On this week’s show we will visit what is one of New York’s more remote neighborhoods, but a treasure, City Island in the Bronx. My guests will be Barbara Burn Dolensek, Administrator at the City Island Nautical Museum, and Paul Klein, President of the City Island Chamber of Commerce.

Tune in for this fascinating conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by clicking here.



On tonight’s episode we venture out into city Island in the Bronx . Our first guest is Barbara Burn Dolensek, she moved to city Island in 1976 with her husband; he was the veterinarian at the Bronx zoo. Barbara has her hands in many things. She’s on the staff of the island currently as a copy editor and reporter, since 1985. She's been an officer of the city Island Fiffick Association since 1992 , and so much more. She is passionate about city Island and it shows. Barbara Didn’t grow up in New York. She's actually from Massachusetts. She loves the water so she got a chance to move to the Bronx because of her husband‘s position at the zoo. She fell in love with it right away. City island has been around forever but the name hasn't got its name before the civil War it was called a number of different names before that. It was purchased because a man thought it could Compete with New York Harbor. The Lenape people were the first people to settle and call the island home for over 400 year.

Barbara is the administrator for the city Island nautical museum. Sadly They didn’t open last year because of the pandemic but they are Hoping to open in May they did a series of webinars for the past couple months. They have tours in the spring and summer and they’re hoping to continue that this year. If you want to know more information about the museum go to ww.Cityislandmuseum.org. During the 1940s that’s one city Island got into the oyster business.Unfortunately towards the end of the century oysters became polluted, and oysters were overfished. People known as the oyster pilots would steal hundreds of oysters.

Our Second guess tonight is Paul Klein, President of the City Island Chamber of Commerce. Paul grew up in Baltimore After college he decided to move to New York he knew he had to live there. Paul is a jewelry designer who worked at David Yurman’s. He ended up opening his own jewelry store in the village in 1988. Paul opened another jewelry store in the city but after meeting his husband he decided to close it and open another store in city Island. Now has a gallery called Kaleidoscope Gallery. Where he sells important jewelry and different types of gemstones. He also sells local artists' work.

Paul is a big part of the city Island arts and craft fair. He has permits for the first weekend of June. June 5 and 6 and September 11 and 12th. It usually brings a crowd of 50 to 60 arts and crafts people. They even have a clam chowder contest, and live music. The culture of city Island is alive and well hopefully we can all enjoy what they have to offer this season