I am fascinated by the places that are prominently located yet rarely mentioned. The plaque at 77 MacDougal Street says Tiro A Segno, New York Rifle Club. This address is just south of one of the most touristy, trafficked blocks in the city – the Figaro Cafe and Bleecker Street are within eyeshot. This very exclusive, members-only club occupies three entire brownstone row houses. 3 flags hang in front – one American, one Italian, and one brandishing Tiro A Segno, which literally means “shoot the target” (Tiros date back to eighth century Italy’s bow-and-arrow groups).

This is the oldest private Italian-American club in the U.S., founded in 1888 and in this location since 1924. And private is the operative word. You won’t find much about this place – I had to really dig for this one. Visit their website and you will get the idea. Prospective members must be nominated by a current member, and there is a quota on non-Italians. Members have included former mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Enrico Caruso, and Garibaldi. What goes on in there? Wine, fine dining (dining hall seats 110), conversation, and rifle shooting in the basement gallery with three wood-paneled ranges and a choice of targets. And charitable work is done, e.g., in 2000, the Tiro a Segno foundation donated $500,000 to establish the Visiting Faculty Fellowship in Italian-American Culture at NYU. Apparently any vestiges of former members like convicted politicians Biaggi and Esposito are long gone…

These two images are from the south end of Roosevelt Island (the cat is sitting in the window of the infamous Smallpox Hospital, an abandoned Gothic ruin.) Technically part of Manhattan, Roosevelt Island is a two-mile strip of land in the East River with access by aerial Tram, subway, and auto (by bridge from Queens). Formerly called Blackwell’s Island and then Welfare Island, this place was home to many asylums, hospitals, and prisons. In the 1960s, a plan by Philip Johnson and John Burgee envisioned a pedestrian community, but the original plan never came to be.

There is a variety of housing: subsidized and unsubsidized housing for low, middle, and moderate-income tenants. Luxury rentals and condominiums also exist. Hybrid electric buses provide transportation on the island; waste is collected by an underground Automated Vacuum Collection System (the only one servicing a residential complex in the U.S.). There was initially a lot of enthusiasm over the island’s development as a modern utopia. However, the population originally envisioned was never realized, and thus, there is a dearth of services on the island. One supermarket, one deli, one restaurant.

For the visitor, there are a few spots worth a visit – the biggest draw are the vistas of the city. But I am sure that many residents like the quiet atmosphere – our black cat appears quite content…