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Urban Matters

Our weekly journal of ideas and opinion

New Yorkers have a long and proud tradition of striving to create what Robert Kennedy called “communities of security, achievement, and dignity.”

That’s precisely the goal of our weekly journal of insights and ideas: Urban Matters. Its goal: to identify fixable problems and practicable solutions – arising from the streets of New York.

Latest Urban Matters

All Urban Matters

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Urban Matters
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Zoning Created a Housing Crisis. Can Zoning Also Fix It?

Adding new housing stabilizes rents and reduces homelessness.

Leah Rothstein
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April 10, 2024
Urban Matters
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Ending Stratified Education And Fostering Joy in Learning

An exploration of the nation’s “billion-dollar problem” with standardized testing.

Tanishia Lavette Williams
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April 3, 2024
Urban Matters
Economic and Fiscal Policy
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How City and State Leaders Can Meet the Child Care Crisis

Emergency Covid relief funds eased pressure on families and child care providers. That’s not an option anymore. Now what?

Lauren Melodia
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March 27, 2024
Urban Matters
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It’s Time to Fix New York’s Paid Medical Leave Program It’s Time to Fix New York’s Paid Medical Leave Program

The maximum benefit to workers hasn’t been changed since 1989. It’s $170 a week.

Sherry Leiwant
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March 20, 2024
Urban Matters
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Why Child Welfare Needs A Reckoning and Transformation

Necessary change also necessarily requires some painful realizations.

Kimberly Watson
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March 13, 2024
Urban Matters
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Why ‘Rental Assistance Is Crucial’ to Make NYC Housing Affordable

If rents covered only basic maintenance costs – and generated zero profits – they’d still be unaffordable for impoverished New Yorkers.

Alex Schwartz
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March 6, 2024
Urban Matters
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A 'Shocker' Housing Report, And What It Means for New Yorkers

New York City’s housing market is getting tighter – and new construction alone won’t solve the affordability crunch.

Alex Schwartz
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February 28, 2024
Urban Matters
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The City Wants Lower Insurance Costs. It Needs a Basic Rethink.

Cut health insurance spending by 10 percent without imposing premiums or reducing benefits? Good luck with that.

Barbara Caress
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February 21, 2024
Urban Matters
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Wisdom, Sacrifice, Resilience: How Black Elders Strengthen Community Mental Health

Researchers stress the value of heeding the example and accepting the knowledge of a powerful collective voice.

Dr. Ebony Dix
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February 14, 2024
Urban Matters
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Why the Working-Longer Consensus Doesn’t Work

America’s retirement policy rests on dangerous myths about working through old age. It’s time for sweeping change.

Teresa Ghilarducci
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February 7, 2024
Urban Matters
Education
FAFSA
It Was Supposed to Make Getting College Aid Simpler. It Hasn’t.

How a reform of the college aid application process that started with good intentions has, so far, fallen short.

Kim Nauer
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January 31, 2024
Urban Matters
Economic and Fiscal Policy
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Not Enough Budget Sun in Albany, With Lingering Clouds at City Hall

A tale of two budgets, as State and City leaders reveal spending plans for the year ahead.

James A. Parrott
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January 24, 2024
Urban Matters
Economic and Fiscal Policy
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Unemployment Is Coming Down – But Not as Much for Older Workers

Older workers make up a growing share of the discouraged long-term unemployed who have given up actively hunting for work.

Drystan Phillips
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January 10, 2024
Urban Matters
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The Difference We Make – Together

A year-end message from the executive director of the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

Kristin Morse
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December 20, 2023
Urban Matters
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2023 Fiction and Poetry From The New School Community

Tales of intimate heartbreak, sustaining love, sharing Covid lockdown with a lively parrot, and more.

Laura Leiker and Bruce Cory
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December 13, 2023
Urban Matters
Education
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Caught Between a PEG and a Cliff, How Much Will Education Programs Shrink?

Early childhood education and summer enrichment programs could be the biggest losers.

George Sweeting
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December 6, 2023
Urban Matters
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Great 2023 Nonfiction From The New School Community

The meaning of fake hair, the long, strange trip of the Sun Ra Arkestra, a kids’ guide to knowing and cooking pasta, and more.

Laura Leiker and Bruce Cory
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November 29, 2023
Urban Matters
Education
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Do the Math: As the Budget Ax Falls, NYC Schools Face Major New Costs

Successive rounds of budget cuts will hit the schools, even as the clock counts down on a costly requirement to reduce classroom sizes.

George Sweeting
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November 21, 2023
Urban Matters
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Camera in Hand, Bringing a ‘Mash-up’ Borough into Focus

A new book of stunning photos captures the extraordinary everyday life of Queens.

Joseph Heathcott
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November 15, 2023
Urban Matters
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Is ‘Flexible Co-Living’ in Store For NYC’s Empty Office Space?

Here’s a case for making communal living an answer to the city’s housing crunch and an antidote to a vacant commercial property doom loop.

Grace Rauh
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November 8, 2023
Urban Matters
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How to Reduce New York’s Persistent Gender Pay Gap

Progress toward pay equity in the city has stalled in recent years. Here’s a strategy for moving things forward again.

Sharon Sewell-Fairman
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November 1, 2023
Urban Matters
Children and Families
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Let’s End Child Protection Reporting as We Know It.

Ending mandated reporting is an essential step toward creating trust with service providers and an alternative system to assist families, the author argues.

Jane M. Spinak
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October 25, 2023
Urban Matters
Education
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Calm Before the Budget Storm: The Uncertain Outlook for City Schools

Lately, it’s been smooth sailing for New York City public schools – but the outlook is for some rough seas ahead.

George Sweeting
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October 18, 2023
Urban Matters
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Leveraging Artificial Intelligence To Raise the Urban ‘Climate IQ’

The New School’s Urban Systems Lab launches an ambitious three-year project to democratize climate risk planning information on a global scale.

Bruce Cory
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October 11, 2023
Urban Matters
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As Organic Recycling Grows, Let’s Maximize Its Benefits for Everyone As Organic Recycling Grows, Let’s Maximize Its Benefits for Everyone

Citywide curbside collection is moving forward. Now let’s focus on participation, composting, and waste reduction.

Justin Wood
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October 4, 2023
Urban Matters
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If We’re True to Our Better Selves We Can Meet the Migrant Challenge

Will a city of immigrants respond with anger or openness to a flood of newly arrived migrants?

Ruth W. Messinger
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September 27, 2023
Urban Matters
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The Healing Power of Hope

We ask an eminent expert in the field of community mental health about handling the psychic challenges of being strangers in a strange land.

Adam Brown
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September 20, 2023
Urban Matters
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‘Abolition Is About Creating a New Society’:

A new book, excerpted here, argues that reforming our existing child welfare system is futile, and that it must instead be eliminated completely.

Excerpted from Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System, by Alan J. Dettlaff, with co-authors Reiko Boyd, Victoria Copeland, Jesse Hartley, Maya Pendleton, and Kristen Weber.
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September 13, 2023
Urban Matters
Children and Families
InsideSchools
Helping Migrant Students and Families Find Their Way in New York City

Navigating the NYC school system isn’t easy for anyone – and the InsideSchools team has been working hands-on with the city’s newly arrived migrants. Here’s what they’ve learned.

Natasha Quiroga
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September 6, 2023
Urban Matters
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Rent Regulation Does Not Mean Neglect: Landlords Are Fearmongering to Gut Tenant Protections

Housing neglect is a serious problem. Gutting tenant protections isn’t the solution.

Oksana Mironova and Samuel Stein
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June 28, 2023
Urban Matters
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Will NYC’s New Pay Standard Deliver for Restaurant Delivery Workers?

The first minimum pay standard in the nation for app-based deliveristas goes into effect July 12th.

James A. Parrott
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June 21, 2023
Urban Matters
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Read ‘Em While It’s Hot: Summer Books from New School Writers

Wherever you go this summer, slip one or more of these intriguing books in your bag.

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June 14, 2023
Urban Matters
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An Rx for Migrant Policy in NYC: Humility and Wisdom

City agencies are making a mistake by giving volunteers who've been welcoming arriving asylum seekers a cold shoulder.

Ruth W. Messinger
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June 7, 2023
Urban Matters
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As NYC’s Budget Deadline Nears, The Horse-Trading Phase Begins

Reading the uncertain economic tea leaves as City officials make spending decisions for the year ahead.

George Sweeting
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May 31, 2023
Urban Matters
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Better Rat Mindfulness and Management: Lessons from New York’s Rat Control Mavens

Pandemic conditions created a perfect rat storm. But New Yorkers can turn things around.

Katy Einerson
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May 24, 2023
Urban Matters
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Nurses Want Public Hospitals to Close Salary, Staffing Gaps

There’s a widening wage disparity with New York’s private hospitals – and an exodus of RNs from public hospitals.

Barbara Caress
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May 17, 2023
Urban Matters
Economic and Fiscal Policy
Poverty & Systemic Inequalities
Cash Assistance rolls have risen sharply in New York City as a result of the uneven employment recovery and the end of various forms of pandemic economic assistance

James A. Parrott
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May 11, 2023
Urban Matters
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Traditional Schools Are Losing Students. Here's the Picture - And Some Prescriptions.

Enrollment in charter schools is up; in other schools, it’s down. What’s the takeaway for education leaders?

The Education Trust-NY
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May 10, 2023
Urban Matters
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Why Progressives Should Say No to NIMBY.

How a strategy for economic growth and development can also make for a more equitable city.

Richard McGahey
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May 3, 2023
Urban Matters
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‘My Goal Is to Help Parents Be Their Child’s Best Advocate’:

A “teacher’s kid” talks about helping families find pathways to education equity for their children in the nation’s largest public school system.

InsideSchools
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April 26, 2023
Urban Matters
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The Constitution Prohibits Unreasonable Searches. Child Welfare Investigators Routinely Conduct Them.

The Fourth Amendment right to be secure in one’s home should apply in child welfare cases.

David Shalleck-Klein
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April 19, 2023
Urban Matters
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Let’s Fight Crime the Proven Way: By Increasing the Minimum Wage

Crime fell dramatically when New York State started increasing the minimum wage and reducing income inequality. That wasn’t a coincidence.

Lauren Melodia
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April 12, 2023
Urban Matters
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Young People Face a Mental Health Crisis. Here’s What New York City Should Do About It.

We know what’s needed: Expanded school-based services. More clinics. Deeper parental involvement. And decent pay for frontline workers.

Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC)
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April 5, 2023
Urban Matters
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Want to Reduce Violence? Invest in Community Solutions.

Community violence intervention programs work. But they’re hemmed in by a too-narrow focus.

William M. Evans
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March 29, 2023
Urban Matters
Children and Families
Watching the Numbers
Watching the Numbers 2023: Covid-19's Effects on Child Welfare System

CNYCA's six year statistical survey monitoring New York City's child welfare system

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March 28, 2023
Urban Matters
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How Committed Parents Steer a Brooklyn School’s Hopeful Course

An inner-city elementary school thrives as parents work for the common good.

Clara Hemphill
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March 22, 2023
Urban Matters
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Vulnerable Workers Need An Unemployment Safety Net

Many workers, heavily concentrated in low-income industries, can’t get unemployment insurance. Here’s how to solve that problem.

Richard Blum
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March 15, 2023
Urban Matters
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Pro-Development Notes Sound. But Will New Housing Happen?

City and State leaders want to make it easier to build. But other pieces of the housing puzzle may be more important.

Alex Schwartz
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March 8, 2023
Urban Matters
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Three Ways New York City Can Prevent Wage Theft

Primarily low-wage workers often suffer from violations of wage standards and denial of benefits. Here’s what City government can do to protect them.

Nikko Bilitza
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March 1, 2023
Urban Matters
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Let’s Freeze New York’s Useless Business Subsidies

When something doesn’t work, stop doing it. That includes awarding pointless big-ticket tax breaks.

Elizabeth M. Marcello
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February 22, 2023