The Occupiers: The Making of the 99 Percent Movement by Michael Gould-Wartofsky was a difficult book to review. In the three years since Occupy Wall Street, I have struggled with reconciling the energy of that period, which has never been replicated during my years of activism, with the failure of OWS to advance the causes…
When New York’s all-black 369th Infantry Regiment set off to fight in World War I, they were men without rights at home or in the military, sent on a mission to “make the world safe for democracy.” One could have forgiven them for serving with cynicism. Instead, they were some of the most decorated and accomplished American soldiers…
This year Presidents’ Day comes on the heels of the coldest night of the winter, a fitting time to remember that one of our favorite president’s, Teddy Roosevelt, once kicked thousands of homeless people into the streets. The story begins with Jacob Riis and his puppy. Riis is best known for his photo essay, How…
The all-important topics of real estate power and affordable housing in New York City have spawned a thousand academic treatises and nonprofit reports but not many readable explainers for the lay public. Housing is a messy, complicated topic that features a quadrennial showdown in which policy buffs throw around acronyms like confetti. Enter artist and…
Dear Janos.nyc readers, The last month has been incredibly exciting. The site’s content has been well received, and last week we held a successful fundraiser. This endeavor is incredibly rewarding, but it needs support. We currently have an Indiegogo campaign going until Wednesday. If you can find the time between now and then to contribute $10 or…
“This is the most gloomy period which New York has ever known. The number of failures is so great daily that I do not keep a record of them, even in my mind.” – Philip Hone New York City was on rough times in the 1830s, visited in succession by plague, fire and famine. In 1832, nearly…
In honor of this weekend’s NBA All-Star Weekend being played in New York City, the NBA has put together an amazing map of New York City basketball legends. These are New York City’s greatest. I’ve taken the list and put together a team for the ages. No Knicks are on this team unless they grew…
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…
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