SEEING THE CITY: 2025

Last night, instead of working on my long list of readings and assignments like I’d planned, I found myself reminiscing about a time that...

My neighborhood, Crown Heights, Brooklyn was once the scene of four days of riots between Black and Jewish residents in 1991 that...

The image above this text displays two very different sides of New York City. On the right is the wealthy and iconic Upper East Side....

A dry hush lays over Court Street. Cars go up and down through the city's center, but it seems as if everything is stagnant, stuck in...

As someone born and raised in Jinan, this city is no longer just an initial amazement to me—it has become a deep-seated familiarity and...

I’d never been more compelled to reflect on the city I’m from than when suddenly confronted with the thought of its destruction. Los...

Even though I live in the suburban area of Shanghai, I can never resist a late morning brunch on Wukang Rd on a Sunday morning. Sitting...

I've always found Baltimore to be a city of contradictions—charming, yes, but with a rawness that can't be ignored. It's the kind of...

When I moved back after 13 years, Seoul did not feel like home. The city almost seemed cold and soulless. The way people talked, acted,...

This past summer of 2024 I had the good fortune of visiting Singapore, a city-state that challenged my notions of what is possible in a...

When I first arrived in Hong Kong at the age of six, Kowloon seemed like a completely different world. The constant noise, the crowds,...

Downtown Hartford Before and After Highway Construction `Despite only growing up about a 30-minute drive away from Hartford, I only...

Montreal has always fascinated me. My connection to the city comes from my father who was born and raised there before moving to New York...

My relationship with Baltimore first started in the car in 2020. Before that, the city was a foreign place to me. It was a concrete...

The famous skyline, Times Square's neon lights, the city's unrelenting vitality, and the countless food and cultural options are all...

From sunlight streaming through drooping, wind-blown branches of the hundred-year-old willow in our neighborhood park to neon lettering...

When people ask me where I’m from, I make it a point to emphasize that I do not live in Chicago, but 25 minutes north of it.  I was born...

It’s hard to think of a good reason one would be a tourist in Novovolynsk. This remote town in the West of Ukraine can be new only to...

At the age of 12, I began to take the train which would shape my relationship with the city in ways I never expected. My mother could no...

Every New Yorker who’s been living there their whole life has felt the desire to leave at least once. I’ve felt it countless times. It’s...