Can you imagine riding down Broadway on a special sidewalk cart? In 1872, a proposal by Alfred Speer would have had the street lined with tracks and carts for the first moving sidewalk.

Back in the late 1860s/early 1870s, inventor and businessman Alfred Speer was fed up with street congestion in front of his wine store on Broadway near City Hall. Though elevated trains were popping up around the time, they were mostly above 14th Street, so Speer designed an aerial, steam-powered sidewalk (much cleaner than the locomotive trains) that would make a loop up and down Broadway to alleviate traffic. It would be constantly in motion at 10 miles per hour, carrying passengers by foot or in its movable chairs for five cents a ride. Speer even went so far as to patent the idea, officially called the “Endless Traveling” or “Railway Sidewalk.”

Read through the full article for more on Alfred Speer's 1872 moving sidewalk proposal.

King of the Night is a fantastic short film from Lonelyleap that gives a touching profile of Imad Khachan, owner of the last chess shop in New York City: Chess Forum in Greenwich Village. Check it out!

“I came here to get a PhD in American literature, and here I am, with pictures of American writers on the wall—a chess vendor.”

That’s Imad Khachan, owner of Chess Forum, the only remaining chess shop in New York City. A Palestinian refugee with no family of his own, Khachan has become “the father of everybody” to a community of chess enthusiasts, those curious to learn more about the game, and those whom Khachan describes as the city’s “invisible people.”

“When no other place will welcome you, you have a seat [here],” Khachan says in Molly Brass and Anne Hollowday’s short documentary, King of the Night. The film depicts the chess shop as more than a home for chess players; Khachan’s open-door policy has provided refuge for many patrons with difficult lives at home. According to Brass, some Chess Forum regulars have no home at all.

“There are very few places in New York that accept and welcome anyone—really anyone—to sit and spend as many hours as they want to, at negligible or no cost,” Brass told The Atlantic. “It's almost a revolutionary idea at this point.”

"King of the Night" was directed and produced by Lonelyleap. It is part of The Atlantic Selects, an online showcase of short documentaries from independent creators, curated by The Atlantic.

Local musician and YouTuber messiahsez makes some pretty funny songs about common New York City gripes such as nail-cutting on the subway and sidewalk etiquette. In this recent upload, watch as he sings about the F Train that never comes in "F Train Blues."

Messiahsez Sings The F Train Blues In Open D. The F Train Is A NYC Subway Line That Could Do Better! I Call The Technique The Train Beat. Lesson Soon! Unless I get stuck on the F train. They should call it the F U Train. Hope you enjoy.