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Head Start program, Queens, 1965

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Now Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney while she was a city councilor, at work with her daughter, 1991

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A mother and her children at the Indian Independence Parade, New York City, 1990

Green Manhattan

Bryan Walsh usefully reminds us, building on David Owen's influential New Yorker article, that the greenest place in the United States is Manhattan.

It's that density — the sheer number of people living in such a small area, often literally on top of each other — that makes Manhattan, and New York City as a whole, so green. Manhattan's population density is 800 times the national average. Density comes with negatives, certainly — small living spaces, air pollution, lots and lots of concrete — but it also enables amazing efficiencies. More than 80% of Manhattanites travel to work by public transit, by bike or on foot — compared to an average of about 8% everywhere else in the country. The vertical apartment buildings that Manhattanites live in are far more energy-efficient than single-dwelling housing in the suburbs. "Most Americans, including most New Yorkers, think of New York City as an ecological nightmare, a wasteland of concrete and garbage and diesel fumes and traffic jams," wrote David Owen in his 2009 book Green Metropolis. "But in comparison with the rest of America it's a model of environmental responsibility."

Density is the key to sustainability. While there are a lot of people who don't want to live in dense cities, at the very least, it would be nice if the government would incentivize density rather than sprawl. Of course, dense cities create public health hazards and those are important. But these problems are easier to deal with than our sprawl and the massive environmental disasters this causes.

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The World Trade Center, New York, 1973

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Poster for concert by Bessie Smith, Harlem, 1924

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Parade opening the United Negro Improvement Association convention, New York, 1922. The UNIA was Marcus Garvey's organization proclaiming a "Back to Africa" message.

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Burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum, New York City Draft Riots, 1863

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"New York City. - Our Indian allies. - Sioux warriors making purchases on Broadway for themselves and squaws, October 5th... (1877)"

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"Helping the Poor--Gratuitous Distribution of Coal by the City--Cherry Street," 1877

You have to love the generous and humane attitudes of the Gilded Age. Good thing we are heading back there. I can already see Republicans bemoaning giving free lumps of coal to the "undeserving poor."

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"City Enormities--Every Brute Can Beat His Beast," New York, 1874

This is one of the best images I've found in a long time.

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Bicycle path from Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to Coney Island, 1896

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"Attack on a Swindler," New York, 1872

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New York streetscape, 1899

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I'm reading Sean Wilentz's classic Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850 as I revamp my U.S. Urban History course for the spring semester. So this week's images will consist of New York City and its residents in the 19th century. Plus I'm spending the holidays in New York and surrounding environs, so it works that way too.

Broadway & Canal Streets, New York City, 1834

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Men playing chess in Central Park, 1946

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Air shaft, New York tenement, circa 1900

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Ticker tape parade, Broadway, New York City, 1928

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New Amsterdam, 1640

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Engraving of New York City, 1719-21