Making Change: Care Today, Gone Tomorrow

Caseworkers who can withstand the low pay and high strain of foster care jobs are in short supply. Their bosses can’t afford pay increases, so they’re offering something cheaper: counseling for the counselors.

City Lit: Heavy Suburban

A book review of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken, by Alex Marshall University of Texas Press, 269 pages, $24.95.

On Their Own Feat

When young adults outgrow foster care, the city gives them a few words of wisdom and $750. A private mentoring program keeps some out of poverty and homelessness, but will the city notice?

Liening on Homeowners

Activists monitoring the effect of the city’s tax lien sales program on apartment building tenants recently discovered something they weren’t looking for: The sales are hurting poor, often elderly outer-borough homeowners as well, thanks in large part to the program’s tough debt collection tactics.

Over the Edge

You’ll be hard-pressed to find Meadowmere on a map, or after a storm. Some residents want to jump ashore to Nassau County.