There's a pigeon flying overhead when Eugene and Kaori Oda open the front door. And another. And another. Three in all. They land in the living room, where they're sitting in a row on the sofa, which is protected by a pair of plastic tablecloths.
"Skateboarding has always given me a feeling of freedom," Raffie Gordon, owner of skate shop Belief in Astoria says. "All my problems go away when I step on the board."
Enrico de Trizio and Giancarlo de Trizio start jamming to the rhythm of their new-found city. The brothers -- Enrico on the melodica and Giancarlo on the cajón -- have never played to the sky before, but once they start, they don't want to stop.
To ratchet up recycling, artist Bernard Klevickas created "Twisted Bicycle," a sculpture/planter made of an old bike that is designed to be wrapped around city streetlights.
For nearly a quarter century, Patricia Pelengaris has been the owner of the establishment on 23rd Avenue at 28th Street that she named A&E Cleaners for her children, Alex and Eleni.
On the emerald green front door of Stanley and Kathleen Rygor's 1890 cottage, there's a Claddagh knocker whose well-worn brass shows that it's no stranger to visitors.