I spent April of 2006 in New York City, writing my "children's book for adults"
Beasts of New York (which I'm currently serializing online.) As part of my research I wandered to faraway corners of the city such as Staten Island, which boasts a surprising number of cool things: the world's largest garbage dump, an abandoned insane asylum, and this view, from a hill above a ruined fort that watched over the Verrazano Narrows in World War II.