As many New Yorkers know, the rent is too damn high. The neighborhoods of New...
Very Important Maps
I have been a terrible blogger of late. Consider this an apology. And a celebration of maps.
Downtown Brooklyn Chain Store Surge
DNA Info recently reported that there is a chain store “surge” going on in Downtown Brooklyn. Based on a 2013 report by Center for an Urban Future, national chain stores such as H&M, TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack, and Sephora are making beachheads in places such as the Fulton Mall. Overall, Brooklyn saw the […]
Brooklyn’s 1938 “Redline” Map
During the middle of the 20th-century, America’s urban cores were being gutted through fiscal attrition: tax dollars were being sent, for the first time, out and away from cities to subsidize suburban expansion. At the same time, private financial institutions were pulling their funding away from urban home-buyers, business owners and those wishing to refinance […]
1873 Weeksville and Pool’s infamous Picnic
POOL’S PICNIC Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 27, 1873, page 4 When “Big Six” thundered along the pavements of New York, George Pool was her keeper; now he is, if not the “Boss,” a very popular man among the colored people of Weeksville. During the last eleven years, Pool’s picnics have been the great […]
BANG, WHIR, VROOM! The Arrogance and Vulnerability of Italian Futurism
To be affiliated with the cultural wave that was Futurism in Italy in the early 20th Century was to signify an unabashed optimism and join a call to arms to reshape, rethink, and rebrand everything that was contemporary life – photography, theater, music, art, politics, architecture, even toys. Championed by its tireless leader, Marinetti, from […]
STROLLS UPON OLD LINES: Crow Hill and Some of Its Suggestions.
The Bedford Hills – A Region Now Traced by the Eastern Parkway The Genesis of a Name – French’s Stopping Place. [editor note: this article was first published in thee 1888 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Article was retrieved from http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org and transcribed by PlaNYourCity] There was a rhyme in one of the children’s magazines […]
Link Roundup!
Inspired by one of the only relatively warm days of 2014 this past weekend (at least for us northern folk), I found myself reading and dreaming about long bike rides and general urban exploration. This week’s link roundup reflects these dreams and seeks to instill hope that perhaps one day the seemingly neverending polar vortex […]
On Love: Socrates Sculpture Park
Because of the well-documented, highly complex relationship between the world and humankind’s sensation and perception of it, I am of the opinion that even relatively simple messages are often exceptionally hard to convey. As such, any tool used for the communicative purposes of conveying such a feeling or message, should, if deployed successfully, subtly suggest […]
Eminent domain, not always evil?
Eminent domain is one of those government powers that has gotten some bad press in recent years, mainly due it being used for economic development. But eminent domain doesn’t have to be all bad. Ellen Brown wrote a compelling piece on using ED as a tool to help reclaim foreclosed properties whose ownership is lost […]
Should the internet be a public utility?
About two months ago, I received a letter from my internet service provider, Optimum Online, stating that my monthly bill was about to increase again, to nearly $60 per month. This price has been rising steadily from $30 about two years ago. Optimum’s service hadn’t improved, increased in speed, nor had the number of internet […]
