Can New Yorkers have nice things? With a Mamdani mayoralty almost in reach, it seems tantalizingly possible—but what kinds of nice things should we have?

***Please note, we've had considerable interest in this event and are now at capacity. It's possible there will be some day-of tickets available, so we'll create a stand-by line at the venue and let additional attendees in if seats become available. Entry for stand-by is not guaranteed.

On Tuesday, October 14, n+1 and the Center for Architecture will host a freewheeling discussion of usable pasts, working models, and radical horizons for building a social democratic New York. From the humblest bike lane to the most utopian social housing, the conversation will open a space to dream big while also grappling with the policy mechanics and power dynamics of governing America’s largest city. Cultural geographer Cindi Katz, urban planner Daphne Lundi, architectural historian and editor Mariana Mogilevich, and housing researcher and writer Samuel Stein will be joined in conversation by n+1 coeditor Mark Krotov and senior editor Colin Vanderburg.

Please note: Tickets are free but RSVPs are required. The venue is wheelchair accessible. 

About the Panelists

Cindi Katz is a cultural geographer. She teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and has written widely on questions of social reproduction, the production of nature, the workings of the security state in everyday environments, the cultural politics of childhood, and the intertwining of memory and history in the geographical imagination.

Daphne Lundi is an urban planner and policymaker. Previously, she served as a Deputy Director at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. She was a New City Critics fellow with The Architectural League of New York and Urban Design Forum, and an inaugural Moynihan Public Scholar at The City College of New York, where her work explored how science fiction and worldbuilding can inspire more imaginative and inclusive approaches to policy and planning. She co-leads romantic urbanism, a project on how cities can foster love, connection, and social cohesion.

Mariana Mogilevich is editor in chief of Urban Omnibus, the Architectural League of New York’s publication dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping the city, and author of The Invention of Public Space: Designing for Inclusion in Lindsay’s New York.

Samuel Stein is a policy analyst who writes about the politics of planning and housing in New York City. He is the author of the book Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State, and his essays have been published in such venues as n+1, New York Review of Books, and New York Review of Architecture. Other New York Reviews are encouraged to reach out to him with story ideas.