Urbanist Ariel

Urbanist Ariel Peabody-winning filmmaker uncovering the secrets of cities through history and urbanism. Urbanist Ariel is created by Ariel Viera and produced by Urbanist LLC.

I'm uncovering the secrets of our cities. Through the history that isn't in your textbooks, and exploring the inner-workings of cities. For business inquires: [email protected]

08/29/2026

A pound of squid can jump from $1 to $4 overnight here, just like the stock market. 🐟

Inside Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx, the second largest fish market on earth, about a million pounds of seafood move through every night. No set prices, just supply, demand, and old-school haggling. Bobby DiGregorio, aka Bobby Tuna, has read this floor since 1972.

Capitalism in one room, and it works. What fish would you buy at 3am at the Bronx market?

08/28/2026

Before Central Park existed, this was where New Yorkers came to spend their weekends. It’s a cemetery. 🪦

Jhon Usmanov Jahongir "Jhon" Usmanov, Director of Operations at Green-Wood Cemetery The Green-Wood Cemetery, walked me through how a burial ground founded in 1838 became the place New Yorkers came to picnic and stroll, years before Central Park was built.

Would you picnic at Green-Wood the way New Yorkers did in the 1800s?

08/27/2026

This is the oldest house in Yonkers, and its owner lost everything.

Frederick Philipse III was maybe the richest man in colonial New York. His manor ran 22 miles up the Hudson, over 200,000 acres.

Then he pledged loyalty to the King. After the Revolution, New York seized the estate and auctioned it in 300+ pieces, the largest the state ever took.

Walk it today at Philipse Manor Hall Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site in Yonkers, with .

08/26/2026

For 60 years this was one of the most poisoned sites in Jersey City. 🏗️

Now Canal Crossing, over 100 acres right at the Garfield Ave light rail stop, is becoming a mixed-income neighborhood for around 6,000 people.

Mayor James Solomon Mayor James Solomon of Jersey City Jersey City and Deputy Mayor Keshav Poddar walked me through it: about 600 homes in phase one, over 100 deeply affordable, some renting under $1,000.

What should the future of Canal Crossing in Jersey City look like?

08/24/2026

London, Paris, and Boston all have light rail. New York City doesn’t. 🚈

I walked 21st Avenue in Astoria with Tom Wright Tom Wright, President and CEO of Regional Plan Association Regional Plan Association, standing where the BQX streetcar was meant to run 16 miles down to Sunset Park. It stalled out under de Blasio.

I asked Tom if New York should have a light rail network. No hesitation: “Oh God, yes.”

Where in New York City would you build light rail first?

08/23/2026

80 illegal apartments. One FBI raid. $5,500 rent. 🏚️

The McKibbin Lofts in East Williamsburg started as garment factories in the 1940s. By 1998, the floors were chopped into 80 unauthorized apartments for artists and the state didn’t legalize buildings like this one until 2010.

08/22/2026

This plain house in Manhattan’s Two Bridges used to be a rat-fighting hall. 🐀

In the 1850s, men packed into 47 and 49 Madison Street to bet on how many rats a dog could kill in a pit.

It took a reformer named Henry Bergh and his brand-new ASPCA to stamp the blood sport out after 1866.

08/21/2026

🏘️ This East New York block was a landfill nobody wanted. Now families own homes here.

It’s Nehemiah Spring Creek. Rev. David Brawley of St. Paul Community Baptist Church St. Paul Community Baptist Church showed me how his congregation and Industrial Areas Foundation NY built roughly 5,000 affordable homes here since the 1980s.

Should we build more places like Spring Creek in New York City?

08/20/2026

NYC's shuttered Aqueduct Racetrack could become affordable homes and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy has showcased how this can happen across the country.

In Brooklyn Metro IAF NY already proved it, turning an old East New York landfill into Nehemiah Spring Creek: 2,677 affordable apartments and homeownership units on land the city already owned.

Now the state has opened 100 acres at Aqueduct for planning, with housing on the table.

Paid partnership with for their Community Land for Community Benefits campaign.

08/19/2026

🏙️ There’s a proposal to build 180,000 new homes on top of New York Harbor.

Economist Jason Barr wants to extend Manhattan 1,760 acres into the harbor, and he says the new land could be worth seven times what it costs to build. The catch: would it wreck the harbor we finally cleaned up?

Address

New York, NY

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Urbanist Ariel posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Urbanist Ariel:

Shortcuts

Share

Category