City Journal is a public policymagazine and website that covers a wide range of topics, from policing strategy, education reform, and social policy to urban architecture, family culture, and contemporary theories emanating from law schools, charitable foundations, and public health organizations. The magazine began publishing in 1990.
Publication
The magazine is published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research a national free-market think tank based in New York City. It was edited by Peter Salins and then Fred Siegel in the early 1990s. Myron Magnet, its editor from 1994 to 2006, is now editor-at-large. City Journals current editor is Brian C. Anderson, who was appointed in late 2006 after serving as senior editor for ten years. Contributors include experts like Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald, Edward Glaeser, Steven Malanga, Nicole Gelinas, Kay Hymowitz, John Tierney, and Joel Kotkin. Though based in New York City, the magazine's scope is national and often international, through the contributions of writers such as Theodore Dalrymple, from Britain; Claire Berlinski and Guy Sorman from France; and Bruce Bawer in Norway. The magazine was also noticeable as one of the first to link to blogs on its website that referenced it, and to engage directly with the blogosphere. City Journal has also published several special issues beginning in autumn 2009. Subsequently, City Journal has put out special issues in autumn 2013, summer 2016, and spring 2017. The 2009 and 2013 special issues were focused on policy agendas for New York State and City. In 2016, City Journal published a special issue on the state of Texas, called "Texas Rising", and in 2017, City Journal considered the future of work and labor in an increasingly automated world, in an issue titled "The Shape of Work to Come".
Website
All articles from the print magazine are eventually published online at City Journals website, which also publishes original content daily, Mondays through Fridays. The first piece of new content for each week gets posted Sunday afternoon or evening. Original web pieces are generally shorter than the features in the print magazine, being typically about the length of an op-ed. They cover everything from public-policy issues and political developments to economics and popular culture. The website also hosts City Journals weekly podcast, 10 Blocks, which launched in February 2016. 10 Blocks features discussions on urban policy and culture with host Brian C. Anderson and City Journal editors, contributors, and special guests. Episodes cover topics such as: predictive policing; the Bronx renaissance; reform of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; homelessness in Portland, Oregon.
History
City Journal was founded in 1990 in response to New York City's crisis of governance, especially its high crime, amid broader anxieties about the future of American cities. City Journal has been called "arguably America's best magazine" by economist Thomas Sowell, and "the great Fool Killer in the arena of urban policy" by novelist Tom Wolfe. The New York Posteditorial board lauded it as "the magazine that helped save New York City". Jay Nordlinger, writing in National Review, called City Journal "a beacon of civilization". In 2016, City Journal ranked second in The Global Grids "Top 20 Urban Planning Websites", and again made the list in 2017, ranked fourth.
