No one denies that New York City is unique—but what makes it sui generis? Sam Roberts, longtime city reporter, has puzzled over this in print and in his popular New York Times podcasts for years. In Only in New York, he writes about what makes New York tick and why things are the way they are in the greatest of all cities on earth. The forty essays in this book cover a variety of topics, including: • Why do we have doormen? • Is it noisier in the city or in the country? • Are New Yorkers really as liberal as the rest of the country thinks they are? • Why wasn't Manhattan's cross-town street grid oriented by the points of the compass? • If a neighborhood loses its tony zipcode, does it lose its cachet? A winning and informative gift book for every fan of "the city", Only in New York is elegantly written and solidly reported.

Curated from hundreds of thousands of photos from The New York Times' archives Only in New York brings together the most memorable, poignant, and historic images of the Big Apple. This beautiful gift book celebrates New York in a way that will be treasured by native New Yorkers and tourists alike. The New York Times is the world's foremost news organization, but it is very much a hometown paper, too. Since the inception of the camera, Times photographers have captured every newsworthy event--and many of the most iconic and intimate moments--that together document the very spirit and essence of New York City. These 500 photos are selected and paired in clever, humorous, and poignant diptychs that bring the city to life as you could only see in NYC--from Broadway to Yankee Stadium, nightlife to street life, skyscrapers to subways. And since the turn of the last century, NY Times photographers have been visually recording the vast, and vastly interesting and entertaining, mix of people, places, and institutions that provide New York with its reputation as the city that occasionally dozes but never closes. This collection of their work spans more than a century, providing a vivid chronicle of metropolitan life at its most vibrant. Most of all, of course, there are the people and the neighborhoods they inhabit. Through the work of such celebrated New York Times photographers as Damon Winter, Neal Boenzi, Fred R. Conrad, Ruth Fremson, Vincent Laforet, Michelle Agins, Todd Heisler, Chang W. Lee, Barton Silverman, Sara Krulwich, Michelle Agins, Tyler Hicks, and many more, the spirit of the city is captured in this extraordinary book. Their ability to capture the familiar in original ways, and the seldom-seen in surprising ones, gives this book the look and feel of a true original. Only in New York is a celebration of New York City and its people--and is sure to be treasured by native New Yorkers, tourists, and anyone who aspires to "make it there."

Presenting a spectrum of images, including glittering nightlife, immigrant struggles, crime & police drama, sports triumph & tragedy, scenes in the subway & on the waterfront from the pre-television era, this volume offers a selection of photographs from the pages of 'Look' magazine.

A “street-smart, informative and occasionally hilarious” look at the places, personalities, and history that make New York one of a kind (Publishers Weekly). Reporter Sam Roberts has covered the city in all its quirkiness, both in print and in his popular New York Times podcasts. In Only in New York, now updated with new stories, he writes about what makes this city tick and why things are the way they are in the greatest of all metropolises on earth. These essays cover topics such as: -How New Yorkers react during disasters -Maritime history (the Hudson River) -Crowds, space, and population growth -The pooper scooper revolution -The Jewish Daily Forward -What happens when a neighborhood loses its tony ZIP code, and more “Roberts has covered the city for 40 years. So as we locals say, he knows from, and it shows in this fabulous collection of essays. With wit and grace, he tells stories of its citizens—some illustrious, others not; some living, others long dead. But the story he’s really telling is that of New York, and he nails it.” —Daily News (New York)

Only in New York takes young readers on a journey through the weirdest, biggest, and best that the Empire State has to offer, from Buffalo to the Big Apple and everywhere in between.

"As a kid growing up in Manhattan, William Helmreich played a game with his father they called "Last Stop." They would pick a subway line and ride it to its final destination, and explore the neighborhood there. Decades later, Helmreich teaches university courses about New York, and his love for exploring the city is as strong as ever. Putting his feet to the test, he decided that the only way to truly understand New York was to walk virtually every block of all five boroughs--an astonishing 6,000 miles. His epic journey lasted four years and took him to every corner of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Helmreich spoke with hundreds of New Yorkers from every part of the globe and from every walk of life, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former mayors Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins, and Edward Koch. Their stories and his are the subject of this captivating and highly original book. We meet the Guyanese immigrant who grows beautiful flowers outside his modest Queens residence in order to always remember the homeland he left behind, the Brooklyn-raised grandchild of Italian immigrants who illuminates a window of his brownstone with the family's old neon grocery-store sign, and many, many others. Helmreich draws on firsthand insights to examine essential aspects of urban social life such as ethnicity, gentrification, and the use of space. He finds that to be a New Yorker is to struggle to understand the place and to make a life that is as highly local as it is dynamically cosmopolitan."--Publisher's description.