Cityscape

For a lot of people the holidays are the most magical time of the year, and one could argue that there’s no other place more magical than New York City during this time.

From the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to the elaborate window displays at stores like Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, the city is bursting with holiday spirit.

Photographer Betsy Pinover Schiff captures the distinctive and unexpected ways Christmastime is celebrated in the city in her new book 'Tis the Season New York.

Betsy spent the six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve photographing all five boroughs. Her book includes over 160 pages of photographs taken mostly at night. Some of the locations are extremely recognizable, while others are a little less traveled by. This week, we sit down with Betsy to hear all about her project.

When it comes to comedy in New York City, Gotham Comedy Club is about as elite for comedians as Lincoln Center is for ballet dancers. But not everyone that gets to grace Gotham’s stage is a celebrity, or even old enough to vote.

On this week's Cityscape, we're checking out Kids ‘N Comedy, a program that teaches young people how to write and perform stand-up comedy.

The classes are held at Gotham Comedy Club, and participants go on to perform sketches there before a live audience.

In today’s world where we can access our offices and apartments by simply typing a code into a keypad or swiping or tapping a card, a keychain full of keys is quickly becoming a relic of a bygone era. But, in New York’s Greenwich Village, one key-related establishment is still going strong. On this week’s Cityscape, locks and keys, including a visit to Greenwich Locksmiths and a chat with the curator of the Lock Museum of America.

In times of trouble or uncertainty, a lot of us turn to outside support for help -- a psychologist, a pastor, or maybe even a psychic. But what happens when a fortune teller costs you a fortune? Our latest episode explores that question.

In a digital era where you can quickly google search pretty much any recipe, the idea of flipping through a cookbook for inspiration in the kitchen may feel antiquated. But, for Bonnie Slotnik and many others, cookbooks are far from obsolete and offer much more than just recipes. Slotnik owns a vintage cookbook shop in the East Village of New York City. She moved to 28 East Second Street after being priced out.

When you walk into Bonnie’s shop, it’s like stepping back in time to an internet-free world. Her store is filled to the brim with vintage cookbooks from around the globe. We recently sat down with Bonnie to talk about her history and love of cookbooks.

Inclusivity and understanding are the pathways to accepting and getting to know the people around us. This fall, WFUV's Strike A Chord Campaign is focusing its attention on autism acceptance.

Listen to this special panel discussion produced in conjunction with BronxNet Television featuring:

• Amanda Friedman, the founder and executive director of the Atlas Foundation for Autism. The organization is dedicated to improving educational opportunities for autistic individuals through after-school, therapeutic, and other scholastic programs.
• Michele Sanchez-Stierheim, the founder and executive director of Spectrum Warriors, Inc. Spectrum Warriors helps families with autistic members who feel isolated to become a part of their community again.
• Florencio Flores Palomo, the founder and executive director of REACH Swim Academy. REACH offers swim lessons to autistic kids, giving them a safe space to socialize in small groups and get some exercise.

New York City can be a photographer's paradise. There's no shortage of people or places to capture in a photo, from the Flatiron Building to straphangers waiting on the platform for the A train. On this week's Cityscape, we're talking with two New York City-based photographers who capture their own unique perspectives of the Big Apple. Larry Racioppo is out with a new book called Brooklyn Before: Photographs, 1971-1983 and Herb Bardavid focuses on the city's elderly population in his project "Getting Old and Getting Out in New York City."

Whether in comic books, video games, or on the big screen, superheroes often fight for justice in a city like New York, or New York City itself.

On this week's Cityscape, we're taking a closer look at "superheroing" in the Big Apple.

It’s been called the "miracle of World War II." This month marks the 75th anniversary of the rescue of more than 7,000 Danish Jews from holocaust. It was a heroic example of neighbors helping neighbors.

The scholarship fund, Thanks to Scandinavia, recognizes the ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts in Scandinavia and Bulgaria during World War II to save the lives of their Jewish neighbors.

Joining us this week to talk about this often untold story is Thanks to Scandinavia Executive Director Kelly Ramot and Denmark’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Anne Dorte Riggelsen.

What does the word, “laser” bring to mind? An iconic spy movie, perhaps? In actuality, lasers aren’t just this glamorized phenomenon we’ve seen in movies like Mission Impossible and Star Wars. In New York City you can get up close and personal with lasers with the help of a man known as “Dr. Laser.” 

Dr. Laser’s not going to fix your broken bones with powerful rays. What he is going to do is show you around the Holographic Studios, his laboratory for creating three dimensional images on East 26th Street in Manhattan.

Dr. Laser combines art and technology to produce captivating installations. He showed Cityscape around his studio, and introduced us to his life of holography.