TOPIC
Race
Architects of Black Harlem
In an urban landscape synonymous with African American culture, buildings by Black designers make space for domesticity, creativity, and community.
Follow the Frontline
Communities of color have long been the vanguard of New York City's environmental justice movement. How can designers support and learn from their efforts to mitigate a climate crisis that is up close and personal?
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.
We're About Getting People Free, Period
With the pandemic churning inside city jails, a proliferation of mutual aid networks are crowdsourcing funds to get as many people out of pretrial detention as they can. We hear from organizers of COVID Bail Out NYC about what securing someone else's freedom really means.
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.
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?
Disruption at the Doorstep
Facial recognition. Tenant screening platforms. Biometric databases. A new set of digital products seeks to disrupt the real estate industry. But these technologies are fast becoming weaponized against a familiar target of housing discrimination: working-class tenants of color.
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.
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?
For a Level Field
For an equal shot at competitive sports in New York City public high schools, students and teachers fight to untangle the knot of race and space.