Public Streets Archives

Jewish Havens: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

For centuries, the city’s Sephardim adhered to Jewish law within the community, but also had secular lives in the relatively lax Dutch state.

Elvis’s Missing Belt: Tel Aviv, Israel

By Omer Friedlander

“As a teenager, I also worked at HaMeshulash for several months. It’s quite possible that I was the worst waiter in the history of the café.”

A Statue Gives Romans a Voice: 2021, Rome, Italy

By Rebecca Levitan

The people of Rome have been leaving notes on the Pasquino statue for over 500 years. And this practice continued in the pandemic, fortunately.

Apocalypse and Anticlimax: The Petrified Forest, Calistoga, CA

By Abigail Struhl

Unlike us today, the Victorians who discovered this stone forest were less afraid of the future than they were of forgetting the past.

What Folklore Erases: Under Columbus, Georgia

By Bryan Banks

The current owner of the Lion House is happy to let rumors about his property’s basement passageway simmer.

Literary and Manual Labors: Pittsfield, Massachusetts

By Jeffrey Lawrence

“I have been building some shanties of houses …,” wrote Melville to Hawthorne, “and likewise some shanties of chapters and essays.”

A Quiet Disaster: Mexico City, Mexico

By Alfonso Fierro

Apocalyptic writers would be surprised by the suddenness with which Mexico City, during the pandemic, took on the guise of a ghost town.

The New Silk Road: Dordoi Bazaar in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

By Moira O’Shea

At the largest bazaar in Central Asia, an informal secondhand market has become something like a metropolis unto itself.

The Floating Park: Parc de Belleville, Paris

By Sanaë Lemoine

“It is rare, on a summer evening in Paris, to find this sort of quiet along with the sensation of having the city at your feet.”

The Enduring City: Jakarta, Indonesia

By Spencer Cunningham

In the parts of the city left behind is a Jakarta free from the globalized sameness of so many of the world’s megacities.

One Border, Two Walls: Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora

By Matteo Cantarello

The sun is setting behind the Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation, and ...

“There Is Always a Norther North”: Highway 1, Alaska

By Jason Bell

There’s a fire burning by Swan Lake. For the sixth time in the last 20 years ...

“Kingdom of Dolls”: Sonneberg, Germany

By Brianna Beehler

In her mid-19th-century children’s book, Memoirs of a Doll, Julie Gouraud warns her readers not to unstitch their dolls looking for origins and inner workings ...

Fill the Halls: Space and Possibility in Lahore, Pakistan

By Chris Moffat

Lahore today can feel like a city of security checks and gated passages, tall walls and ...

Risky Choices: Women and Cabs in Hyderabad, India

By Sneha Annavarapu

The arrival of app-based ride-hailing in Indian cities has made a significant difference in the way the middle class, especially young men and women ...