The Hole, NYC. Is this the land that time forgot?

This 12-block community just 10 miles from Manhattan’s glittering towers has been forgotten for decades. The neighbourhood is best known for constant flooding, vacant cars and a mob graveyard.  City officials call this place the “Jewel Streets” after the street names like Ruby, Emerald, Amber and Sapphire but most people know it as “The Hole”.

The 50 people who live there don’t have political clout and have learned to be self sufficient when dealing with problems that most big city residents can solve with a call to a city department. Plans to make improvements over the past two decades have been proposed by the city only to be forgotten soon after.

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(Edited by Timothy Coulter. Photo editing and production by Marie Monteleone)