With its brightly lit billboards, costumed characters, and Broadway theater New York's Times Square is known as the crossroads of the world. In non-pandemic years, the square hosted 50 million tourists. But just 40 years ago Times Square was a very different place. It's streets were crime-ridden and featured adult theaters as the main source of entertainment. Cheddar explains how Times Square went from this to one of the top tourist attractions in the world.

Brooklyn-based director Nicky Keros created this short profile piece on Nick Coxx, a local surfer who frequents the Rockaways to surf, and the various challenges he faces surfing in the City.

I'm surfing for like 45 minutes to an hour, um before I can't stand it [the cold] anymore. So, yeah, your sessions are definitely shorter than most places solely on the conditions. Your body literally breaks down you know, so it's hard.

The music in the video is Lorelle meets the Obsolete.

The Last Days of Little Italy: An Original Documentary Series. Vinny Vella acted in more than sixty films often in the role of gangster. He is best known for the role of Artie Piscano in Martin Scorsese's Casino. He played Jimmy Petrille on the HBO series The Sopranos. Little Italy, a historic haven for immigrant families from the old country, was once threatened by an ever-expanding Chinatown. But now the fatal blow is being delivered by the gentrifiers. Corporations, yuppies, and chain stores all moved in. How did Little Italy transform itself from a working class neighborhood of tenement buildings to the third most expensive zip code in the United States? Part funny, part sad, the series explores the impact gentrification is having on Little Italy's long-term residents. The striking imagery captures the neighborhood before it is completely erased by sterile trendy stores and upper middle class sameness. Will New York City lose another cultural touchstone to the forces of greed?