Policing NYC: A Review of “Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York”

December 10, 2025.Reading time 27 minutes.

Guariglia, Matthew. Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing. Duke University Press, 2023. Editor’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Matthew Guariglia formerly served as an assistant editor at The Metropole. Guariglia oversaw the Disciplining the City series from 2017 to 2023. By Sarah Frenking Matthew Guariglia’s Police and […]

Aging Gang Members in Southern California – A Review of “The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles.”

December 16, 2024.Reading time 22 minutes.

Randol Contreras. The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East Los Angeles. Oakland: University of California Press, 2024. By Dianne Violeta Mausfeld East Los Angeles is an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County with a population that is over 95 percent Latino, overwhelmingly Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans. Mexican immigrants settled in this […]

Architecture Matters? A Review of “The Architecture Of Urbanity: Designing For Nature, Culture And Joy”

October 2, 2024.Reading time 22 minutes.

Vishaan Chakrabarti. The Architecture Of Urbanity: Designing For Nature, Culture And Joy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2024. Reviewed by Dasha Kuletskaya Can architects and other design professionals help tackle the global challenges humanity faces today? Can design be a tool to address climate change, rising inequality, and the spread of right-wing populism? Can architecture […]

A Forgotten or Simply Erased History of Organized Labor: A Review of “Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers Of New Orleans, 1965-2008”

July 22, 2024.Reading time 30 minutes.

Jesse Chanin. Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2024. Reviewed by Daniel G. Cumming Ten years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, a Chicago Tribune columnist memorialized the catastrophe with disturbing notes of envy. Though full of chaos, tragedy, and heartbreak, […]

When the Gentrified Become Gentrifiers – A Review of “Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City”

July 1, 2024.Reading time 15 minutes.

Richard E. Ocejo. Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2024. Reviewed by Mario Hernandez Focusing on small cities rather than the large metropolitan areas typically covered in gentrification literature, Richard Ocejo’s Sixty Miles Up River makes significant contributions to the study of gentrification. Beyond location, […]

Black Female Mayors Are Shaping Our Cities—A Review of “Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors”

June 25, 2024.Reading time 27 minutes.

Sharon D. Wright Austin, ed. Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2023. Reviewed by Sarena Martinez Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors, edited by political scientist professor Sharon D. Wright Austin, is a trailblazing volume that draws together twenty-two […]

Beyond the “Doom-Loop”—A Review of “Kids on The Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin”

May 7, 2024.Reading time 24 minutes.

Plaster, Joseph. Kids on the Street: Queer Kinship and Religion in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023. Reviewed by Alex Melody Burnett At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, national media outlets developed a powerful new narrative about San Francisco. After years of tech-induced prosperity, San Francisco had supposedly entered a dangerous […]

Revitalizing Cities Beyond the Center—A Review of “A Good Place to Do Business: The Politics of Downtown Renewal Since 1945”

February 14, 2024.Reading time 8 minutes.

Rose, Mark H. and Roger Biles. A Good Place to Do Business: The Politics of Downtown Renewal Since 1945. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2022. Reviewed by David Goodwin As public concern over the COVID-19 pandemic shifts from a guiding fear to a collective memory, American urban centers struggle to reimagine and restructure themselves to an […]

Local Logics and Urban Exorcisms for Better Neighborhoods—A Review of “Urban Specters: The Everyday Harm of Racial Capitalism”

November 30, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

Mayorga, Sarah. Urban Specters: The Everyday Harm of Racial Capitalism. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Reviewed by Minh Q. Nguyen Sarah Mayorga’s Urban Specters: The Everyday Harms of Racial Capitalism provides an in-depth analysis of material life within two neighborhoods in Cincinnati, a Midwestern Rust Belt city, from the perspective of […]

How Work Has Shaped the LGBTQ Community—A Review of “Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America”

September 26, 2023.Reading time 21 minutes.

Canaday, Margot. Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023. Reviewed by Ryan Reft When George Chauncey published Gay New York in the early 1990s, it fundamentally shifted the historical field and, eventually, the public’s understanding of gay life at the turn of the twentieth century. Building on work […]