Editor & publisher, Kings County Politics, Kensington, Brooklyn, October 8, 2015


Meanwhile, Stephen Witt publishes Kings County Politics (Kings County is the political name of the borough of Brooklyn), a daily blog, from the cramped quarters of his bedroom in a basement apartment. With no capital resources except his laptop and a cellphone, he provides valuable information online to his subscribers, and he was at it when I visited on October 8, 2015. The cat keeps him company.


Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting, Upper West Side, April 10, 2013


It was surprising to me how much of our civic life is still conducted face to face. The member of the City Council from the Upper West Side of Manhattan organises annual town meetings like the one held on April 27, 2015 in her neighbourhood. Representatives of all the major city departments were on stage to answer questions from her constituents. The fire department, the police department, the sanitation, parks, environment and housing departments were all there, as well as the agency that runs the buses and subways.

The last picture in the exhibition is Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting, Upper West Side, April 10, 2013. This is an archetypal civic organisation where people with a common interest in the education of their children get to meet the teachers and administrators responsible for it. Although PTA meetings can be contentious, they are more typically exemplars of amity, so the image is a fitting conclusion to the show.