New York has a filthy history, says Robin Nagle, the New York City Department of Sanitation's anthropologist-in-residence. The muck of early Manhattan was much worse than you even suspected.
In this interview by Sarah Schmidt, Nagle explains how bad it actually was:
"Going back 100, 150 years, American cities were disgusting -- and New York City was notorious as the filthiest and stinkiest. We were a laughingstock. The rumor goes that sailors could smell the city six miles out to sea."
Corruption was the real problem, because the street cleaning funds were being embezzled by politicians.
Nagles says that the garbage was so deep that "...the streets were layered in this sludge of manure, rotting vegetables, ash, broken up furniture, debris of all kind."
FULL STORY: Digging Into New York City’s Trashy History

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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