On June 24, 2026, sometime late afternoon, encircling the wooden conference table of the Department of Records and Information Services headquarters at 31 Chambers, where on the walls, assembled as asymmetrical triptychs are framed historical black-and-white photographs of bridges, street scenes, or graphic news clippings, three DORIS staff sat. At the center of the table two cell phones recorded a conversation: Commissioner Smith-Cruz with Assistant Commissioner Cobb, sat across from the Deputy Librarian, Julie Robbins. At the eve of her retirement, what began as an interview quickly became a recalling of the role and its impact on our city’s records. Below is a snippet of the conversation.
Welcome to Fear City
In my search for content that I could use to write curriculum aids, I came across a startling item in the Municipal Library vertical files: Welcome to Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York.
The cover image was too compelling to ignore, and its contents were even grimmer than expected. This “Survival Guide” contains nine “tips” for, well, surviving a vacation in the Big Apple. As you can see when you click inside the pamphlet, the tips are ominous, foreboding warnings such as “do not walk,” “avoid public transportation,” “Remain in Manhattan,” and “stay off the streets after 6 P.M.”
Swanky Restaurants, Luxury Hotels, & Radical Theater: A Review of the Immigrant Communities of New York
Beginning in 2018, For the Record posted articles about the Municipal Archives ongoing project to preserve and inventory the Manhattan Building Plan collection. In the most recent post last year, Project Archivist Amy Stecher provided a Building Plan Update. This week, conservator Elsie Karlak contributes a narrative of her three months on the project:
I was lucky enough to join colleagues as we continued to process plans for buildings located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The first home for many immigrants to the United States, this neighborhood experienced rapid growth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as evidenced by the large volume of “new building” (NB) applications submitted to the Department of Buildings to construct multi-family dwellings, usually described as tenements. Likewise, requests for permits to add plumbing, fire escapes, and other alterations illustrated the ongoing work necessary to make tenements safer for their residents.
A Century of Play: A History of New York City’s Playgrounds
As the summer heats up, we are taking a look at the history of New York City’s public playgrounds through the collections of the NYC Municipal Library. Government reports, manuals, photographs, and planning documents reveal how playgrounds have reflected the city’s changing priorities for more than a century, from public health and crime prevention to patriotism, accessibility, and safety.
A book titled Grounds For Play: The Movement that Built Playgrounds for the People of New York traces the origins of the playground movement in the late 19th century, when the city had no municipal playgrounds. As immigration surged, families crowded into squalid tenements, leaving children with little place to play beyond the congested streets. Reformers argued that public playgrounds would promote children’s health, provide safe spaces for recreation, and keep them away from the temptations of street life.
Central Park Lake Tour
With the return of warm weather, it is time to get outside and enjoy the City’s beautiful parks. This week, For the Record visits Manhattan’s Central Park for a tour around the Lake—19th Century style!
Located between 70th and 76th Streets, the 20-acre Central Park Lake connects the varied landscapes of the southern end of the park to the more pastoral vistas in the north. Park designers Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned the Lake as a way to provide an escape from urban life by creating an oasis within the city.
In winter 1858, the Lake became the first area in Central Park to be opened to the public. Called the “Skating Pond” on Vaux and Olmsted’s Greensward plan (their winning-design for the park competition), the Lake shows how the designers developed natural-looking waters throughout the park landscape.
America’s Forgotten 1689 Revolution and New York City’s First Mayoral Election
On May 16, 1691, in a drizzling rain, two middle-aged men climbed gallows erected at present-day One Pace Plaza near the Manhattan entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Before the largest crowd yet gathered in the small city of 5,000 inhabitants, Jacob Leisler and his newly wed son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, were hung until half-dead then beheaded. Their alleged crimes were “levying war” against King William and Queen Mary, counterfeiting their Majesties’ great seal, murdering one Josiah Browne, and “other high misdemeanors.” The executions traumatized the onlookers. The “shrieks of the people were dreadful, some were carried away lifeless, and some rushing forwards, almost ere the life of their beloved ruler was extinct.” The political repercussions reverberated throughout New York’s colonial period and still echo today. Historians focus on Jacob Leisler as the central figure of the turmoil. Yet, the events that came to be known as “Leisler’s Rebellion” were a result of broader international and local circumstances.