From Playground to Panopticon: Colonial Youth Welfare and the Shaping of Urban Leisure in Lagos and Nairobi

May 22, 2026.Reading time 19 minutes.

This is the fifth post in our themed series, Cities at Play. By Ahmadu Abubakar From Playground to Panopticon: Colonial Youth Welfare and the Shaping of Urban Leisure in Lagos and Nairobi In the late 1940s, colonial authorities in Nairobi began to express growing concern about what they referred to as “the presence and increasing […]

The Unifying Role of Sporting Venues for Black Pittsburgh

May 14, 2026.Reading time 17 minutes.

This is the fourth post in our theme series for May, Cities at Play. By Dan Holland This year’s NFL Draft, held in Pittsburgh from April 23rd-25th, attracted an estimated 800,000 fans over three days, a record reinforcing the importance of sport to cities in the post-industrial era. Sport has long been deeply embedded in […]

Reinventing the Wheel: The Ferris Wheel as Symbol of Urban Prosperity

May 12, 2026.Reading time 16 minutes.

This is the third entry in our May series, Cities at Play. By Dr. Ellery Weil In 2005, the London skyline faced a threat to one of its iconic features, in the form of an eviction notice. The target? The London Eye. The Ferris wheel, which had been constructed in honor of the new millennium, […]

Greenspace or Greenwashing? The Making of the I-70 Cover Park

May 7, 2026.Reading time 16 minutes.

This is the second post in our May theme month, Cities at Play. By Maggie McNulty On November 30, 2022 at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Interstate 70 (I-70) Cover Park in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, Governor Jared Polis stated, “This is really a model of innovative solutions, green infrastructure, state of the art technology […]

New York Play Streets at the Turn of the Century

May 5, 2026.Reading time 17 minutes.

This post is the first entry in our May theme month, Cities at Play. By Alexandra Miller The bullet ripped through Max Kaufman. It was a Thursday morning in August 1919, and the twelve-year-old boy was playing in front of his Brooklyn home in the rapidly developing stretch of Snediker Avenue between Dumont and Livonia […]

Call for Contributors: Cities at Play

February 25, 2026.Reading time 1 minute.

We at The Metropole are excited to issue a call for our next theme month: Cities at Play We welcome submissions about any aspect of play, recreation, or leisure in the urban environment. How have cities uniquely shaped the way their inhabitants play, and how has play in turn shaped the built environment, the social […]