Dispatches

Communications, con Cariño

Greta Byrum of Community Tech NY talks about the importance of grassroots digital networks in keeping people connected during disasters.

Saving Water

Along the Brooklyn-Queens border, 50 acres of abandoned water infrastructure have gradually transformed into a unique wetland ecosystem. What's in store for the Ridgewood Reservoir?

People Movers

A Safe Space

Immigrant day laborers, construction workers and domestic workers experience hazardous conditions in the best of times. Worker's Justice Project and its worker centers are building a culture of safety and solidarity.

Planting a Flag

In 2016, a Brooklyn artist was commissioned to design Highland Park’s first public sculpture. Four years later, much of her work — and life — now orbits around the site and its community of residents and stewards.

Digital Frictions

Caught in the Spotlight

Networked technologies are setting the stage for new forms of urban surveillance. From Amazon’s Ring doorbell to the Detroit Police Department’s Project Green Light, what kinds of performances do digital tracking tools encourage people to put on?

Digital Frictions

Connecting at the Counter

More than a convenience store, the humble bodega is a deeply networked site where neighborhood life intersects with larger scales of social, cultural and economic exchange — and a growing digital presence.

Digital Frictions

Building the People's Internet

Communities on the front lines of the climate crisis have seen the immediate benefits of locally-managed digital infrastructure. But beyond resilience, grassroots networks are a test case for a collectively-forged technological future.

To Stop Displacement, Disclose the Data!

For more than half a century, real estate data has played a crucial role in struggles against housing discrimination and dispossession. But what information is needed now in the face of changing forms of speculation?

Digital Frictions

Latchkey Living

An indicator species in vinyl and metal, the streetside lockbox signals the rise of a short-term city.

Castaways of Jamaica Bay

By way of natural disaster and human folly, a staggering amount of marine debris litters the waters and shores of an important estuary habitat. Meet the volunteers trying to salvage the situation.