Neighborhood

A city needs memory like it needs streets, trees, and people. But how do we build an infrastructure to contain and deliver the city's history? Ben Vershbow, former director of NYPL Labs, talks with Shannon Mattern about libraries as stewards of the past in the age of Google Maps.

Why does the history of squatting in New York matter? Artists, historians, documentarians, and writers reflect on a singular passage in the city's story, and what it can offer today.

As Manhattan's Chinatown experiences rapid change, a historic porcelain store on Mott Street reinvents itself as a space for intergenerational dialogue and community activation. UO talks to Mei Lum and Diane Wong, the minds behind the W.O.W. Project, about what they've learned and where they're headed next.

Happy Birthday, zoning! The codes may have changed over 101 years, but as Andrea Renner and Eric Goldwyn explain, when it comes to how New Yorkers use zoning to advance their own visions of a perfect city, much remains the same.

DW Gibson reflects on the churches and community service providers put in jeopardy by a combination of policy and paperwork, and what can be done to stop vulnerable institutions from falling through the cracks in the city's annual tax lien sale.

As the city makes moves to improve housing in Mott Haven, Susanne Schindler finds that current approaches bear a strong resemblance to long-forgotten efforts there.

For our Typecast series, Henry Grabar visits Canarsie, where long rows of attached brick houses defy traditional flood-proofing elevation. Could rising flood insurance premiums pose a greater immediate threat to homeowners than rising sea levels?

Can public art, oral history, and open dialogue help rebuild burned bridges between estranged community groups? Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani recounts her experience in the Lower East Side's Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA).

After Superstorm Sandy, a historic housing style is on the brink of extinction on Staten Island's East Shore. A. F. Brady explores what stands to be lost, and gained, in government efforts to rebuild the area after the storm.

The anthology, like the public square, is a gathering place for a diversity of voices.