Spring 2023 Issue

Letter from the Editors

Sidney Lok & Trevor Lovitz

The Street Wart

Matt Choi

Creating City Hopeful in The World We Make

Katie Zhang

The value of 311 data

Zhi Keng He

What Stinks in Here!? Addressing Inequity in Sanitation Services in NYC

Alek Miletic

Thinking Beyond Waste Management: Hope in Degrowth, Systems Connections, Compost, and (Dare I say it) Rats?

Megan Diebboll

Tenant Organizing in Smaller Cities: Examples from Connecticut and
the Hudson Valley

Katelin Penner

Creating an Inclusive Economy by Expanding the Fashion Industry

Victoria Pennacchio


Editorial Board

Sidney Lok Editor-in-Chief – is a student in the Master of Urban Planning program and a Program Assistant with the Housing and Homelessness team at Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies. Her academic and professional interests include community planning, housing advocacy, and justice reform.

Trevor LovitzEditor-in-Chief  graduated from Hunter’s Master of Urban Planning program this spring. He works at the NYC Department of City Planning as a planner for Harlem and East Harlem. His independent research and writing centers on the built environment of Western Queens.

Matt ChoiAssociate Editor – is a fourth-semester student in the CUNY Hunter MUP program.  He is interested in waterfront planning and distinctive approaches to placemaking that center on local identity and references to vernacular design. Currently, he works as a placemaking and development consultant in New York City. 

Jenn HendricksAssociate Editor – is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and urban researcher. Her work focuses on comparative urban policy, with a specific interest in regional understandings of community development and public space. She studied Urban Policy at Hunter College. She is the Development Manager at City Limits and the production manager for the museum of americana: A Literary Review.

Craig Notte Associate Editor –  is a litigation partner in a New York City real estate / landlord-tenant law firm representing large and small owners in residential and commercial contexts. He is also on the Advisory Council of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. He has a Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Rochester. His particular interest in urban planning is the re-urbanizing of abandoned spaces.

Editors

Chelsea Evans is a graduate student at Hunter College in the Master of Urban Planning program. She holds a B.A. in Politics from Occidental College. Currently, she is interested in labor organizing, housing, and climate resiliency in New York City. 

Isabel Ozkan Jordan is a graduate student in the urban planning program with a background in environmental policy and local food systems.

Veronica Maisch is a graduate student in the Master of Urban Planning program at Hunter College interested in urban ecosystems, urban public health, and regional infrastructures.

Artem Pankin is an urban studies undergraduate at Hunter College, CUNY. His research is focused on intersections between cities, technologies, sensorium, and materiality with an emphasis on post-socialist cities. You can find out more and contact him using artempankin.simple.ink.

Richard Yudkiss is a second-year MUP student currently interning at the New York City Department of Transportation, within the pedestrian unit. His interests include inclusive design, walkability, smart cities, and the reduction of car dependency in urban, suburban, and rural areas.

Visual Contributors

Ben Freiman is an MUP student, transportation planner, artist, and musician based in the Lower Hudson Valley. His professional work centers on transit accessibility, equitable urban spaces, and design. Ben’s creative and academic endeavors often focus on sense of place, spatial idiosyncrasy, and novel technologies. Find him on Instagram: @benf.images.

Christine Leonhardt is a recent graduate of the Master of Urban Planning program at Hunter College, and she was Vice President of GUPPA for the past academic year. In her work, she focuses on climate justice and gender issues in urban design.


Cover by Ben Freiman.