Maintaining Decomposure

Grassroots groups have kept organic waste collection alive in neighborhoods across New York City during a most difficult year. For community composters, the stakes of an equitable waste system stretch far beyond the pile.

Memory Loss

The Bergen Family Owned 46 People

Drawing on census records, newspaper ads, and more from the city's archives, activists call attention to the legacy of slavery embedded in the names of familiar streets and neighborhoods.

100-Year Adaptation Zone

In their speculative proposal, Nine Reciprocities, two designers pair evocative visions of the long-term future with self-reflection. How can architecture help maintain community in the face of social and environmental challenges?

What About Jane?

As cities, and the way we understand them, have changed, so has the reputation of a preeminent urban thinker. If gentrification and structural racism are the problems, does Jane Jacobs still have the answers?

Memory Loss

Introducing Memory Loss

Our new mini-series highlights a geography of memory across the city, focusing on the everyday memorial.

Memory Loss

Mourn and Organize

For all death’s new omnipresence, the scale of our losses has been hard to locate in the daily fabric of urban life. Where does the city put its grief and voice its outrage?

Behind the Mask

Two scholars navigate the myths and abstractions attached to marginalized urban neighborhoods, bridging the distance between narratives imposed from outside and residents' experiences and spatial practices.

Architects of Black Harlem

In an urban landscape synonymous with African American culture, buildings by Black designers make space for domesticity, creativity, and community.

Follow the Frontline

Communities of color have long been the vanguard of New York City's environmental justice movement. How can designers support and learn from their efforts to mitigate a climate crisis that is up close and personal?

Dispatches

This Is What We're Seeing, This Is What We're Not Seeing

Mark Dicus of the SoHo Broadway Initiative reflects on the ups and down of a tumultuous year along one of New York City's most heavily-trafficked pedestrian corridors.