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Photo collage of L.J. Davis, Jervis Anderson, and a street map

The Invention of a Neighborhood

In the early years of Brooklyn’s gentrification, a 1977 New Yorker piece by Jervis Anderson captured the process in a freeze-frame.
by Jonathan Lethem via The New Yorker on August 21, 2023
Jonesville Historic Gullah Neighborhood resident Josephine Wright stands between her home and an orange safety fence of a construction site on Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Developers Have Black Families Fighting to Maintain Property and History

All along the South Carolina coast, developers looking to profit on vacation getaways and new homes are targeting land owned by descendants of enslaved people.
by James Pollard via AP News on August 12, 2023
Streetview of New York City.

How the 9/11 Attacks Sparked a Never-Ending Wave of Gentrification

The post-9/11 landscape witnessed crackdowns on New York City nightlife amidst efforts to increase tourism.
by Jesse Rifkin via Literary Hub on July 13, 2023
Side-by-side of LGBTQ+ pride flag above fetish shop, and local LGBTQ+ activist Roland Palencia

Searching For Silver Lake: The Radical Neighborhood That Changed Gay America

For decades, these Los Angeles streets have played host to key events in LGBTQ+ history. But gentrification has transformed the area.
by Lois Beckett via The Guardian on July 2, 2023
Skyscrapers in a city.

The Pandemic Disproved Urban Progressives’ Theory About Gentrification

The “gentrification-industrial complex” isn’t who anti-growth progressives think it is.
by Jacob Anbinder via The Atlantic on January 2, 2021
partner

How Gentrification Caused America’s Cities to Burn

Yuppies attract cafes and amenities to gentrifying neighborhoods. They also spark rising rents — and even violence.
by Dylan Gottlieb via Made By History on September 13, 2019

Real Museums of Memphis

How the National Civil Rights Museum has obscured the ongoing dispossession of African-Americans taking place in its shadow.
by Zandria Felice Robinson via Scalawag on April 12, 2018

The Death and Life of a Great American Building

Longtime tenant in the 165-year-old St. Denis building in New York City reflects on the building's history.
by Jeremiah Moss via New York Review of Books on March 7, 2018
Frank Hallam, "En Masse Sunners Seen from Pier 45, 4/25/1982" (1982/2012) (collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Gift of the artist)

When NYC’s Piers Were a Sanctuary for Gay Gathering 

In the 1960s, amid the shipping industry's decline, the empty piers became a site for cruising and creativity for gay men in particular.
by Rhea Nayyar via Hyperallergic on June 22, 2025
Robert Moses sitting in front of a catelog of blueprints.

The Inadequacy of the Abundance Agenda

Three new books propose market solutions to problems that require government intervention. We’ve been here before. It didn’t end well.
by Timothy Noah via The New Republic on March 27, 2025
Aerial view of Oakland.

The Future Happens in Oakland First. That’s a Cautionary Tale for Global Cities

International trade boomed with the city’s early adoption of technological and economic changes, but Black neighborhoods became ‘sacrifice zones.’
by Lois Beckett, Alexis C. Madrigal via The Guardian on March 22, 2025
Boylston Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston, a residential street with a bike lane and a Black Lives Matter sign.

My Street Looks Different Now: Oral History and the Anti-Redlining Movement

For residents, organizers, and onlookers, neighborhoods can be a window for witnessing and making sense of history.
by Joshua Rosen via The Metropole on October 8, 2024
White settlers traveling west in Conestoga wagons.

America as Filibuster Society

American expansionism goes beyond territory.
by Nick Burns via American Affairs on August 20, 2024
Chicago Workers' Cottages.

Chicago Workers Cottages Gave Immigrants Access to Homeownership

The cottages’ modest design provided entry-level homes after the Great Chicago Fire.
by Zach Mortice via CityLab on July 28, 2024
A yuppie surrounded by money and luxury items.

When Yuppies Ruled

Defining a social type is a way of defining an era. What can the time of the young urban professional tell us about our own?
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 22, 2024
Black and white photo of the outside of a bar, with "CB GB: OMFUG" written on an overhang, and graffiti and posters on the walls and windows

Real Estate Developers Killed NYC’s Vibrant ’70s Music Scene

In the 1970s and early ’80s, NYC’s racially and ethnically diverse working-class neighborhoods nurtured groundbreaking rap, salsa, and punk music.
by Kurt Hollander via Jacobin on February 11, 2024
The Vessel in New York City.

Stumbling Into Submission: How Real Estate And Finance Capital Conquered New York City

Hudson Yards received a $6 billion cocktail of public subsidies, including tax breaks and infrastructure improvements, to create a billionaires' playground.
by Katelin Penner via The Metropole on September 6, 2023
A walkway with walls covered in graffiti.

Graffiti Has Undergone a Massive Shift in a Few Quick Decades as Street Art Gains Social Acceptance

In the last decade, some graffiti writers have moved from outlaw taggers to sought-after artists.
by Stefano Bloch via The Conversation on June 20, 2023
Map illustrating legal erasure of roads in Fort Reno Park in 1943, following the clearance of a neighborhood.

Segregation by Eminent Domain

The Fifth Amendment allows the government to buy private property for the public good. "Public good" being the expansion of white neighborhoods.
by Matthew Wills, Mara Cherkasky, Athena V. Scott via JSTOR Daily on June 2, 2023
Donellia Chives, a trustee of Penn Center.

White Gold from Black Hands: The Gullah Geechee Fight for a Legacy after Slavery

Descendants of the west Africans who picked the cotton that made Manchester rich are struggling to keep their distinct culture alive.
by DeNeen L. Brown via The Guardian on March 30, 2023
Mexican American men standing near a mural and a low rider car in Chicago in 1987.

The Past and Future of Mexican Chicago

From the machine politicians in La Villita to the radicals in Pilsen, Mexican Chicagoans have played a central role in defining their city. 
by Juan Ignacio Mora via The Nation on January 10, 2023
Cartoon of several Chinese-Americans holding a sign that says, "Chinatown is Not For Sale"

Dynasty Center: Exclusion and Displacement in Los Angeles’s Chinatown

The original Los Angeles Chinatown, now known as “Old Chinatown,” developed in the 1860s.
by Jean Young via Folklife on October 24, 2022
Tilted, weathered headstone near a fallen tree in Copp's Hill Burying Ground.

The Forgotten Legacy of Boston’s Historic Black Graveyard

At one of Boston’s historical burial grounds, more than 1,000 Black Bostonians were laid to rest in unmarked graves. Their legacy continues to haunt us today.
by Dart Adams via Boston Magazine on May 3, 2022
Picture of an ornate door knocker.

What Historic Preservation Is Doing to American Cities

Laws meant to safeguard great buildings and neighborhoods can also present an obstacle to social progress.
by Jacob Anbinder via The Atlantic on May 2, 2022
A crowd watches a roller skater dance at block party in the Bronx.

The Stories of the Bronx

"Urban Legends: The South Bronx in Representation and Ruin" is a vibrant cultural history that looks beyond pervasive narratives of cultural renaissance and urban neglect.
by Emily Raboteau via New York Review of Books on March 17, 2022
Photograph of Robert Moses on a background collage of a blueprint and a photo of passengers waiting in Penn Station.

Robert Moses Helped Ruin Penn Station. He'd Have Made it Easier to Fix, Too.

Preservationists like Jane Jacobs are urbanist heroes. But their rules can stifle.
by Samuel Goldman via The Week on December 10, 2021
Protest sign with Daily News front page "Ford to City: Drop Dead"

New York City’s State of Permanent Crisis

How New Yorkers trying to ward off catastrophe paved the road to the privatized city.
by Nick Juravich via The Nation on October 14, 2021
The 1.25-million-square-foot USC Village residential complex in Los Angeles.

The Rise of the UniverCity

Historian Davarian Baldwin explains how universities have come to wield the kind of power that were once hallmarks of ruthless employers in company towns.
by Davarian L. Baldwin, Meagan Day via Jacobin on September 2, 2021
Boats moored in the water in front of a row of houses on the beach. Photo by Amani Willett.

Nantucket Doesn’t Belong to the Preppies

The island was once a place of working-class ingenuity and Black daring.
by Tiya Miles via The Atlantic on August 30, 2021
Pennsylvania Avenue

A City-State for The Nation

The fallout of the January 6th riot and its effect on D.C. statehood.
by Alan Lessoff via The Metropole on August 9, 2021
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