Introduction : Centers and edges -- Map 1. Singing the city: the New York of dreams. Our city of songs / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, Garnette Cadogan, Valeria Luiselli, Joe Boyd, Will Butler, Mirissa Neff, Teju Cole, Margo Jefferson, and Barry Lopez -- Map 2. Capital of capital: how New York happened. The best city money can buy / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro -- Map 3. Crash: crises and collisions in 21st-century lower Manhattan. Falling and rising in lower Manhattan / Astra Taylor -- Map 4. Riot! Periodic eruptions in volcanic New York. The violence of inequality / Luc Sante -- Map 5. Carboniferous: Climate change and the city. Petro Gotham, people's Gotham / Daniel Aldana Cohen -- Map 6. Water and power: the reach of the city. Thirsts and ghosts, Heather Smith -- Map 7. Harper's and harpooners: Whaling and publishing in Melville's Manhattan. Sailors and scriveners / Paul La Farge -- Map 8. What is a Jew? From Emma Goldman to Goldman Sachs. My Yiddishe papa / Sheerly Avni ; The lost world of Jewish Flatbush / Joel Dinerstein -- Map 9. Archipelago: the Caribbean's far north. Of islands and other mothers / Gaiutra Bahadur -- Map 10. City of Women. The power of names / Rebecca Solnit -- Map 11. Love and rage -- Map 12. City of walkers: around the world in a day. Round and round / Garnette Cadogan -- Map 13. Wildlife. The oysters in the spire / Rebecca Solnit -- Map 14. Our Latin thing: New York city radio en español. The mega mezclapolis / Alexandra Y. Vazquez -- Map 15. Burning down and rising up: the Bronx in the 1970s. New York City: seeing through the ruins / Marshall Berman ; Interviews with Valerie Capers, Grandmaster Caz, Grandwizzard Theodore, and Melle Mel -- Map 16. Makers and breakers: Olmsted, Moses, Jacobs shape the city. Ways and means / Jonathan Tarleton -- Map 17. Trash in the city: dumping on Staten Island and beyond. Coming clean / Lucy R. Lippard -- Map 18. Mysterious land of Shaolin: the Wu-Tang Clan's Staten Island. Breathing space: an interview with RZA / Joshua Jelly-Schapiro -- Map 19. Brownstones and basketball: Brooklyn's home grounds and games. Empire of brownstone and brick / Thomas J. Campanella ; Prisoners of Red Hook / Francisco Goldman -- Map 20. Brooklyn villages. Freed but not free / Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts -- Map 21. Public/private: a map of childhoods. Playgrounds I have known / Emily Raboteau -- Map 22. The suburban theory of the avant-garde: New Jersey's greats. North stars and gospel battles: Peter Coyote's Jersey memories -- Map 23. Planting liberty: 350 years of freedom in Flushing. "Law of love, peace and libertie" / Garnette Cadogan -- Map 24. Mother tongues and Queens: the world's languages capital. Tower of scrabble / Suketu Mehta -- Map 25. Black star lines: Harlem secular and sacred. Home to Harlem / Christina Zanfagna -- Map 26. Oscillating city: Manhattan, day and night. Schleptropolis / Thomas J. Campanella.