I’ve been enjoying John Strausbaugh‘s new and (so far) monthly column in the weekend Arts section of the Times: Weekend Explorer.

To date, the author (a past editor of The New York Press and author of books on the aging Rolling Stones and blackface minstrelsy, among other topics) has explored Hell’s Kitchen, the East Village, and Brooklyn Heights (specifically its role as a stop on the Underground Railroad). Each installment comes with several multimedia features, including mp3 walking tour downloads. I haven’t test driven the walking tours yet but plan to at some point.

The first installment began with this observation —

NEW YORK is a walking city. People walk everywhere: to work, to
school, to shop, to worship. And usually we