Ronald DeNota

In the first place, this was a splendid old landmark and people like to see the old order blown up.

Then there is the glorious dirt and uproar which are the vitamins of New York, and of course the secret hope that the street will cave in and swallow us all up.

Islanders stroll along the Avenue on City Island in the Bronx. If  they have lived on City Island long enough, these clam diggers chat together endlessly. There is the smell of sea weed, and everywhere there are boats. The land has sleek slopes that support clapboard cottages as well as immense Victorian villas. And there out in the haze, you can barely decipher the towers of Manhattan.  In the 1800s, voluminous fortunes were made from the local industry of oystering. Then there were the ship-building yards. Today boat-building is a dying art  and many of the boatyards are gone now. The hallowed East Coast men of business chose City Island as a harbor to keep their extraordinary boats and to have a lovely place to relax. City Island is still a fisherman's paradise.