New York City

How Debt Collectors Ruin Lives

How Debt Collectors Ruin Lives How Debt Collectors Ruin Lives

They can dock your pay and ruin your credit—and the industry has only grown in recent years.

Dec 2, 2015 / Michelle Chen

Linda Rosenkrantz with her tape recorder, 1965.

Real, Realist, Realistic, and False Real, Realist, Realistic, and False

Linda Rosenkrantz’s 1968 quasi-novel Talk reminds us that wry self-awareness and anxious fragility are hardly millennial inventions.

Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Becca Rothfeld

A photograph from the “Portraits of Hunger in NYC” exhibition features four-year-old Brandon, whose family makes a four-mile round trip to collect food at two Queens food pantries.

Thanksgiving Is Almost Here, and Over a Million New Yorkers Might Go Hungry Thanksgiving Is Almost Here, and Over a Million New Yorkers Might Go Hungry

The latest statistics on hunger in the city tells the proverbial Tale of Two Cities as a Tale of Two Pantries.

Nov 23, 2015 / Michelle Chen

November 23, 1876: Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall Is Taken Into Custody by the New York Police

November 23, 1876: Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall Is Taken Into Custody by the New York Police November 23, 1876: Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall Is Taken Into Custody by the New York Police

“A villain of more brains would have had a modest dwelling and would have guzzled in secret.”

Nov 23, 2015 / 150th Anniversary / Richard Kreitner

Workers rally for a living wage in New York City, Nov. 11, 2015.

Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour Almost Half of All American Workers Make Less Than $15 an Hour

Three years after the first #FightFor15 strike, workers nationwide rallied again yesterday for living wages and union rights.

Nov 11, 2015 / Michelle Chen

How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC’s Justice System

How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC’s Justice System How an Unusual Team Helps Extricate Bronx Residents From NYC’s Justice System

The Bronx Defenders do more than go to court.

Nov 9, 2015 / Hélène Barthélemy

What Happens When Old Prisons Are Given Back to Their Communities?

What Happens When Old Prisons Are Given Back to Their Communities? What Happens When Old Prisons Are Given Back to Their Communities?

As New York State begins closing prisons, some are being sold to the highest bidder—but some are becoming sites of social change.

Oct 29, 2015 / Victoria Law

Minimum Wage Rally

How to Build the Movement for Progressive Power, the Urban Way How to Build the Movement for Progressive Power, the Urban Way

Four local politicians share their ideas for humanizing the “gig economy,” reforming the police, protecting immigrant rights, and solving the municipal budget crisis.

Oct 27, 2015 / Cities Rising / John Avalos, Brad Lander, Antonio Reynoso, and Scott Waguespack

How a Gentrification Scam Threatens New York’s Community Gardens

How a Gentrification Scam Threatens New York’s Community Gardens How a Gentrification Scam Threatens New York’s Community Gardens

Shady developers know one easy way to build luxury condos: Claim ownership of communal land.

Oct 20, 2015 / Feature / DW Gibson

Workers protest outside a B&H store in New York.

Workers Fight Back Against Racism, Wage Theft, Toxic Hazards, and Chronic Overwork at Brooklyn B&H Warehouse Workers Fight Back Against Racism, Wage Theft, Toxic Hazards, and Chronic Overwork at Brooklyn B&H Warehouse

The vintage retailer’s mom-and-pop branding doesn’t immunize it from the structural bias and exploitation pervading low-wage logistics work.

Oct 16, 2015 / Michelle Chen

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