the title.

[camwyn]

That would be really cool, actually. Thank you!

*also clutches her book on One Hundred Years of Subway History, which may well prove similarly funky*

*informs brain to take some of this extra energy and channel it into rereading Hellblazer just to get back into John mode while I'm thinking urban horror*

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Actually, a quick Internet search yielded the book:

http://www.countrymanpress.com/titles/OtherIslandsNYC2.html

[camwyn]

Eeeexcellent.

[batyatoon]

*hugs New York* Isn't it?

[camwyn]

Fun incident from a few months ago:

ME: I don't think I want to do the Tour de Brooklyn next year if we have to ride the same route. I don't even think the ride planners went over that route in a bike.
FRIEND ON PHONE: Oh?
ME: Yeah. The roads went through all the ugliest and most industrialized areas of the borough. The cobblestones in some areas were just murderous. At least I wasn't one of the people on rollerblades.
FRIEND: People tried to skate in a bike race?
ME: Three people, I think. There was this one part where the cobbles got interesting. They were laid out in fan shapes, like they do in Europe- spreading out from where the guy kneeling on the ground can reach, instead of just across in a grid pattern. Apparently that's unique to Red Hook-
FRIEND: *COUGH HACK WHEEZE* excusemewhatdidyoujustsay?

He'd read "The Horror At Red Hook" and assumed it was a fictional locale a la Innsmouth, being largely unaware of New York City's internal geography.

[batyatoon]

That's my town, baby. Stranger than fiction.

*pride!*

[kaikias.livejournal.com]

That? Is le awesome.

[trinityday.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU, REAL WORLD CITY OF NEW YORK. I love you. You're much better than fiction.

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

[tundra-no-caps.livejournal.com]

London still wins. I mean, Bedlam (http://tundra-no-caps.livejournal.com/9245.html).

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you've seen this yet, so I post a link for your perusal...

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/

[camwyn]

Oh, yes. I have that bookmarked at home, I think.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

In a related vein:

http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/41870387/1152403