Lower Manhattan in New York

29 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  2 minutes

© flickr.com - Daniele Pieroni/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Daniele Pieroni/cc-by-sa-2.0

Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with over 8.8 million residents as of the 2020 census. Lower Manhattan is defined most commonly as the area delineated on the north by 14th Street, on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by the East River, and on the south by New York Harbor. The Lower Manhattan business district, known as the Financial District (FiDi), forms the main core of the area below Chambers Street. It is a leading global center for commerce, housing Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.   read more…

North Pole in Alaska

23 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Dylan Avery/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Dylan Avery/cc-by-sa-4.0

North Pole is a small city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Incorporated in 1953, it is part of the Fairbanks metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 2,243, up from 2,117 in 2010. Despite its name, the city is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) south of Earth’s geographic North Pole and 125 miles (200 km) south of the Arctic Circle. The city is a summertime attraction for tourists visiting nearby Fairbanks and, due to its location on the Richardson Highway, those traveling to and from the Alaska Highway and Valdez. North Pole was home to two oil refineries, the town’s major industry aside from tourism, but closed because of sulfolane contamination in groundwater. The larger refinery, operated by Flint Hills Resources, was a major source of jet fuel for Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Tanker car traffic on the Alaska Railroad, entering and leaving the refinery, frequently bisects the city.   read more…

Kamehameha Highway on Oahu

22 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  9 minutes

Palm trees along the beach at Punalu'u Beach Park © Famartin/cc-by-sa-4.0

Palm trees along the beach at Punalu’u Beach Park © Famartin/cc-by-sa-4.0

Kamehameha Highway is one of the main highways serving suburban and rural O‘ahu in the U.S. state of Hawai‘i. Informally known as Kam Highway, it begins at Nimitz Highway near Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, serves the island’s older western suburbs, and turns north across the O‘ahu Central Valley to the North Shore. At the North Shore, Kamehameha Highway heads northeast around the northern tip of O‘ahu, then southeast to and just beyond Kāne‘ohe Bay on the windward coast. The road was named after King Kamehameha I. A short detached segment of the Kamehameha Highway exists for a few blocks in the Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi. This segment runs as a short extension of Dillingham Boulevard from Pu‘uhale Road (near the O‘ahu Community Correctional Center) to exit 18B on Interstate H-1. This section was contiguous with the rest of the highway before the construction of the H-1 viaduct.   read more…

Staten Island in New York City

16 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, New York City Reading Time:  8 minutes

Conference House © Dmadeo/cc-by-sa-4.0

Conference House © Dmadeo/cc-by-sa-4.0

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city’s southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km²).   read more…

Miami Modern architecture (MiMo)

14 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  7 minutes

Bacardi Building in Edgewater © Averette/cc-by-3.0

Bacardi Building in Edgewater © Averette/cc-by-3.0

Miami Modernist architecture, or MiMo, is a regional style of architecture that developed in South Florida during the post-war period. The style was internationally recognized as a regionalist response to the International Style. It can be seen in most of the larger Miami and Miami Beach resorts built after the Great Depression. Because MiMo styling was not just a response to international architectural movements but also to client demands, themes of glamour, fun, and material excess were added to otherwise stark, minimalist, and efficient styles of the era. The style can be most observed today in Middle and Upper Miami Beach along Collins Avenue, as well as along the Biscayne Boulevard corridor starting from around Midtown, through the Design District and into the Upper Eastside.   read more…

Philadelphia City Hall

6 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr.com - nakashi/cc-by-2.0

© flickr.com – nakashi/cc-by-2.0

Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It is also a courthouse, serving as the seat of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and houses the Civil Trial and Orphans’ Court Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.   read more…

Brownstones in New York City

3 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, Living, Working, Building, New York City Reading Time:  11 minutes

Brownstones in Park Slope © Mikeruggy/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brownstones in Park Slope © Mikeruggy/cc-by-sa-4.0

Brownstone is a brown TriassicJurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Brownstone, also known as freestone because it can be cut freely in any direction, was used by early Pennsylvanian Quakers to construct stone mills and mill houses. In central Pennsylvania, some 1700s-era structures survive, including a residence known as the Quaker Mill House.   read more…

Hialeah in Florida

30 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Miami / South Florida Reading Time:  4 minutes

Taco Bell © flickr.com - Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

Taco Bell © flickr.com – Phillip Pessar/cc-by-2.0

Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,198,782 people at the 2018 census. It is located west-northwest of Miami, and is one of a few places in the county—others being Homestead, Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour, Sunny Isles Beach, and Golden Beach—to have its own street grid numbered separately from the rest of the county (which is otherwise based on Miami Avenue at Flagler Street in Downtown Miami, the county seat).   read more…

Arlington Heights in Illinois

29 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  12 minutes

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com - bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Harmony Park in Downtown © panoramio.com – bogdanstepniak/cc-by-3.0

Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of the city’s downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the 2010 Census, it is the most populous community in the United States that is incorporated as a “village”, and is the 13th most populous municipality in Illinois, although it is not far ahead of its nearby Illinois neighboring villages of Schaumburg and adjacent Palatine. Arlington Heights is known for the former Arlington Park Race Track, home of the Arlington Million, a Breeders’ Cup qualifying event; it also hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships in 2002. The village is also home to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which has one of the largest collections of books in the state.   read more…

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