How radical gardeners took back New York City

New York City looked a lot different in the 1960s and 1970s. A sharp economic decline and white flight meant there was mass disinvestment and urban decay, particularly in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods.
 

How this New York island became a mass grave

 Hart Island, a small piece of land off the Bronx in New York City, resurfaced in national headlines in April 2020, when New York City was the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic. News footage of the island’s cemetery showed trenches being filled with pine coffins, and sent shockwaves around the world. But these mass burials taking place during the pandemic are just the most recent in Hart Island’s long history.

New York City rich and poor - the inequality crisis |

 

Even before COVID-19, New York was already defined by a gap between the rich and poor. Yet during the pandemic, wealth has become a determinant of survival.

Inside the George Floyd protests in New York: 'we are not the problem'

The police killing of George Floyd continues to ignite protests across the US. On 2 June, the Guardian embedded with activists as they marched through New York City to voice their outrage at Floyd's death and the systematic racism that enabled it

Tale of two cities: How San Francisco is flattening the curve while NYC becomes a global coronavirus epicentre

Two of America's most popular cities had notably different approaches to the coronavirus. The outcomes are now being seen

Danielle Zoellner @dani__zoellner

Two weeks into social distancing and early data has indicated San Francisco's coronavirus curve could be flattening.

Prior to the regulations, the Bay Area officials were concerned with how Covid-19 infections would impact the community.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and five mayors in the surrounding Bay Area issued a stay-at-home order on 16 March in response to concerns, an unprecedented move at the time. Then California Governor Gavin Newsom quickly followed his city mayors by ordering a statewide state-at-home order to the nearly 40m residents.

In New York, by comparison, the current US epicentre for the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo waited to issue a stay-at-home order. It went into effect almost a week later on 22 March. This order was in partnership with Connecticut and New Jersey to help combat the spread of the virus.

US deemed next Coronavirus epicenter, agrees on $2 trillion dollar stimulus package | Corona Update

The coronavirus outbreak in New York City in the US is so severe that White House officials have called on anyone who has recently left the city to self-isolate for two weeks. More than 15-thousand cases have been confirmed in New York, and around 200 deaths. It's been in lockdown since Sunday, and state officials are pleading for help, but preparing for the worst. US lawmakers have agreed a 2 Trillion dollar stimulus package.

Ladies And Gentlemen Welcome To The 2020 Hunger Games

With Donald Trump as President Snow and Mike Pence is your game maker.
May the odds be ever in your favour.

The lost neighborhood under New York's Central Park

It’s a story that goes back to the 1820s, when that part of New York was largely open countryside. Soon it became home to about 1,600 people. Among them was a predominantly black community that bought up affordable plots to build homes, churches and a school. It became known as Seneca Village. And when Irish and German immigrants moved in, it became a rare example at the time of an integrated neighborhood. Everything changed on July 21, 1853. New York took control of the land to create what would become the first major landscaped park in the US -- they called it “The Central Park.”

hy protected bike lanes are more valuable than parking spaces

America's first parking-protected bike lane came to New York City in 2007. Here's what happened next.

When Janette Sadik-Khan was hired as chief transportation official for New York City in 2007, she took a page out of Denmark’s playbook and created America’s first parking-protected bike lane, right in the middle of downtown Manhattan. A parking protected bike lane created a buffer between the traffic of cars, trucks and buses and cyclists. But it also eliminated parking spots. The protected lanes didn't just make the streets safer for those on bikes; they also improved traffic flow for vehicles and spurred increased retail sales for businesses nearby.

How rats take advantage of human failure

It's estimated that there are over 2 million rats in New York City alone. They often carry infectious diseases like E. Coli and Salmonella and gnaw on infrastructure, causing billions of dollars in damage every year. But is any of this the rat's fault? Rodentologist Bobby Corrigan says that rats can only succeed in the midst of human failure. If we were smarter mammals, better at disposing our trash and taking care of our infrastructure, then we wouldn't have to worry about rats in our cities.

How the NY Times & U.S. Government Worked Together to Suppress James Risen’s Post-9/11 Reporting