The Busiest Basement in Jackson Heights

New York Magazine, Feb 7 — t’s impossible to know exactly how many [mutual aid societies] New Yorkers started in 2020, when the labor market crashed and so many families found themselves cash-strapped with little hope of getting adequate public assistance. It’s also impossible to say precisely how many families avoided starvation or radical isolation because of the help that their neighbors provided. What we do know, though, is that hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions of New Yorkers, fared far better in the COVID crisis than they would have without the extraordinary rise and surprising resilience of mutual-aid societies. Today, as the city faces a different kind of emergency, New Yorkers are adapting and reassembling the groups they formed in 2020. The pandemic left the city worse off in so many ways, but the creation of organizations like O’Doherty-Naranjo’s is one lasting change for the better. These groups get little recognition — and little, if any, public funding — for the services they offer. Without them, though, the city would hardly function.

Face Mask Face-Offs

Public Culture, Feb 1 — In the United States, the COVID‐19 pandemic has proved to be especially destructive and divisive. One of the few things that has united Americans during the pandemic, however, is the experience of watching a new genre of viral videos—face mask face‐offs—that showcase citizens going toe‐to‐toe in public places because someone refuses to wear a mask. These videos are not mere political theater; they are replete with sociologically meaningful data about the nature of Americans’ cultural divisions. By closely analyzing recorded conflicts over collective coronavirus risks and individual freedoms in public settings, the authors identify six justifications for not wearing a mask. These justifications point to emerging cultural discourses and practices organized around phones that not only point to new ways for us to observe social life but participate in the reconfiguration of social life—and social conflict—itself.

On Our Own: Social Distance, Physical Loneliness, and Structural Isolation in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Social Problems, Feb 1 — The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic were defined by distance and isolation, raising concerns about widespread loneliness. Drawing on 55 in-depth interviews with residents of New York City who lived alone during the first wave of the pandemic, this article examines the experience of living alone and dealing with loneliness during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking: What are the specific aspects of being or feeling alone that cause distress?

The Seas Are Rising. Could Oysters Help?

The New Yorker, Feb 1 — How a landscape architect is enlisting nature to defend our coastal cities against climate change—and doing it on the cheap.

We Need Social Solidarity, Not Just Social Distancing

New York Times, Feb 1 — To combat the coronavirus, Americans need to do more than secure their own safety.

American Punishment

New York Times Book Review, Mar 12 — *An American Summer* is a powerful indictment of a city and a nation that have failed to protect their most vulnerable residents, or to register the depth of their pain. It is also a case study in the constraints of a purely narrative approach to the problems of inequality and social suffering.

Palaces for the People: Why Libraries Are More Than Just Books

The Guardian, Sep 24 — Libraries are not the kinds of institutions that most social scientists, policymakers, and community leaders usually bring up when they discuss social capital and how to build it. But they offer something for everyone, regardless of whether they’re a citizen, a permanent resident, or even a convicted felon – and all of it for free.

America’s Social Infrastructure is Falling Apart, and It’s Hurting Democracy

The Atlantic, Sep 20 — For decades, we’ve neglected the shared spaces that shape our interactions. The consequences of that neglect may be less visible than crumbling bridges and ports, but they’re no less dire.

To Restore Civil Society, Start With the Library

The New York Times, Sep 11 — This crucial institution is being neglected just when we need it the most.

The Other Side of “Breaking Windows”

The New Yorker, Aug 24 — Place-based interventions are far more likely to succeed than people-based ones. What if vacant property received the attention that, for decades, has been showered on petty crime?

Puerto Rico’s Actual Death Toll

New York Times , May 31 — On his visit to Puerto Rico, Mr. Trump witnessed the physical devastation and human suffering in person. He extended his hand, not to help those in need, but rather to pat himself on the back. Every day since then, he and Congress have chosen to ignore the carnage in Puerto Rico. Some of that blood is on their hands.

Want to Survive Climate Change? You’ll Need a Good Community

WIRED, May 31 — Just as the temperature of a heat wave, the height of a storm surge, or the thickness of a levee, it’s the strength of a neighborhood that determines who lives and who dies in a disaster. Building against climate change can either support vibrant neighborhood conditions or undermine them. We know how to do both.

Air-Conditioning Will Be the End of Us

TIME, Jul 17 — Trying to engineer hot weather out of existence rather than adjust our culture of consumption for the age of climate change is one of our biggest environmental blind spots. If you can’t stand the heat, you should know that blasting the AC will ultimately make us all even hotter. Let’s put our air conditioners on ice before it’s too late.

How the Government Saved Lives in Moore, Oklahoma

The New Yorker, May 28 — The United States invests far more in disaster recovery than in preparing for disasters by designing and creating more resilient buildings and infrastructure. As a consequence, we are trapped in a cycle of repeatedly rebuilding shoddy systems in predictably dangerous places.

The Digital Divide in Emergency Management

Spark, Apr 17 — Weather-related disasters are growing more common and more extreme, yet we’ve failed to update our emergency communications system for the challenge. According to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), more than one-third of all U.S. households have no landline, and in cities the proportion of residents who’ve abandoned landlines for mobile phones is even higher. But Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have failed to require the mobile phone industry to ensure that they have protocols for maintaining and restoring service during outages.

Vivre Seul, Mais Pas Solitaire

Le Monde Diplomatique, Feb 28 — The main themes of Going Solo, in French.

Adaptation: Can Cities Be Climate-Proofed?

The New Yorker, Jan 25 — For the past decade and a half, governments around the world have been investing in elaborate plans to “climate-proof” their cities—protecting people, businesses, and critical infrastructure against weather-related calamities. Much of this work involves upgrading what engineers call “lifeline systems”: the network infrastructure for power, transit, and communications, which are crucial in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. Some of the solutions are capital-intensive and high-tech; some are low- or no-tech approaches, such as organizing communities so that residents know which of their neighbors are vulnerable and how to assist them. Even if we managed to stop increasing global carbon emissions tomorrow, we would probably experience several centuries of additional warming, rising sea levels, and more frequent dangerous weather events. If our cities are to survive, we have no choice but to adapt.

Is it Hot Enough For Ya?

New York Times, Aug 29 — Climate change is hardly a seasonal issue, but summer is the only time of year when Americans and the news media regularly fix their attention on the everyday heat emergency that’s already altering life on our planet.

Who Can Solve the Aging Boomers Crisis? Boomers

TIME , May 8 — As the number of Americans over age 65 grows dramatically, it’s time to create affordable housing solutions for senior citizens.

Facebook Isn’t Making Us Lonely

Slate, Apr 20 — How the recent Atlantic cover story manufactures the myth of American loneliness.

The Rise and Rise of Solo Live: A Forum

The Guardian, Apr 1 — The number of people living alone has skyrocketed. What is driving the phenomenon? An essay by Eric Klinenberg, and solo dwellers Colm Tóibín, Alex Zane, Carmen Calli and others reflect on life as a singleton.

TIME’s #1 Idea That is Changing Your Life: Living Alone Is The New Norm

Time, Mar 12 — The extraordinary rise of solitary living is the biggest social change that we've neglected to identify, let alone examine. Consider that in 1950, a mere 4 million Americans lived alone, and they made up only 9% of households. Back then, going solo was most common in the open, sprawling Western states--Alaska, Montana and Nevada--that attracted migrant workingmen, and it was usually a short-lived stage on the road to a more conventional domestic life.

Going Solo: Understanding the appeal of the solitary life

The Today Show, Mar 7 — In the beginning of the Old Testament, God creates the world one day at a time: The heavens and the earth. Water. Light. Day and night. Living species of every kind. After each creation, God declares: “It is good.” But the tone changes when God makes Adam. Suddenly, God pronounces the first thing that is not good, lo tov: “It is not good that the man should be alone.” So God makes Eve, and Adam is no longer on his own.

Will Singles & Singletons Cut the Cord?

Wired, Mar 1 — More people live alone today than at any point in recorded history, in absolute numbers and proportionately, too. Until the 1950s, it was impossible to find a single human society that sustained large numbers of singletons (my term for people who live alone) for long periods of time. Today, living alone is common wherever there’s a market economy, a welfare state, and women’s rights.

Songs for Going Solo

Rolling Stone, Feb 14 — There have been a lot of big cultural changes since the Sixties, and no one has covered them like Rolling Stone. But some changes escape the eyes of even the most perceptive observers. We recognize them only in retrospect, and once we do we suddenly realize that artists – especially musicians – were not merely seeing the revolution, but expressing them from the very start. Often, we were even singing along!

Swing–State Singles: How Unmarried Voters Could Decide the Election

The Daily Beast, Feb 11 — Unmarried voters played a decisive role in 2008, and four years later there are even more of them. Eric Klinenberg on how the candidates can court this up-for-grabs demographic.

One’s a Crowd

The New York Times, Feb 4 — More people live alone now than at any other time in history. In prosperous American cities — Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis — 40 percent or more of all households contain a single occupant. In Manhattan and in Washington, nearly one in two households are occupied by a single person.

Solo Nation: American Consumers Stay Single

Fortune, Jan 25 — A record number of people in the U.S. now live by themselves -- and they spend $1.9 trillion a year. Businesses are beginning to take notice.

Home Alone: Plot Without a Story

This American Life, Dec 21 — Mary Ann was an elderly woman living by herself in Los Angeles County. She wasn't married, didn't have children, wasn't in touch with any of her family. When she became sick and went to the hospital, the only contact she had was Sue, the woman who delivered her prescriptions from the pharmacy. Then, Mary Ann died. There was a body to be buried, a house full of stuff to get rid of — but no family or friends to deal with it all. Luckily, there was Emily, an investigator for the Los Angeles Public Administrator's Office. It's her job to take care of the remains of lives like Mary Ann's.