Central Avenue

Our penultimate walk has the distinction of being the only one to touch all five boroughs. The same can be said of this week's focus: the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. This route visits memorial sites in all five boroughs - some grand and others understated. Note it is the only route to use transit during the course of the walk (the Staten Island ferry) though the walking distance of 26.2 miles is still maintained.

In 1790, 61% of all white Households in Kings County owned slaves, representing 30% of the borough's total population. This was enough to earn it the ignominious distinction of "the highest proportion of slaveholders and slaves in the North." Our walk this week covers the grounds of Canarsie and the Flatlands where many of these slaves resided, along with the courageous and vibrant abolitionist history of Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg and Weeksville. We'll also step into Manhattan to visit the African Burial Ground National Monument near City Hall.

Episode two of our movies of NY walks focuses on a single film - the 2001 Wes Anderson comedy The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson's fanciful version of New York hops all over Manhattan, from Battery Park to the Church of the Intercession to the Waldorf Astoria New York.

This week is the first of our 'loose ends' walks, where we identify neighborhoods on the walk we either barely hit or missed entirely. It's also the last walk we'll be taking exclusively in Queens. We set out for the Northeast tip of the borough to visit Little Neck and Little Neck Bay. Then we'll drop all the way south to hit the neighborhoods we missed the last time we were around JFK: Brookville, Springfield Gardens and Rochdale. We'll end at Jamaica to take the J train home.

Our second walk focusing on music in NYC takes a look at the history of Hip-Hop in Queens County. From Queensbridge to Corona, from Hollis to Jamaica, Queens native musicians have played a critical role in the development of the form. We'll visit the neighborhood homes of Nas, LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, A Tribe Called Quest and Kool G Rap, just to name of few. (Note: .4 marathon mileage delta will be made up as we wander)

Our first walk in a series exploring NYC filming locations takes in a sampling of sites from three movies famous for their New York/Queens connections: Coming to America, Goodfellas and Men In Black. We'll visit sites still standing, sites since past and sites out of this world.

Back in 2015, Heather Quinlan at Brooklyn Heights Blog stumbled upon a rather exciting map at the Brooklyn Historical society. Published in 1946 by historian James A. Kelly, it details all the Native America trails that cover the borough and their contemporary counterparts. This week we'll walk those existing routes, with a trip down Kings Highway, a walk along Shore Road, and up Division Avenue, among other paths. We'll also visit the peculiar Gravesend Square and the city's oldest cemetery.

Part two of our Queens coastal conquering starts with a significant hike before we even hit water, crossing through Glendale, Rego Park and the middle of Flushing Meadows Park. We pick up the start of Flushing Bay and reconnect with the East River at College Point, following to Beechhurst and the base of the Throgs Neck Bridge. The return trip takes us through Murray Hill, Forrest Hills and Woodhaven on the way to the J train home.

This week we take the long march to Fort Totten, a preserved civil war naval fortress on the north shore of Queens. A sweep through Kissena Park marks our trip there, while our returns route gives us an in-depth look at the marshy Alley Pond Park. A turn west leaves us at Jamaica for the train ride home.

Our first jaunt into North Queens starts with a passage on foot through Elmhurst and Corona. Cutting up through Flushing and taking a right at Spa Castle in College Point, we round the turn at Crocheron Park and Little Neck Bay. The route back takes us by the scenic Long Island Expressway and through Queens College.