Local Liquidities

For those who might not know, I became a New City Critics Fellow at the Architectural League of New York and Urban Design Forum back in September.

Earlier this week, Urban Omnibus published excerpts from our first writing assignment. We were tasked to take a walk around our respective neighborhoods and reflect on what we encountered on our strolls around the block. The endeavor was framed as “criticism as an act of love,” a practice of experiencing, discoursing, and sense-making rooted within relations of care and connection to a particular place.

As we embark on the holiday season, many of us are wrestling with the idea of home and all of its tangible and emotional complexities. In light of this, I’ve decided to publish publishing the full piece I wrote here. I hope you’ll join me as I share what I noticed about my beloved little slice of Brooklyn living on Kosciuszko Street.

When a single heavy rainstorm has the potential to bring New York City to a standstill, Kosciuszko Street offers a different kind of flow. Sitting inland at around 14 to 16 meters above sea level, this neighborhood has not dealt with the same anxieties of rising waters and flash flooding that’s overwhelmed its coastal and low-lying counterparts. Kosciuszko Street sits on a high ground that’s become especially desirable in this present moment of climate crisis.