Policy
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.
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?
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.
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.