William B. Helmreich (1945–2020)

A few years after Princeton University Press published William B. Helmreich's well-received The New York Nobody Knows, it started putting out standalone "urban walking guides" to each of the five boroughs. Helmreich, a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City College of New York, famously walked every street in New York City, speaking with just about everybody he came across (or so it seems), be it a building super, a doorman, a shop clerk, someone leaving their apartment, someone leaving a synagogue, ... The New York Nobody Knows discusses immigration, gentrification, and other issues in thematic chapters; it is thorough, but it must have been evident for both author and publisher that the effort of walking the five boroughs and the results of talking with so many people would lead to more than just one book. The first guide published was Brooklyn, in 2016, followed by Manhattan, in 2018. Sadly, a few months before the Queens guide was released in 2020, Helmreich died, succumbing to COVID-19 in March of that year, the same month fellow CCNY professor Michael Sorkin also died. At that time, as recounted by his wife Helaine, William had already finished the manuscript for the Bronx and the couple was starting to work on Staten Island, walking (again!) the streets of that borough. It's too bad we won't see Staten Island, because it, like the Bronx, is not as widely known (for me, at least, and I'm guessing quite a few other people) as Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. But as the earlier guides made clear, there is more to the boroughs than the familiar sites found in other guidebooks; and the boroughs are made up of people, not just buildings and landscapes, and it was those people that interested Helmreich the most. Their voices permeate The Bronx Nobody Knows, just as in the other guides. For me, someone who lives in Queens, one thing I appreciate about Helmreich's books is the way he managed to get people to open up and say things that would both describe a place and convey the similarities binding people across the city and, on a wider canvas, across humanity.… (altro)

When I was 12 years old my best friend and I started walking Brooklyn. We both grew up in Midwood and wanted to see beyond the constricted parameters of our neighborhood. We walked and walked. Went from from Midwood to Sheepshead Bay and back and to Church Avenue and back, etc. and did this for years. The Brooklyn Nobody Knows is as authentic as they come. He does an excellent job of noticing both the specific and interesting details of each neighborhood where we meet the people and places that differentiates this neighborhood from another. What I love is that he also takes a wider view and looks at the issues that impact the neighborhoods and Brooklyn, as a whole. Fun, lots of great stories and also sometimes sad as he writes about some of the changes that have impacted many neighborhoods in Brooklyn (gentrification). Although I do not live there now this spring I am determined to go walking again in Brooklyn. If I am lucky I will get a slice of pizza at Difara, recently named the best pizzeria in the United States but really just my neighborhood joint. Thank you Mr. Helmreich for writing this gem. And thank you Netgalley and Princeton University Press for allowing me to review this book. All opinions are my own.… (altro)