Table of contents for N. 124 in Topos

The old water tower at the High Bridge still exists, but the reservoir on West 42nd Street has long since given way to the Public Library, the city library with its famous stone lions. The cityscape in New York is changing fast. On the Bronx bank of the Harlem River, farther south, a museum of hip-hop is under construction, dedicated to the black youth culture of the Bronx. Washington Heights, north of Harlem, is named for the long-since-ruined Fort Washington, where revolutionaries defended New York against the British in 1776. Founded by Dutch settlers, more Protestants soon moved in, then Greeks and Irish. In the 1940s, German Jews arrived in the stately homes on West Broadway, including Henry Kissinger’s family. The middle-class neighborhood was nicknamed the "Fourth Reich." On the…

I would like to see more public open spaces in my home city in the sense of democratically distributed leisure areas, because Munich has the highest population density in Germany, ahead of Berlin – and the trend is rising. Young people need more space. Especially in the densely built-up neighborhoods on the outskirts of Munich, the mass of people who spend their lives together in the smallest of spaces lacks recreational space that can be used freely and is easy to reach. Munich needs to create enough perspectives in such isolated hotspots in addition to the everyday life of the young citizens. This starts with parks and meadows, which the city must create so that young people first have the space to socialize on their own. The next step is…

The rising video platform TikTok messes with our addiction-prone brain. As adults, we often find it hard to resist those never-ending cascades of news, bite-sized information, pretty landscapes, and cat content. If we can hardly suppress checking our own TikTok feed, how can we expect kids to cope with this giant money-making machine from China? Ever heard of #dancechallenge? No? Then you’re probably not one of the people who helped the hashtag reach over 58.6 billion views. Everyone can upload short videos on the TikTok app using their account, and participate in a community with 1.1 billion active users per month. Tiktok’s main claim is that “trends start here”. More than half the users are female (53 per cent), and 28 per cent are under the age of eighteen, the…

What many people don't know is that YouTube was originally supposed to be a kind of dating platform. However, a few days after the idea was launched, the founders Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim said goodbye to this idea. What remained was the idea that everyone could create a kind of television program of their own within the framework of private channels. After numerous changes, modernizations and constant further development, YouTube is and remains one of the most powerful platforms on the Internet. Without YouTube, there would be neither influencers nor the odd pop star. YouTube is a tough business these days. The portal belongs to the Alphabet Group, which, among numerous other companies and projects, also runs the largest internet search engine in the western world, Google.…

Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise and Raymond Santana. In 1989 five black and Latino male teenagers from Harlem – all aged between 14 and 16 – were wrongly convicted of raping a 28-year-old white female jogger in New York City’s Central Park. Four of them were sentenced to maximum terms for juveniles. Korey Wise had been held in facilities and served fourteen years in prison until 2002 when DNA analysis identified the actual perpetrator, Matias Reyes, who had acted alone in 1989 (at the age of 18) and had no connection to the five named teenagers. The case of the "Central Park Five" is a horror story that became reality for five young teenager of color, their families, and friends. An act of racism, intimidation, and police…

With its world-famous sights, busy streets and over 1.7 million residents, the city stands out from its surroundings as the center of economy, finance, education, administration, and tourism. Compared to other Hungarian regions and cities, Budapest is the most progressive, which is partly thanks to its geographic location, but mostly to political measures. Budapest acts as a magnet for citizens who come from all over Hungary to work, study and live there. An important part of those citizens is the youth. But what does “the youth” even mean? According to Hungarian law, all persons under 18 count as children, their age defining a dividing line between adults and minor citizens. Regarding the definition of "young people", there’s a variety of common age limits, ranging from 24 all the way to…

“I’ve lived in Prague, the capital and biggest city of the Czech Republic, since I was child. What I really love about Prague is the fact that it’s a great town to live in when you are young. There are so many places of interest, galleries, music- and dance clubs – and, most importantly – so many cafes and parks. The park I love the most is called “Stromovka”, which translates into English as “land of trees”. Every single day there are so many people around, walking their dogs, playing sports, etc. I also love the park Letná which served as the final stop of this year’s Prague Pride Parade. That’s another thing I love about Prague. You can just be yourself and most of the time nobody judges you…

Toronto is one of the few cities in the world that has a Youth Engagement Strategy, which was developed by a diverse group of ten citizens aged 18-29. This Youth Research Team is passionate about city building and represents an important segment of the city’s population. In some parts of Toronto, this age group represents the fastest-growing demographic group, driving economic and employment growth. However, in the city’s planning processes, the same demographic is less present. Typically, homeowners aged 55+ dominate the discussion, which is why the Youth Engagement Strategy was developed. It aims to bring more young voices into urban planning conversations. During an intensive five-week research programme in 2017, the research team facilitated and documented engagement activities in all of Toronto’s 15 neighbourhoods with over 400 of their…

Looking at the status quo of New York City, do you think that the voices of young people have been considered sufficiently in urban planning so far? We want their voices to be represented more. When we go out into communities, and we talk to people, we’re grateful for every person that we interact with. But we’re also trying in every interaction to be more mindful of recognizing who’s not there. There are some groups that we just don’t get to speak to as much as we would like, and youth is one of them. There are really good reasons, for example that youth are not represented in community boards. They’re in school, they have scheduling conflicts. There are very valid kind of barriers. But the number of youth and…

Founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram quickly became the world’s leading image and video sharing platform on the internet. While 10 million users had signed up just a few weeks after Instagram’s launch, the app’s billionth user was registered in mid-2018. No less impressive are the follower numbers of the biggest accounts on the platform, which is now under Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Group: Professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo currently has more than 600 million followers, making him by far the most followed person on Instagram. Only the official Instagram account has a few million more followers. The most followed woman on the platform is currently Selena Gomez with more than 420 million followers. For observers, it may be hard to understand how a platform that started…

Do you remember what day of the week a new episode of your favourite show when you were younger used to air on TV? Did you have to organize meetings with friends around it or negotiate dinner time with your parents? And then those cliff-hangers at the end of the episode. They meant being left hanging for a few days or even a whole week until you finally found out what would happen next. Or special Christmas episodes. If you see them now, rewatching series like Friends, Scrubs or New Girl, you immediately know that they must have originally aired at the appropriate time of the year. In a world of video-on-demand and big streaming services, where whole seasons are released at once and you independently manage – more or…

"From the age of eight, 80 percent of the public spaces can be dominated by boys, and girls express that they feel significantly more insecure and excluded," is how Tove Ahlström, Chief Executive Officer at the Swedish think tank Global Utmaning, describes the current situation in 2021. These figures hit home, but at the same time they are not surprising. They seem to be the understandable symptom of a world built on social injustice. A world whose cities have been guided by exclusive planning paradigms for decades. Where men plan for men. An approach that for decades was considered the consensus in urban planning and architecture. A design based on this approach has established itself as the normal state of affairs to this day. Where have all the young girls…

Why do some people lose in life? Why do others win? Which point in time decides the outcome of a crisis? Questions upon questions, but one thing is certain. Young people, despite many privileges, do not have it easy. At the latest when they leave a socially accepted path, they are all too often dropped. The youth in metropolises fare the same, or even worse. Once they are no longer small and cute, they lose social consideration. Is this necessary? Let’s face it. Many metropolises in the western world suffer from two major plagues. Poor people and young people. Poor people are already talked about far too much, so today I would like to focus on young people. By young people I do not mean children. Cute, small, harmless and…

For as long as humans have remembered, movement has been part of survival. Hunting, gathering, running, searching, loving and much more. Where we played sports for centuries, other forces are now at work. The anonymity of life in a metropolis makes it all the more difficult to grow up active, healthy and balanced. This is especially noticeable in our youth. This is not about "everything was better in the past". Not at all. But we are currently experiencing an unprecedented dramatic change in the reality of teenagers' lives. Especially in anonymous metropolises, people are moving less and less. Only many years later, in adulthood, do people start moving again. Thus, for the majority of young people in our cities, school sports remain the only exercise they do during the week.…

When it comes to supporting young people in urban settings, there is a part of society that is even more in need of support than the rest – LGBTQ+ youth and young adults. In Detroit, an organization was founded in 1999 that has made it its mission to support this exact group of people. With their vision of ‘a world where LGBTQ+ young people are safe and supported no matter where they go’, they have established multiple programs supporting homeless or at-risk youth. Their namesake Ruth Ellis was an African-American lesbian born in 1899 in Springfield, Illinois. She came out as a lesbian in 1915 and became a pioneer advocate for LGBTQ+ people in the Detroit area and beyond. The entrepreneur and her partner opened their home to all young…

The growth of the young population (aged 0–19) in Stockholm is remarkably high due to the rising birth rate. In addition, the people moving to Stockholm are mostly young adults (aged 20–34), oftentimes students. In this article, the discussed "youth" refers to people between the ages of 11 and 25. As Stockholm’s population continues to grow, it is essential that city planners account for this increase and look after the city’s youth. Why is this necessary? By now, we should all be familiar with the following statement, which is considered a fundamental basis for intergenerational justice and sustainability: "meet(s) the needs of present generations, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" ("Our Common Future" by WCED, 1987). Giving the youth a voice is thus a…

Let’s jump back in time: When you were 16 years old, what would you have wished for in the city you lived in? The help I needed was exactly what I got, which was to provide financial support to my family. I had my first big break with the Summer Youth Employment Program, or SYEP, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. My first job through the Summer Youth Employment Program was working at a daycare center in the Bronx. When I got paid, I was able to provide some money to my mother, a single mom of seven kids, to help her with the bills. So, it’s being financially responsible, having the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, and to help provide family support. Mayor Eric Adams has…

The National Youth Council in Singapore defines the age of young people as 15 to 35. Voting is allowed from the age of 21 and the literacy rate of people between the ages of 15 and 24 was an impressive 99.85% in 2015. The Ministry for Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) is responsible for youths in Singapore. The ministry aims to encourage young people to get involved in the community and take on leadership roles. There are various support programs and initiatives together with the Ministry of Education. National Youth Council Singapore The National Youth Council Singapore (NYC) was established by the government in 1989 with a vision of an inspired and engaged youth. The NYC also has various programs such as an annual youth award and a resource hub…

My town, Médina Yoro Foulah, is one of Senegal’s 46 departments. It is located in the Kolda region, in Casamance, along the border with Gambia. I would like to see a healthy, green environment in this locality, which has given me the chance to open up to the rest of the world; high-level health infrastructure to combat home births and improve the health of the community; well-tarmacked roads to connect with the rest of the country and develop the local economy; state-of-the-art schools to improve the education of young people, especially girls; and processing plants to reduce youth un- employment. I'd like to see continuous electricity supply to combat insecurity, and boreholes to help women who have to travel miles just to get drinking water. I'd like Médina Yoro Foulah…

I really like Budapest because of the hustle and bustle. Everyday there is something interesting, funny or just completely unusual to see. I think in Budapest the public transportation is world class. We have four metro lines, about ten tram lines and a lot of busses. Two huge parks await lovers of outdoor activities – Margaret Island and the Garden of Capital. However, from my point of view, we need more green space for the city. Not necessarily as big as Margaret Island, but there could be more smaller landscaped ar- eas. Because of the lack of green spaces, the air isn't the best, especially in the city center. Cars and factories emit a lot of exhaust fumes, which is not very environmentally friendly. In my opinion, Budapest needs to…

Theresa Ramisch studied Urban Planning at the TU Munich. She began working as an editor for G+L and topos in 2016. Since 2021, she has been Editor in Chief for G+L – the leading German magazine for Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Since 2023, she has been as well Editor in Chief for topos. t.ramisch@georg-media.de Anna Arndt is a student of communication science as well as art, music and theatre at LMU University Munich. She joined Georg Media in 2022 as a student trainee. a.arndt@georg-media.de Ramona Kraxner finished her studies in architecture with the Graz Diploma Award 2020. She soon started to actively engage in critical discourse and eventually in architecture communication. She works as an editor for Georg Media. r.kraxner@georg-media.de Jessica Mankel studied History of Art at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz. In…