Urbanism Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/urbanism/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:17:02 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Urbanism Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/urbanism/ 32 32 When NYC Invented Modern Policing: Emily Brooks on WWII–Era Surveillance and Discrimination https://www.publicbooks.org/when-nyc-invented-modern-policing-emily-brooks-on-wwii-era-surveillance-and-discrimination/ Tue, 02 Apr 2024 15:00:24 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=55731 “I often think how much better off we would be if there were more free recreational activities for youth that were not nested under the carceral sphere.”

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]]> “We Want More Housing, but How?” Talking with Max Holleran https://www.publicbooks.org/we-want-more-housing-but-how-talking-with-max-holleran/ Tue, 30 May 2023 15:00:24 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=52394 “There are a lot of basic things that America has still not accepted in terms of how to live a happy urban life.”

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]]> Nonprofit Neighborhoods: How Not to Fight Poverty https://www.publicbooks.org/how-community-participation-failed/ Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:00:26 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=51858 Wishing to end poverty “wherever it existed,” LBJ acted not with government aid, but with a non-profit. The results have been catastrophic.

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]]> Milwaukee Socialists’ Triumph & Global Impact https://www.publicbooks.org/milwaukee-socialists-triumph-global-impact/ Wed, 05 Apr 2023 15:00:34 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=51844 In 1910, the new mayor didn’t promise speed, but pledged “to do all our limited means permit to make Milwaukee a better place for every citizen.”

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]]> The New Geography of the Carceral State https://www.publicbooks.org/carceral-state-punishing-places-jessica-simes/ Wed, 21 Sep 2022 15:00:11 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=50028 As the urban poor are displaced to metropolitan peripheries, policing and punishment have become more suburban.

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]]> Living with the Future in South Asia https://www.publicbooks.org/modernist-architecture-heritage-south-asia-pragati-maidan/ Wed, 11 May 2022 15:00:24 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=48562 For decades, South Asian architecture was impelled by the promise of a new society after empire. Now, such buildings are being demolished.

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]]> Why Renters Fought NYC’s Push for Ownership https://www.publicbooks.org/why-renters-fought-nycs-push-for-ownership/ Thu, 28 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=48414 “Doesn’t every New Yorker really want to own a co-op?,” a realtor asked a crowd of tenants in 1972. But this provoked only “a chorus of noes.”

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]]> Public Thinker: Sophie Gonick on Housing Justice and Mass Movements https://www.publicbooks.org/sophie-gonick-on-housing-justice-and-mass-movements/ Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:00:36 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=48317 “As often the most vulnerable in our cities, immigrants face struggles that reflect the wider landscape of housing precarity.”

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]]> Can We Repair the Past? https://www.publicbooks.org/plunder-menachem-kaiser-on-property-reparations-poland/ Tue, 29 Mar 2022 15:00:31 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=48006 For the righting of historical wrongs, to simply transfer property continues to perpetuate violence. True reparations require far more work.

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]]> Is “Regulation from Below” Possible? https://www.publicbooks.org/community-organizing-and-financialization-of-housing/ Tue, 22 Mar 2022 15:00:45 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=47874 A powerful grassroots movement campaigned in the ’70s and ’80s for banks to reinvest equitably in red-lined urban communities. It failed—but why?

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