Finding Love in a Hopeless Place
An invitation to think and make cities through the lens of love and care
Browse
A Moon for My Neighbors
In neighborhood life, as in the romantic comedy classic, Moonstruck, romance thrives within a loose network of daily tenderness.
Love and Longing in Paratransit
The largest transportation system in the country for people with disabilities, New York City's unreliable Access-A-Ride also brings unexpected social connections.
My Favorite Mister (Fruit)
Comfort, consistency, and intimacy at the corner greengrocer
Full House
Stories of making home and community care from co-ops and lofts to adjoined brick houses and wood paneled basements
More Than Skin Deep
Renovated facades provide a window into existential questions for the future of New York City’s public housing.
Who Plans?
Over more than two decades, Hester Street expanded means and methods by which New Yorkers might shape their city. What does the nonprofit's demise mean for the practices of community planning and engagement in the future?
Perhaps a Lot of Our Future Is Behind Us
The interests of the powerful dominate our collective imagination; a visionary thinker prompts us to imagine justice in the here and now, with the tools we already have.
What Becomes a Legend Most?
A redeveloped Rockefeller Center draws tourists from around the globe as well as locals to a place that feels, surprisingly, authentically New York. How are its owners stewarding the storied complex into a second century?
On the City Stage
A modest, mid-block midtown building repurposed as a municipal arts center, City Center represented a monumental effort to support a program of arts for all. But how much can a building achieve?
Criticism as an Act of Love
Hyperlocal settings frame larger phenomena including stormwater management, the politics of place names, ersatz infrastructure, the tyranny of private property, and other signs of the never-ending change that characterizes the city.
The Inside Story
Images of public housing interiors decorated with love and care preserve family memories and public history, and document style as an act of resistance.
What Colors Are the Crabgrass?
New books chronicle US suburbs' divergence from their mythical origin scenes of verdant lawns and white picket fences — and detail how social struggles have always been part of their story.
Bus Time
Slow moving and overstuffed, the public bus is also a space of communion, curiosity, and solidarity for residents on the city's margins.
What's in a Gateway?
Plans for Chinatown placemaking have long called for a sculptural archway. Can this invented tradition reflect the diversity of social and cultural life in Chinatown today?
Two High School Activists
With school buildings ill-equipped to face the climate crisis, students advocate for retrofits and greener, healthier buildings.
News from Home
Reported from the imaginations of those on the front lines of New York City's housing struggles, a newspaper from the future brings tidings of homes for all.
Meet the 2024-2025 New City Critics Fellows
New City Critics fellows — architects, journalists, artists, a city planner and a rapper among them — will be training a critical gaze on New York City over the next nine months.
Long Island is Bugging Me
A disquisition into the urban/suburban and human/insect divides, and how people might come together when their surroundings are planned to keep them apart.
How to Map New York City
A lot of art and a little science went into representing fifteen years of Urban Omnibus stories on a map of New York City.
Everybody Should Be Honored
A rare combination of collective art project, community celebration, and environmental protest, the Hunts Point Fish Parade honors residents of the Bronx neighborhood and mobilizes them in the fight for its future.
Design and Deploy
To temporarily transform public space, Street Lab's lending library of outdoor furniture is designed to stand up to regular travel, extreme heat, and children's imaginations.
Stay in Your Lane
More than just red paint and white text, political maneuvers and enforcement strategies are key elements in the design of the city’s bus lanes.