The Pasts of the City
Understanding the city’s past through the evidence it left behind: what was documented, what was drawn on maps, and what simply survived.
By Yuval FogelsonWalk through a neighbourhood with someone who grew up there, and the stories start. The diner that used to be on that corner. The whole block that looked completely different. There is nostalgia in it, something close to loss, even when what is being mourned is a supermarket surrounded by a parking lot. The city changed; it is not the city they grew up in. The gap between what a place was and what it became is the past as most people carry it: personal, and real. The physical city offers... Read more
