Five years ago, 300 acres at the heart of the peninsula were unoccupied, an artifact of scorch-and-burn city policy from the 1950s and 60s. With the guidance of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), private developers are bringing thousands of high-end condos plus roads and retail space to Arverne. The empty plot in this picture, pictured through "scratchiti" on the window of an elevated A train, is the future home of a chain supermarket, which will be the peninsula's first
Photo by Matt Schwarzfeld
