TOPIC

MTA

Building Out of a Tight Spot

An architect faces New York City's housing crisis and climate crisis, one building at a time.

Where Can the Public Bathrooms Go in New York City?

Creating 3,000 more places to go can be transformative for people's dignity and the quality of the public realm. But actually implementing a citywide restroom network requires solutions that address each neighborhood's specific needs.

Eclipsed on the Concourse

The removal of a public art installation by Maya Lin to make way for a better, brighter Penn Station portends a growing denial of the precarity of human passage through time and space.

Getting Into It

For artists and audiences with disabilities, traditional theater spaces can present significant barriers. A new production by Ryan Haddad seeks to build access into the show’s design.

Track Record

Like reading the rings of an old tree, decoding the perplexing last century of ridership on the Long Island Rail Road casts light on the development of both a transit system and the identities of the places it passes through.

Shelf Life

Lost in Transit

An artist acquires a collection of unclaimed rings gathered from New York City's subway system, instigating an unconventional search for their origins and values.

Citymakers

Signs of the Times

From small and ubiquitous markers to massive bespoke steel numerals, this longstanding Greenpoint signage company helps New Yorkers navigate the city.

People Movers

Unruly Passengers

The Riders Alliance floods the city’s subway stations and bus stops, organizing normally disengaged riders to fight for better public transit.

The Tension and the Glory of Subway Poetry

Fred Hill recounts the history of poetry on the Tube and the Subway — and argues that the presence of verse means different things to Londoners and New Yorkers.

A Transit Agency for the Future

David Bragdon outlines his vision for a public transit agency that meets 21st century needs for flexible, multi-modal, and on-demand mobility.