TOPIC
Retail
Notes from the Industrial Zone
New York was founded on industry. As e-commerce rewrites the supply chain, how are we protecting the small businesses left behind?
The Plaza Paradox
In the shadow of the Flatiron, a writer spends an hour conducting her own public space audit.
Wonder is All Around Us
Ordering pad thai on an iPad in the muzak of a takeout food chain created in the pressure cooker of the post-pandemic economy.
The Hottest Club
A contemporary "bathhouse" draws on ancient traditions to heighten experience, but is untethered from the more convivial aspects of bathing culture.
The Shortest Ramp Is a Longer Road
A new Crown Heights bookshop is a cipher for conflicting feelings of ambivalence, betrayal, and belonging
Neither Here Nor There
Globally connected and stubbornly self-contained, Flushing, Queens, has never conformed to conventional planning wisdom. In the post-pandemic realm of digital dissociation and global isolation, is it more unmoored than ever?
No Mannequins
The new Telfar store is an event space. The event is we're alive and we did this shit.
The Real Counterfeit
A 15-story stack of Louis Vuitton branded suitcases claiming to be scaffolding landed on Fifth Avenue in November. But reading the structure through the lens of the building code raises questions about our grasp on reality and the rule of law.
A Moon for My Neighbors
In neighborhood life, as in the romantic comedy classic, Moonstruck, romance thrives within a loose network of daily tenderness.
My Favorite Mister (Fruit)
Comfort, consistency, and intimacy at the corner greengrocer