What They're Saying About the New York Songlines


    The essential website for NYC trivia.... True New Yorkers love uncovering the bits of history and intrigue that lurk under our feet and above our heads--an infamous murder here, a forgotten architectural treasure there, perhaps the spot where a famed writer drank himself to death. These are the kinds of things that fill New York Songlines, an addictive site run by Extra! magazine editor Jim Naureckas, who is busy mapping out the historical odds and ends of Manhattan, street by street, building by building. Start at your own address, and you might find out that an influential circus freak or 18th-century sheep farmer once lived where you do now. --Soren Larson, Time Out New York (10/27/05)
  • An ingenious piece of work, and really cool besides.... Worth exploring.

    Pool of Radiance (8/6/04)

  • Sometimes a person will work at a labour of love produce great content and then walk away from it. Not Jim Naureckas--he is continuing to update his website, adding more buildings and history.... If you have never visited Manhattan then you need to check out his website.... Every city should be so lucky to be chronicled this way.

    -- Just Playing (3/30/04)

  • If you've never explored Jim Naureckas' New York Songlines site, kiss the next hour of your life goodbye. With a pleasingly minimalist decor, he details the history of New York City, street by street.

    -- LockhartSteele.com Web Presence (10/14/03)

  • The New York Songlines site compiles information from numerous guidebooks into a user-friendly format.

    -- Washington Square News (9/30/03)

  • For amazing achievement in hypertext, we nominate the New York Songlines website... a truly novel guide to the Big Apple.

  • Fontayne Group Travel Takes (5/03)

  • A great alternative travel guide covering the psycho-geography of New York City by linking to all the little stories on every block.

    --Mad-Science.net (4/13/03)

  • A primitive, utterly functional web map of the streets of New York's Greenwich Village and East Village. Nothing fancy, and not a single graphic to be seen--just an address by address representation of streets, one per page, with links to the other streets at each intersection and links to outside resources when there's a good web site for a given address. Great for its minimalist commentary and bits of history and the scraps of first-person ephemera from the creator, like a note on the used record store where a lot of his stuff turned up after he was robbed once. If you are not now or never have been a New Yorker, it's probably impenetrable and meaningless. Me, I can see every storefront and sidewalk slab and newsstand as I scroll down a street.

    -- Steve Koppelman's Catalogue of Poorly Catalogued Things (3/31/03)

  • An amazing concept, this hypertext map of Manhattan offers a truly novel way to navigate the city.

    -- Yahoo! Pick (3/29/03)

  • An amazing concept, this site has fun facts and presents an interesting way to navigate around the city.

    -- House Arrest (3/5/03)

  • If you have a PDA or telephone that can access the Web, you can find out about the history of the buildings around you as you walk the streets of New York via New York Songlines.

    -- Smart Mobs (3/2/03)

  • The coolest New York site I've ever seen.

    -- The Great Whatsit (3/1/03)

  • Extraordinary annotated walking guide to NYC.

    -- Daenmark (2/28/03)

  • A fascinating site with annotated maps of New York City ...with information about who lived where and when, contemporary commerce, location info for notable movies, and architectural history.

    -- Kottke.org (2/27/03)

  • An amazing html-based map of New York City with history and personal tidbits appearing in the different "blocks."

    -- evanrose.com (2/27/03)

  • Remarkably detailed information on self-guided walks in Greenwich Village, the East Village and other areas of lower Manhattan.

    -- Swingstreets.com

  • This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and an amazing (if out-of-date) block by block chronicle of the living history of New York. This morning, plagued by fears of a shoddily-made Iraqi nuke erasing everything I love here, I turned to the songlines to remind myself of why I stay, and why I'll always stay, come hell or high water.

    -- A Short and Happy Life (12/11/03)

  • Interesting approach to wayfinding (though I wonder about the guy who actually put this thing together.... Does he do this in his spare time?). [Yes!--J.N.]

    -- Haddock.org (12/11/02)

  • The beautiful NY Songlines... one New Yorker's psychogeographical trace through the city he so obviously loves.

    -- Adam Greenfield (quoted in cityofsound, 10/1/02)

New York Songlines Home.

Sources for the Songlines.