Rishe Groner captures the diversity of forms secular and religious worship can take and the transformation of place it can produce in her personal essay for the As Seen On [ ] writing competition.

Presenting the second of two runners-up in our As Seen On [ ] writing competition: Nick Tobier's Uzbek flâneur narrates the theater of urban space to consider the effects of ubiquitous digital connection on people, buildings, and, of course, rodents.

Presenting one of two runners-up in our As Seen On [ ] writing competition: in an era of co-everything and economies supposedly based on sharing, Andrew Renninger asks what becomes of our cities when there are so few places to be alone.

Presenting the winner of our As Seen On [ ] writing competition: Maya Sorabjee takes us to Bombay, where the intersection of loitering and gender potently demonstrates why occupation of physical and digital space is still a radical act.

Presenting the second of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Yen Ha brings us the story of a pair of strangers navigating the extremes of the sharing economy.

Presenting one of two runners-up in our Common Shares writing competition: Keith Engel gives voice to a man who takes it upon himself to enforce the rules governing the gray area between personal and collective responsibility.

Presenting the winner of our Common Shares writing competition: Frederica Hill sifts through what her neighbors discard to find her own place in the city.

Deborah Helaine Morris, one of two runners-up of the Fuzzy Math writing competition, charts the shifting demographics of one pocket of Brooklyn through the dairy aisle of her local supermarkets, delis, and specialty food stores.

Malaika Kim, one of two runners-up of the Fuzzy Math writing competition, traces how the intangibles of her life — the passage of time, acquired knowledge, and changes in lifestyle and family — have shifted her perception and experience of the physical environment in very measurable ways.

Announcing the winner of our Fuzzy Math writing competition: Steven Higashide imagines a near future in New York, in which a new City agency — the Department of Externalities — monitors and evaluates the social and environmental effects of everyday actions.

In the final selection from the Unfinished Grid Essay Competition, Annie Choi takes us on a neighborhood stroll that reveals the grid's subtle influence on our everyday experience of the city.

Another selection from the Unfinished Grid Essay Competition considers what two centuries of interpretation of Manhattan's street grid can tell us about ourselves.

Announcing the winner of the Unfinished Grid Essay Competition: a personal essay that blends family history with individual mobility to explore Manhattan's built and natural environment.