How to Tag a Skyscraper, Six Hundred Feet Up
Two graffiti writers explain how they reached the tops of New York's tallest buildings.
Read at The New Yorker
Jake Offenhartz
A sample of my work published in The New Yorker, The Associated Press, Gothamist, The Village Voice, Complex and elsewhere. My most recent AP stories are here.
Talk of the Town
New York's Clock Master to City Hall: Time's Up!
An aging clock master and his slightly younger apprentice fight to keep the time.
Read at The New Yorker
Along the Gowanus Canal, Notes of Tar and Manure
A perfume "nose" catalogs the strange odors rising from Brooklyn's most infamous canal.
Read at The New Yorker
Mamdani Family Values
Zohran Mamdani's father just published his twelfth book. The topic? Dictators.
Read at The New YorkerAP Investigations
A 15-Year-Old Went to a Brooklyn Parade. The NYPD Wrongly Accused Him of a Mass Shooting
A teenager's life was upended by a false murder allegation. Why didn't the NYPD correct it?
Read at The Associated Press
Hard Hats and Dummy Plates: ICE Ruses Add to Fears in Minnesota
Disguises and deceptions are deepening fear during Trump's immigration crackdown.
Read at The Associated Press
Leqaa Kordia breaks her silence: ‘I feel helpless’
The last pro-Palestinian protester still locked up in Trump’s campus crackdown speaks exclusively to the AP.
Read at The Associated Press
Zohran Mamdani Wants to Crack Down on Bad Landlords. First He Has to Find Them
A maze of LLC is making it harder to trace New York's worst landlords.
Read at The Associated PressCity Life
Emails Show How Wealthy Donors Exerted Influence Over Washington Square Park
How affluent New Yorkers used a parks conservancy to rein in one of the city's wildest public spaces.
Read at Gothamist
“That Damn Hole Gave My Son Lead Poisoning”
The city claimed no one was harmed by its lead testing failures. So why is Kyan Paige sick?
Read at The Village Voice
The NYPD Accidentally Shot a Fellow Officer. A Queens Man May Spend Life in Prison for His Death
An accidental police shooting raises difficult questions about accountability.
Read at Gothamist
Listen: George Santos Eviction Tapes Show Him Begging to Feed Pet Fish, Mulling Public Assistance
Recordings uncovered by WNYC capture George Santos' years in housing court.
Read at Gothamist / WNYCArts & Culture
Legs McNeil Walks Into a Gilmore Girls Book Group
The author of Please Kill Me samples wine and cookies with an unlikely fandom.
Read at The Awl
Curb Alert: Junk-Lugging for Art's Sake
Ser Serpas, a trash-art "assemblagist," takes her pick of New York's litter ahead of a new show at MoMA PS1.
Read at The New Yorker
How Video Games Are Helping Young Veterans Cope
A generation of veterans suffering from PTSD discovers a new form of escape—and therapy.
Read at Complex
Reverend Billy Takes on Norman Foster's New Monolith
The street preacher Billy Talen moves from Mickey Mouse effigies to protesting JPMorgan Chase's ties to fossil fuels.
Read at The New Yorker