Herbert J. Gans, an eminent sociologist who studied the communities and cultural bastions of America up close and shattered popular myths about urban and suburban life, poverty, ethnic groups and the news media, died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 97. His death was confirmed by his son, David Gans. A refugee…
Even before presenting a plan on Wednesday for his government, Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, persuaded Parliament to bypass constitutional limits to let him spend more on Germany’s military. This led observers to point out that any new German tank would have a hard time crossing a German bridge. The country once vaunted for…
A pungent smell of rotting garbage fills the air. Bulging sacks of trash pile high, some spilling their festering contents. And, with vermin plaguing parts of the city, at least one resident has claimed to have been bitten by a rat. With its heritage as a manufacturing powerhouse and its proud civic history, Birmingham likes…
Last year, when Andre Rouhani and Gabriela Reyes toured Culdesac Tempe, a rental development outside of Phoenix, the place looked pretty sweet. It had winsome walkways, boutique shops and low-slung white stucco buildings clustered around shaded courtyards. The only surprise came when Mr. Rouhani, 33, a doctoral student at Arizona State University, asked about resident…
There’s nothing worse than a noisy neighbor when you are trying to have a nice meal — even if that meal consists of liquefying the insides of your prey before sucking them back up. New research shows that some spiders living in cities somehow weave soundproofing designs into the fabric of their webs to manage…
Early evidence is promising. In 2023, the region added 30,000 foreign-born residents, amounting to a 23.2 percent increase in the immigrant population, according to census data. (The New York City area added 88,000, only a 1.5 percent increase.) That was almost enough to offset the loss of 34,000 native-born residents. “We have no choice but…
An enduring urban legend has it that blind, albino alligators patrol New York City’s sewers. These mythical crocodilians have become ingrained in the city’s lore, and some New Yorkers even celebrate Alligator in the Sewer Day each February. But in Florida, alligators in the sewers are no myth. The reptiles routinely find their way into…
The Houston public school classroom might have looked like any other, if not for an unusual feature on the whiteboard: A countdown timer. The teacher leading the English lesson allowed her fourth graders “10 more seconds to log in” for tech problems. Then she asked the class to read a passage to determine the author’s…
Fire and wind are certain to shape the future of Los Angeles as the world warms. Los Angeles had started taking steps to prepare. But there are lessons it can learn from other cities adapting to extreme fire weather: managing yards; taking care of neighbors; making it easier to get out of harm’s way. One…
When the rioters came for Spellow Library, they used the nonfiction section as kindling. Deborah Moore, then the library’s manager, arrived the next morning to find that the shelves and couches recently purchased as part of a refurbishment project had been stacked up to build a pyre on the ground floor. The books that had…