Ah, the forgotten borough. Staten Island, the humblest and lowliest of NYC locales… why are you on the brain this morning?

Been leafing through Forgotten NY, that’s why. Cemeteries, Blue Heron Park (bet it looks great in the fall), creepy old hospitals (okay, I’ll probably leave that to the professionals), Victorian mansions… what’s not to love?

Did I ever mention that I lived on Staten Island, for about three months? ‘Twas my very first home in NYC back in 1994. I used to crawl through weeds and chain link fences (past a boarded up crackhouse) to get to the apartment I shared with three NYU film students. It was on the tip of the island, a stone’s throw as the crow flies from the ferry terminal. Ergo, I never did venture very far in. “There’s nothing there,” I thought. Silly me.

Staten Island, it seems, is one of those places where the city meets the earth.