2013 – “Is Harlem safe to visit?” 2017 – “Are the subway’s safe?” I can’t recall the number of times I was asked the Harlem question during Bloomberg’s reign as Mayor (2001-2013), and the subway question during de Blasio’s tenure (2014-2021). Usually, these questions happened on the Manhattan Bridge and near the end of a 3-hour tour of lower Manhattan, my favorite walk. Thinking back to the beginning years of these tours makes me cringe sometimes. If you took one from me before 2013, sorry! I was nice and patient, people gave me 5-stars, and the repetition pushed me on the path towards becom ..read more

“It is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the [Central] Park, to sleep with his fathers in Green-Wood.” – The New York Times, 1866 Our Brooklyn neighborhood, within the larger Sunset Park, has recently been monikered as Greenwood Heights for its proximity to the historic 478-acre Green-Wood Cemetery, filled with wealthy dead people and alive visitors enjoying the opulent grounds and views from the highest point in Brooklyn, once the location of the Battle of Brooklyn. My kid loves the Koi pond there, particularly chasing a big white fish ..read more

So yes, last week I bought an entire case of fake watches on Canal Street. I’ve been seeing this guy for the longest time with the most beautiful cases of watches, and a couple weeks ago things clicked, that this would be an important thing to save and document. And you know what was the most nerve-wracking part? Trying to explain to Sara what I had done. And why. This was one of those relationship situations where you have to make the infraction and then hope for mercy. And there were a few long blinks as she was processing what was she was seeing, my son next to a massive case of fake Role ..read more

[We’re renaming the Digest to Glass City. It will be about photography, writing, creativity, and urbanism.   I always struggled with what to call the newsletter. Or perhaps it’s better to use the term column, since it sounds a little more dignified. Anyway, I struggled and kept the name generic, as I didn’t have a complete idea in my head for this space. And Glass City feels close to hinting at the philosophy I want to underly its focus.]   What is a Glass City?     Radiant City, Le Corbusier   Similar to Radiant City, designed in 1920 by influential modernist archi ..read more

Color Photos © Gregory Halpern, ZZXYZ Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to teach all of American Photography in an email on Tuesday morning. This is just an intro to some of what’s coming. And I want to be careful with your time. I’m working on sprucing things up here with the look and organization, and we’re going to change the name of the Digest in the next issue. That will be a bit more of a philosophical email about the change. And thank you so much for the support, it means so much to me that you would help as I begin this transition. And just as much a thank you to those who want to help ..read more

Art and artists from HYPE. I always found it difficult to figure out how to brand myself. It’s easy to call me a street photographer, but what city walking photographer isn’t also somewhat of a street photographer by default? I’m a walker. When all is said and done I hope.. no, I am, a documentarian, historian, writer, and photographer, just trying to learn about this crazy city, society, and the artistic lifestyle as I try by the skin of my teeth to survive it. Creative people have tons of trauma. Society doesn’t make it easy for us to survive. Maybe we didn’t fit well with the rigid struct ..read more

I never thought I was interesting. I grew up a feral upper-middle-class white straight male on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I had friends. I went to summer camp and on trips. I had too many toys. People thought I was ‘friendly’, although that was probably because of my disposition and I had too much anxiety to talk back. Or I was too checked out from my ADD to care. Walking outside, I was surrounded by interesting people. I would go to the basketball courts to play ball with interesting people. I was surrounded by both the massively rich and others just getting by. People always assumed ..read more

Patagonia. I’m sitting on a sleepless 11-hour flight back from Argentina in the middle of the night. Clearly, the most fun 10 days I’ve had, especially when considering sharing it with my 5-Year-Old, but also one of the most exhausting stretches of my life. We spent 4 days touring Patagonia with a bus of 14 family members from 4 generations, and the rest in Buenos Aires, culminating in an exuberant 8-hour bat mitzvah. It was basically what you’d expect, stunningly beautiful, urban planning in the neighborhoods I saw that blew NYC out of the water, wonderful steak most nights, Malbec, late din ..read more

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On the corner of Canal and Greene is a crossroads for luxury in NYC. A hive of luxury spread. Or a symptom of it. There are few places in the world where you can experience fashion in the way you can here. The northern end of Greene Street is where you get the real handbags; the southern end, the fake ones. Head north up the cobblestones streets and renovated old cast-iron factory buildings of the 5-block Greene Street, and you pass by a formation of top-flight luxury stores along with a smattering of well-to-do galleries – a bastardized reminder of the neighborhood’s past. A buildi ..read more