I went to the Conflux Festival on Saturday morning and attended a talk by Matt Knutzen entitled Rebuilding the Historical City. Matt’s a cartographer working at the NYPL and he was explaining a new tool they’ve built – and the Very Big Idea behind the tool. The NYPL has over 60,000 maps of NYC in… Continue reading Mapping the City
Category: History
Not Much of a Return
I was walking around the neighbourhood the other day when a historic plaque caught my eye: …the workingmen’s cottages on Warren Place were among the first planned low-income housing in the nation when they were built in the late 1870’s. At that time, rent for a four-room apartment was $1.93 per week. Wow! $1.93 a… Continue reading Not Much of a Return
Couldn’t Happen Here
If you know me, you might know that I spent my last year of college in Germany. I’ve always had a curious fascination with the place: it’s a nation that didn’t exist until the late 19th century and then spent the first half of the 20th century trying to take over the world-and committing moral… Continue reading Couldn’t Happen Here
Nowhereland
I’ve always had a perverse interest in how humans simply abandon things. We’re definitely the only species that covet objects and then abandon them as soon as our internal calculus judges them to be no longer valuable. I’m not talking about no longer wanting your old plates or bicycle, rather the fact that we construct… Continue reading Nowhereland
Changing Times
I just finished reading John McPhee‘s Oranges. It’s a fascinating book (and an easy read at 149 pages). One of the interesting passages concerns Indian River, Florida. Indian River is where the best oranges in Florida come from (they commanded a $1/box premium in the Northeast – and that was in the 1960s). It’s also… Continue reading Changing Times