New York City Residents

An Inside View of Contra Dancing in Brooklyn, 2015

Brooklyn Contra is the latest addition
to a contra dance subculture that for over
half a century has been hidden in plain
sight among the glittering distractions of
New York City. The latest contra dance
growth spurt started some 15 years ago at
the Manhattan contra dance series, when
an influx of younger dancers arrived on
the scene and kept coming back every week
for more.

Downstate

Most New Yorkers recognize … the heart of New York
City is not only found at the Met or Lincoln
Center, but in the hustle and bustle, the
c acophonous mix of ethnic groups, social
classes, folk, pop, and high art….With passionate interest in what’s distinctive
and local about New York, we have
issued, for the fifth year, the People’s City
Report Card 2015.

Downstate

Community anchors – the organziations that communities create in response to the conditions in whih their members live – are incubators for vibrant cultural activity and are critical to the cultural ecology of American cities. The authors identify three organizational typologies – religious institutions, social clubs and mutual aid societies, and small businesses.

Downstate

The New York Community Garden movement which began in the 1960s spawned over 800 community gardens by the 1980s. Today, community gardens comprise the subject and sites of intense public debate.