"On a good day, the street maintenance team tasked by the New York City Department of Transportation with roadway repair might fill 4,000 potholes in eight hours. In an average week, they could resurface 100,000 square yards of road. After Hurricane Sandy, their crews removed 2,500 tons of debris. And every day, on a Tumblr called
The Daily Pothole, New Yorkers can take a peek inside the workings of a city system few have likely thought about." Storyboard:
A Day with New York City’s Pothole Repair Crew. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jan 2, 2013 -
8 comments
Lets Swim To Work! "Centuries of boat traffic, heavy industry, sewage runoff and toxic dumping have ingrained in us the idea that urban waterways are not places for people. Even as cities have rushed to the water’s edge over the past couple of decades, building elaborate waterfront parks and esplanades, few have taken the next logical step: encouraging residents to dive in."
[more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns
on Nov 23, 2012 -
42 comments
Ephemeral New York 'chronicles an ever-changing, constantly reinvented city through photos, newspaper archives, and other scraps and artifacts that have been edged into New York’s collective remainder bin.'
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 11, 2012 -
5 comments
In the 1960's, 70's and 80's, urban decay and high crime rates caused retail chain supermarkets to
flee New York City.
(google books link) Korean immigrants filled the gap with corner grocery stores. For nearly two decades they were ubiquitous -- symbols of the group's ongoing quest to achieve the American Dream. But 30 years later,
Where Did The Korean Greengrocers Go? [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jan 18, 2011 -
19 comments
Ballerina Project — Nine years ago, young photographer
Dane Shitagi walked up New York City’s Broadway towards the highly patronized and well known
STEPS dance studios in search of a ballet dancer who could help him begin his project: to capture images of ballerinas in urban environments. Those images first started appearing on Blogspot, but have since migrated to
Facebook. [
via]
posted by netbros
on Dec 10, 2010 -
9 comments
Are you a young middle-class creative type (probably white) who has chosen to live in an urban neighborhood that your parents would have shunned? Have the families that formerly lived in your neighborhood (probably not white) been pushed out by soaring rents and real-estate prices to the city fringes or suburbs? The
New Republic on
demographic inversion.
posted by digaman
on Aug 2, 2008 -
64 comments
Assorted Street Posters -
"This collection of street posters, mad scribblings, political screeds, religious rants, and paranoid raves was collected on the streets of New York City from 1985 to the present. Some time ago, it occurred to me that the streets are as full of art as, say, thrift shops are full of great paintings. . ." (via cmonkey via undule) (this is my 7th post please be gentle)
posted by neckro23
on Dec 8, 2004 -
12 comments
Harlem 1900-1940, a site full of pictures and history.
The scope of this portfolio is Harlem from the years 1900-1940. Various elements of the history of the urban experience in Harlem's early days as the Cultural Capital of African Americans are represented here by graphic and photographic images from the Schomburg Center collection.
posted by Ufez Jones
on Sep 8, 2003 -
3 comments
Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll
right to get to the thumbnails.)
posted by BT
on Apr 3, 2002 -
8 comments
"Britney Underground takes you on a tour of poignant urban artistry in a time of crisis." it's a
nice collection of graffti from britney spears posters in new york, pretty funny. the
negative emails are possibly the highlight.
posted by rhyax
on Mar 16, 2002 -
10 comments
