Silent Cities

A moving, recognizable look at life on lockdown and the effect the coronavirus pandemic had across the world—because every city had a story to tell, and at the end of it all, we were all in it together. In the past year, hospitals filled, highways and subways emptied, landmarks and parks were deserted, our healthcare workers became increasingly fatigued and frustrated, and nearly all human activity paused. In photographs, The Great Wall and The Colosseum look photoshopped, with no tourists in sight. This book is unique in that it creates a visual narrative to document that emptiness as a way to reflect and to find solace amid the shock. A year later, it's something we've all seen and can relate to. This is a stunning collection of the abandoned and austere sights of fifteen major cities throughout the world during the peak outbreak of COVID-19. With their fine art backgrounds and through their network of professional photographers, Julie and Jeffrey Loria worked together to capture the unprecedented lockdown conditions worldwide. The photos show a range of emotions from the physical and psychological weight of caskets being carried to a Rio cemetery, to the completely empty and eerie Times Square and Rodeo Drive, to the patriotic pride in Rome's t-shirt display honoring their Italian flag colors as a symbol of hope. The photographs are not only a reminder of the harrowing pandemic that hushed some of the world’s greatest urban streets, but also proof that across the globe, we were all in this together. Beneath the somberness in these images, there is a hint of beauty amid the stillness, but most of all, there is the presence of hope and promise that we will thrive again. Cities featured include: New York Jerusalem Boston Tokyo Paris Los Angeles Rome Rio de Janeiro San Francisco Washington, DC London Miami Tel Aviv Madrid Chicago

Urban historian Kenneth Jackson (The Encyclopedia of New York) and photographer Camilo Vergara collaborate to present a fascinating and beautiful examination of the American cemetery.

In 1914, desperate for land after the Gold Rush brought a population explosion to San Francisco, the city exiled its cemeteries, barring burials within city limits and relocating its existing graveyards to the tiny town of Colma, just south of Daly City, spawning America's only necropolis, where the dead outnumber the living 1000 to 1. But there's more to the story of the Bay Area's cemeteries than this expulsion. Silent Cities San Francisco reveals the complex cultural makeup of the Bay Area, where diversity and history collide, pitting the dead against the living in a race for space and memorialization.

New Yorkers have always been pressed for space in life and in death. Central Park is synonymous with New York City. But without Green-Wood Cemetery, located in South Brooklyn, Central Park would have never existed. Founded in 1838, Green-Wood became the city’s most popular tourist attraction. The cemetery was so popular that urban planners challenged architects to come up with plans for a separate green-space for Manhattan. Hence, both Central Park, founded in 1857, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in 1867, were born. Green-Wood presented not only a place to bury the dead but a meditative haven away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Other cemeteries followed in the park style, including Sleepy Hollow and Woodlawn. New York’s changing cultural landscape made Ferncliff Cemetery one of the most coveted places to spend eternity, with the rising popularity of Westchester County and suburban living. New Yorkers even secured a place for the four-legged members of the family with Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, now the largest and oldest pet cemetery in the United States. From the movers and shakers of New York society, to corrupt political bosses and mafiosi, Jazz legends, and a Brooklyn native son who returned to Green-Wood as one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, the stories of the permanent residents of these cemeteries are just as diverse and vibrant as the city itself. To travel through the cemeteries of New York is to travel through the hidden history of what some consider to be the greatest city in the world.

Silent Cities presents Mat Hennek's portraits of some of the world's great cities-from New York, Los Angeles and London, to Tokyo, Munich and Abu Dhabi-yet all curiously lacking people. Conceived and constructed by man as vessels for human activity, these metropolises are transformed by Hennek into monuments of silence: empty, some-times eerie sites for rituals of work and recreation that are yet to take place. Whether the shimmering windows of a Dallas office building, a lush Hong Kong garden of palms, blooms and fountains, the famed pastel terraced facades of Monaco, or rows of trolleys outside the concrete bulk of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, Hennek's pictures demonstrate a consistent formal rigor and recast familiar environments as new sources for focus and reflection.His photographs [...] collect so many elements that they have the power of mandalas, representing the universe in a fragment, and provoking a state of pure contemplation: in the simple experience of gazing, everything becomes pure. Laureline Amanieux

Summary: There was a city where the song of life was heard all the time, but now quiet has taken over. This area, called the "Silent City," is only a shell of what it used to be. People there have only vague memories of how comforting it was to cry openly, how warm it was to laugh, and how much fun it was to talk. A little girl named Lila came in as a bright spot of hope in this otherwise calm place. Lila had a voice that could break through the wall of silence that had surrounded the city's spirit. No one else in the Silent City could match it. The road Lila took shows how strong optimism is and how strong the human spirit is. Lila set out on a trip to undo the sorcerer's curse that had silenced the city's voices. Milo, her loyal companion and a young man who was good at reading lips and the language of gestures, followed her. As Lila and Milo walked through rivers that repeated the world's silence and forests where echoes slept, they faced the loneliness that had enveloped their home. After their trip, they got to the sorcerer's castle, which was in the middle of the silence. There, they found a shocking but important truth. The magician, who had been a figure of mystery and fear, was shown to be a victim of his own spell. The silence he had forced was what pulled him in. Because Lila was kind and had a beautiful voice, she helped the magician see how stupid he had been. They were able to break the curse and fill the Silent City with music, laughter, and sound. The change that happened in The Silent City is a lesson of how strong friendship, kindness, and the ability to hear and understand are. Lila's story shows us that hope can be heard even in the heaviest silence and that kindness and understanding can break even the strongest curses. The city used to be known for being very quiet, but now it values every wind sound and every laugh from its people. They realized that their real power was in working together and loving each other. This shows how the world can change when people are free to speak their minds and hearts are open. Chapter 1: The Trickster On a faraway land, there used to be a thriving metropolis called the Silent City. But it wasn't always quiet. It used to be a busy place where lots of things happened. Imagine going down a street where people are talking and laughing, musicians are playing happy music, and store owners are calling people over to check out their goods. Kids were playing in the street, and their cries and laughs could be heard through the building walls. There was a lovely mix of these sounds in the air as birds chirped in the trees. The city honored music and life every day. Some people did not like the noise, though. There was a strong witch who lived far from the city and liked silence more than any sound. He thought that noise from cities disturbed the peace of the land, while quiet was pure. Hearing the sounds of life and happiness made him even more angry. He believed that the city's residents were so happy and loud, and that the noise wasn't needed. He had not heard happiness or music in a long time, and he wished the world could stay as quiet as it was. At night, when the moon was out, the magician said he couldn't stand the noise from the city any longer. With a wave of his magic stick and a spell in a language no one knew, he cast a strong spell. Unlike any other magic, this one was a curse that could stop all sound. As the magic spread through the city, all sounds, like giggles, whispers, and music, became quiet. When the sun came up the next day, the city was quiet. They found out they were deaf and hard of hearing when they woke up. There was no more music, no more laughter from the kids, and the birds didn't sound like they could be heard. The city, which used to be busy, was now very quiet. The wizard felt good about what he had done and watched from afar. He thought that by getting rid of the noise, the land was once again peaceful. He didn't know, though, that the sounds of the city were lively and exciting. The city was empty and noisy without them. People were upset because they missed the part of their lives that gave them purpose. They were no longer happy or like they belonged, and they could not hear or talk because of the curse. There was still hope, though, because in the silence, a little girl named Lila found something amazing about herself that could change everything. Chapter 2: How Lila Was Found. Lila, a little girl, lived in a place where being still was normal. Everything in her small apartment in the Silent City was as quiet as it could be. Because of the sorcerer's curse, people can't remember the tune of a song or the sound of a loved one laughing. But Lila was different. Lila realized one day that she had a gift that no one else in the city had. This was while everyone else was hidden by the background noise of the city. Like everything else in the Silent City, it was very quiet. Lila loved being in her yard because the flowers and plants seemed to hear her even when she couldn't. Her basic way of meeting a flower was "hello," and she bowed to say it. She didn't expect anything in return. She was shocked to see that the flower looked like it was dancing, gently moving as if it could hear her. Lila was shocked. She tried to whisper again, first to one flower and then to another. Each time she spoke, the flowers moved slowly in answer. It looked like her words were a light breeze that made them come alive. Lila was thrilled as she played around with her new skill. She sang a well-known tune when music filled the air before the curse. As she hummed, the garden seemed to come to life. The flowers swayed more wildly, and the trees looked like they were leaning in closer to hear the sound that had become so strange in their area. Lila found it hard to believe. In a place where sounds have been taken away, her voice might break the silence. When Lila found out this, she was both excited and motivated. She thought her voice might be able to do more than just make the flowers dance. The sounds that the city had lost might be able to be brought back by her voice. There was a spell on the Silent City that made it very quiet. She might be able to break the magic. Lila knew this wasn't going to be simple. She knew her trip would be hard, but the thought of bringing back the voice of her city, along with laughter, music, and other happy sounds of life, gave her strength. No matter what it took, she was going to break the curse. Following the sound inside her head, Lila was ready to go on a trip that could change everything. She found something that gave her hope, even though she was only a child. Hope can be the strongest force of all.

The face of the pedestrian safety crisis looks a lot like Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez. The 77-year old grandfather was struck in a hit-and-run crash while trying to cross a high-speed, six-lane road without crosswalks near his son’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. He was one of the more than 6,000 people killed while walking in America in 2018. In the last ten years, there has been a 50 percent increase in pedestrian deaths. The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguez—immigrants, the poor, and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten. In Right of Way, journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguez’s are not unavoidable “accidents.” They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve. Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dying—and she demands action. Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem, acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths, and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately, Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives. Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities, where no one is expendable.

Virtual cities are places of often-fractured geographies, impossible physics, outrageous assumptions and almost untamed imaginations given digital structure. This book, the first atlas of its kind, aims to explore, map, study and celebrate them. To imagine what they would be like in reality. To paint a lasting picture of their domes, arches and walls. From metropolitan sci-fi open worlds and medieval fantasy towns to contemporary cities and glimpses of gothic horror, author and urban planner Konstantinos Dimopoulos and visual artist Maria Kallikaki have brought to life over forty game cities. Together, they document the deep and exhilarating history of iconic gaming landscapes through richly illustrated commentary and analysis. Virtual Cities transports us into these imaginary worlds, through cities that span over four decades of digital history across literary and gaming genres. Travel to fantasy cities like World of Warcraft’s Orgrimmar and Grim Fandango’s Rubacava; envision what could be in the familiar cities of Assassin’s Creed’s London and Gabriel Knight’s New Orleans; and steal a glimpse of cities of the future, in Final Fantasy VII’s Midgar and Half-Life 2’s City 17. Within, there are many more worlds to discover – each formed in the deepest corners of the imagination, their immense beauty and complexity astounding for artists, game designers, world builders and, above all, anyone who plays and cares about video games.