Photo by Bill Kline

With views of the Manhattan skyline, real estate developers have always viewed the North Shore of Staten Island as the city’s next boomtown. Despite the efforts of residents to achieve that potential, much of the shoreline remains economically depressed. But now residents have some hope.

Some areas have started to spring back. One step of the process includes restoring the former Blissenbach Marina to a public park. But there is still much work to be done.

At the end of this month the Department of City Planning will release the final draft of two reports, which focus on those goals. The citywide Vision 2020 plan focuses on the city’s shorelines. And the North Shore Land Use and Transportation study offers recommendations for revitalizing the waterfront. In this slideshow, Patricia Salmon, curator of the Staten Island Museum, describes how the borough’s history bleeds into its present.

The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium

The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium was the original home of the US Tennis Open and hosted many of the sport’s most famous moments. The stadium’s been dormant for decades though, and has fallen into disrepair. It’s owner, the West Side Tennis Club, is in debt and the club’s board is trying to sell the stadium to solve its financial troubles. In October, however, the club’s membership voted down a plan to sell the stadium to Cord Meyer Development Company, who planned to level the stadium for condominiums. The club’s board redoubled their efforts, and they gathered proposals last month from potential buyers for the stadium. The club’s leadership seems determined to sell the stadium, but it is still reviewing the proposals it received last month. Understandably, many in the Forest Hills community don’t want to see this historic building in their neighborhood torn down. Michael Perlman, the chairman of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council, is one of those locals who would like to preserve the stadium. He is trying to get the city to landmark the stadium to keep it from getting torn down, and possibly open the door to funding for the building’s restoration. He says the Landmark’s Preservation Committee is still in the early stages of reviewing his proposal. Here is audio from interviews I did with Perlman along with photos of the stadium and the surrounding neighborhood:

Robert and DeVanie Jackson clean-up the Bed-Stuy farm.

Urban farming is nothing new in the five boroughs now, but when the Jacksons first started six years ago it actually was.

“It was hard to sell the idea of a farm,” DeVanie said. “It wasn’t received by most people who are now saying they’re the experts on the forefront of urban farming.”

Long before 2004, when they actually had the farm running it was a work in progress, convincing people, politicians and greening organizations to support their cause. The Mission was also met with some adversity from locals who decided to dump on the land twice. Even in the recent year there has been some controversy over the farm, but through it all the Jacksons have just focused on the mission at hand.

“We’re just looking to produce fresh fruit and vegetables,” DeVanie said.

According to the New York City Department of Health, Central Brooklyn, which includes Bed-Stuy, Brownsville and East New York, has an obesity rate of 29%, the highest rates of adult obesity in New York City. Though in recent years, there has been a movement to bring fresh food to the area, the numbers seem to show a problem still exists.

The Bed-Stuy farm is the first urban farm to connect emergency food operations with urban farming. According to the Jacksons, the Brooklyn Rescue Mission provides fresh fruit and vegetables for 48,000 families a year and nearly one thousand families a month.

Farming is definitely hard work, but like many other urban farmers, the Jacksons say it’s the community that has kept them going. They’ve even seen some real change in the local residents attitude towards farming.

“The neighborhood isn’t afraid of growing food or seeing food in their own backyards,” Robert said. “Neighbors began to work on getting their own box. It doesn’t have to be a big box.”

The farm grows everything from tomatoes to kale and fruit like strawberries and grapes, which are native to New York. The two like to switch things up with each season to give the people some variety. They’ve even found a crop that has a long, but for many a forgotten history in Brooklyn: the fig tree.

“I’ve heard about other people who’ve had them, but ours just seems to be thriving. I think it’s the location,” DeVanie said. “It survives through the winter. We don’t even wrap it.”

Learn more about the Jacksons and the little farm that’s making a big difference in the community below.

A Department of Transportation rendering, below, shows the plan is intended to physically separate buses from other vehicles:

The city’s proposal is still in it’s preliminary stages, however if plans go through it should be built around Fall 2012. In this audio slideshow, voices of drivers and residents voiced off on the current situation as well as their reaction to the city plans:

They dropped by to check out the “School of One,” a math program that first debuted at M.S. 31 in Chinatown in the summer of 2009.  It uses computer technology to let students work at their own pace.

But the School of One wasn’t the only thing that caught their attention, said Doug Monroe, a creative writing teacher at the school.

“Deputy Secretary Tony Miller saw our art and also heard our symphony orchestra,” Monroe said. “He said he was very impressed with the balance at this school.”

Principal Dominick D’Angelo said IS 228 is one of the most diverse schools in New York City. It supports kids from almost 50 different countries. The school is also unique in that it operates on a “magnet” system, where students can choose specific subject concentrations, such as art or music.

During a tough economic time, when many schools are cutting back on their art programs, IS 228 shows that it is possible to maintain these programs.

Watch my audio slide show below to check out the sights and sounds from the evening:

The protest was organized by the International Action Center, a grassroots human rights and anti-war group that has been highly supportive of Wikileaks. They have also called for the release of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who allegedly leaked information about the Iraq and Afghan Wars, as well as a trove of diplomatic cables.

Watch the audio slideshow below to learn more about the protest

Dan Lettieri got this tattoo in honor of his close friend who passed away. (Photo by Nicholas Rizzi)

Tattoo artist Dan Lettieri said that he gets two kinds of customers at Island Tattoos. People who come in, pick something off of the board in the shop or a very common design, and only get that.

Then there are people who come in with there own designs, who he works with cleaning up for a week or so, before they go under the needle. These designs, Lettieri said, usually come with interesting stories the customer has for getting them.

Lettieri said that he prefers these customers, because he looks at tattoos more than something people just put on their body. He thinks of tattoos as another art form, similar to his old form of graffiti because he said if you mess up a tattoo, like if you do a bad graffiti piece, people will cover it up.

To hear stories behind some tattoos, watch the audio slideshow below:

Bobrow is a Central Park Conservancy volunteer and every year, he transforms into the Central Park Santa Claus, taking pictures with children at Belvedere Castle and the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in the park. His dedication to his volunteer work stems from his deep love for the park. It’s where he and his wife spent so much time together and adopted a bench, and it’s where he produces some of his favorite photographs.

I spoke with Bobrow about being Santa, his photography and his wife.

On any given Sunday, Marjorie Eliot, 66, transforms from a soft-spoken New Yorker into meditative jazz pianist performing to a loyal audience. The jazz lovers are made up of old-timers reminiscing about the good old days and tourists in search of a unique New York experience.

For 19 years, Eliot and her close-knit band has been performing free shows in the comfort of her own living room. The mother of five sons, she has been paying tribute to her son Philip who died of a kidney ailment at age 32 and Michael her eldest son who also became ill and passed away in 2006.

Recently she announced she’d be adding a Saturday matinee in her home with an admission of $20 to help offset the costs for the Sunday afternoon show. She humbly reminded her audience that she was NOT grant funded and needed more support to continue the free shows. Until now she says, “Everything has been out of pocket.”

Along with her son, Rudell Drears, 40, they perform jazz, gospel and soul standards by every one from Gershwin to Anita Baker. Rudell is the singer and pianist along with veteran bassist, Bob Cunningham, saxophonist Cedric Choukroum, and trumpeter Koichi Yoshihara. Together they enjoy the weekly matinees as much as anyone. Bob Cunningham gave two reasons why he comes back every week, “One there’s a new audience and two, the music that we play is not static. ”

Marjorie Eliot’s Parlor Entertainment shows now happen every Saturday and Sunday at 4pm at the historic building known as the “Triple Nickel” or 555 Edgecombe Avenue # 3F in northern Harlem. Call 212-781-6595 for more information.