In case you’ve been wondering about the slightly diminished output at Janos.nyc during the past few weeks, let me lay it on you: I’m getting married Saturday! Planning an awesome wedding is a lot of work, with seemingly infinite moving parts, but in 48 hours it’s finally going down. After the wedding we’ll be taking…
This piece originally appeared in The Brooklyn Quarterly. As a national debate takes shape around how America has failed segregated inner-city communities like those in Baltimore, a quiet but historic debate is taking place in the Supreme Court over the constitutionality of the most powerful anti-segregation tool in history: the Fair Housing Act. Since the Fair…
Police riot, they want a riot, police riot, a riot of their own! Why should civilians have all the fun? On June 16, 1857, two rival police squads clashed at City Hall: the Municipals, under the command of the notorious Mayor Fernando Wood, and the Metropolitans, acting under the authority of the state. Fernando Wood…
Until the events of September 11th, the sinking of the General Slocum was the responsible for the largest loss of life in New York City. The tragedy forever changed the composition of the Lower East Side. Yet, a 111 years later, it has largely receded from city memory. On June 15, 1904 (oddly enough, a…
In New York City everyone charges around with important things to do all day, and individual tragedies rarely seep into our lives. Few stories, however, are more moving than the suicide of Kalief Browder, the 22-year old who never recovered from the physical and psychological brutalization he suffered during three years on Rikers Island awaiting…
The Clash have been my favorite band since high school. Their fourth album, Sandinista!, is not only my favorite album, it is also Mayor Bill de Blasio’s favorite. According to Bill, the Clash are blasting through the walls of Gracie Mansion these days, as young Dante de Blasio has discovered “the only band that matters” for…
Across the United States, the power of organized labor has been largely diminished, but in New York City, unions remain relevant, throwing their muscle behind campaigns and driving public policy. Even here, however, labor has receded from its high-water mark, a moment that labor historian Joshua Freeman believes took place on June 8, 1971. Political griping about the cost…
According to psychologists Paul Piff and Dacher Keltner, when humans experience the “wonder and beauty of the world around them,” they are more generous to strangers; people feeling awe are more willing to appreciate our collective humanity. We obviously need more awe in New York politics, where we are stuck with small men and small ideas.…
(This is a guest piece by Jon Reznick, who is doing extremely innovative work following the money in New York politics.) New York fast approaches its six month milestone in the festival of Preetmas — the celebration of public corruption indictments that began in earnest with the arrest of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Democrat,…
New Amsterdam in the early 1640s was a mess. Trash was strewn about the muddy streets, drunken sailors and farm animals ambled about, and New Netherland’s small population was huddled up in Manhattan after a bruising war against local Native American tribes. Enter Peter Stuyvesant. On May 27, 1647, he took over as Director General…
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