James McConnell, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Data at the NYC Office of Emergency Management, dissects the process by which data turns into emergency response and reminds us that effectiveness in a crisis requires long-term planning supported by accurate information.

The New York Public Library’s geospatial librarian Matt Knutzen discusses his stewardship of half a million maps and 20,000 atlases and the contemporary applications of this vast, historical collection.

Jeffrey Roth, the Assistant Commissioner for Management Initiatives at the New York City Fire Department, explains how his team is pushing the boundaries of analytics to inform operations and improve government stewardship of public resources.

Adam Greenfield critiques the prevailing definition of the "smart city" and calls for an alternative vision that understands and responds to the messy realities of human existence.

The Moelis Institute for Affordable Housing Policy at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy issues ten briefs on the main affordable housing issues facing the City’s next mayor.

In the latest installment of their Crisis Fronts degree project, Michael Chen and Jason Lee ask students to use the specific urban challenges of the Bronx to investigate the intersection between public policy and speculative design.

Juliet Helmke traces the origins and prospects of a genre of art that aims to educate and more effectively influence consumer behavior through the reinterpretation of ecological data.

Deborah Grossberg Katz and Terri Chiao explore how small-scale design can address broader social issues through their research on the systemic cycle of homelessness in the city.

Steven Romalewski, one of the forces behind the development of the Open Accessible Space Information System, takes us on a tour of the online mapping resource's version 2.0.