TOPIC

Police

Turning the Tide

Where can queer and trans community flourish, if not at Riis Beach? Yet current plans for its future don't account for the people it has sustained for decades.

Mobilizing Support

A harm reduction collective works to meet people who use drugs "where they're at," not just metaphorically, but geographically.

Arch-Conservative

Vito Battista’s journey from public architecture to right-wing politics is an echo of New York’s own cyclical, reactionary tides — and a reminder of how closely the city's politics are tied to the fate of its urban fabric.

Market Share

Designed for other uses and users, Corona Plaza has become a critical infrastructure for streetside selling. In the face of economic and legal pressures, vendors are organizing themselves and the space to ensure both individual survival and collective prosperity.

Care, Where?

Public space may be essential to urban life, but its benefits are far from universally enjoyed. Could a municipal Department of Care bring context-sensitive design and services to every corner of the city?

You’re Not Going to Tell Me When to Go Home

What happened on the ground during the summer protests in NYC? Participants describe a temporary landscape of kinship and resistance — and a template for another city.

Circulation Desk

Unreality Check

As New York reckons with a pandemic and police violence, truth can seem stranger than fiction. But a new work of urban fantasy bends the uncanny contours of crisis towards a vision of the city transformed through solidarity.

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.

The Location of Justice: Systems

Where School Meets Prison

As police personnel and machinery have settled into New York City schools, the line between school discipline and criminal punishment has become blurry.