Few conversations about New York City spark more heated debate than the redevelopment of Times Square. For some, it symbolized the death of New York City’s soul, the beginning of a corporate, stale, Disneyfied city. For others, it was a rebirth, a defiant reversal of the downward spiral that had unleashed crime and middle-class flight through Gotham. This…
How would New York look if no one picked up the trash for nine days? New Yorker found the answer to that grisly question during a dramatic 1968 strike by the City’s sanitation workers. The nastiest strike in City history wasn’t really supposed to happen. The Uniform Sanitationmen’s Association (“USA”) had been working for six months without a…
This weekend I plowed through Graham Rayman’s NYPD Tapes, one of the most startling and gripping nonfiction books I have read in a very long time. It is the story of Adrian Schoolcraft, a police officer who spent two years collecting evidence of rampant fraud in the NYPD, only to suffer astonishing retaliation, including a…
Photo courtesy of BlackTopXChange. Happy Black Fives Day! On February 10, 2013, Mayor Bloomberg issued a proclamation celebrating the legendary black basketball teams that paved the way for today’s stars, even as they faced terrible segregation in their own time. Though black fives (so named for the number of players on the teams) abounded throughout…
Ever wonder why New York’s politicians freak out over snowstorms? The blizzard of 1969 not only paralyzed New York City for three days, but it nearly ended Mayor John Lindsay’s political career. February 9, 1969 was supposed to be a gloomy but quiet Sunday, with a forecast for slushy rain. Instead, an unprepared and disorganized mayoral administration…
(Amy is an artist and housing activist posting for the first time at Janos.nyc) During this Tuesday’s State of the City speech, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a 2.0 upgrade to his ten-year affordable housing plan, Housing New York, released last spring. One interesting feature is his goal to “provide 1,500 units of live/work housing…
Normally we don’t associate tugboats with disruption and chaos, but at a time when New York City’s shipping industry was king, the Tugboat Strike of 1946 threw the City into turmoil. The strike began February 4, and by the time it was over, it had brought the City to its knees. After World War II,…
The roaring 20s were a great time to drive taxis in New York City, but the industry suffered during the Great Depression. The driver market was flooded with desperate men looking for work just as the rest of the population was seriously cutting back on expenses. Taxi salaries plummeted, and drivers’ frustration boiled into a strike. On February…
New York City’s simmering racial tensions periodically erupt after traumatic events like the death of Eric Garner. On February 4, 1999, policemen fired 41 shots at Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo in a case of mistaken identity. The event shook the City, becoming a turning point in public sentiment towards Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s aggressive policing strategy. Not…
In honoring the civil rights movement, we sometimes forget the battles that took place in northern cities like New York. On February 3, 1964, the Rev. Milton Galamison led the largest student boycott in the history of the New York City public school system, with 464,361 students staying home to fight for the end of school segregation.…
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