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Remembering journalist and former City Limits editor Tom Robbins, who died this week after decades spent sharing the stories of New Yorkers who, as he put it, “were at work in the trenches…trying to do what government had refused to do” for their neighborhoods.
This post has been updated since original publication.
Tom Robbins first joined City Limits as an associate editor in 1980, having previously worked as a housing organizer on the Lower East Side, at a time when “landlords would step out the door and torch their buildings,” he recalled decades later.
That early community activism was a fitting gateway into a long and storied career in investigative and accountability journalism, including five years as an editor with City Limits and later roles with the New York Daily News, The Village Voice, and THE CITY (read that newsroom’s tribute, co-authored by former City Limits editor Alyssa Katz, here).
Robbins most recently served as the Investigative Reporter in Residence at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, a position he held for years until his death this week at the age of 76.
RELATED READING: Tom Robbins and the Truth, by Jarrett Murphy
“What makes reporting the greatest job in the world is that you get to talk to people and hear their stories,” he said in a 2018 speech at City Limits’ 42nd anniversary gala, where he was honored with the newsroom’s Urban Journalist Award. “And there were no better stories to be recorded than those told by the folks who were at work in the trenches back then trying to do what government had refused to do—to stop abandonment, to rescue buildings from lousy landlords, to push banks and politicians to reinvest, to create new affordable homes.”
Robbins recorded countless such stories during his decades covering the city. He marched alongside housing organizers in spring of 1985 as they picketed on Fifth Avenue outside Trump Tower, “battling programs that granted fat tax breaks to luxury development while shortchanging affordable housing.” He chronicled the long fight over Seward Park, five-acres of land along Manhattan’s Delancey Street that sat vacant for years after the city evicted thousands of residents, and razed their homes, in an act of “urban renewal.” He attended the housing court hearing of a single mother and her son in Queens facing eviction from their apartment, where the landlord had removed the doors in an attempt to get them out.
“Writing for City Limits allowed me to be a witness to the battles everyday New Yorkers were waging in neighborhoods throughout the city,” Robbins said in that earlier gala speech.
He continued:
“Being there changes you. It informs how you see the world. Icicles on a radiator in an East Flatbush apartment where kids are huddled under blankets. (I remember this one clearly because my pal Marc Jahr took a photo of it). Slick rat holes in a tenement on Norfolk Street where the landlord is trying to evict everyone. Roofs caved in by fires purposely set to empty a huge complex in Boro Park. A millionaire politician preening at the old Board of Estimate that low income housing only breeds crime. I’ve been out of City Limits for more than 30 years but those images stay with me, and shape how I see the world I write about.”
“But the bigger story from that time—and this is another takeaway—remains to be told: How New York City was really saved from what’s now considered the bad old days. Somehow the prevailing wisdom among those who claim to know what turned New York around in that era is that it was largely the work of a few farsighted politicians and financial leaders. That ultimately it took a mayor who promised to crack down wherever there were broken windows. That kind of talk always makes me grind my teeth. Because those of us who watched it happen know that neighborhood groups were the only ones fixing broken windows decades before that mayor took office. And they had to do it largely on their own.”
You can read Robbins’ full remarks from that 2018 event here.
Beyond his own reporting, Robbins taught and mentored many emerging journalists in the craft of covering New Yorkers’ stories, and always with an eye toward exposing injustice. City Limits was lucky to collaborate on and publish some of that work, including student-led investigations into a web of deteriorating properties owned by a notorious Bronx landlord, and another into how errors on court and law enforcement records threatened the livelihoods of millions across New York State.
–Jeanmarie Evelly, editor, City Limits
When I first came to New York in 1986 to help launch a not-for-profit dedicated to media criticism, I was fortunate enough to encounter Tom Robbins for the first time. Tom was 11 years older than me, and he had already accomplished much by then—first by being City Limits’ formative editor, and having made waves early in what would be a decades-long tenure of pathbreaking reportage at the Village Voice and Daily News.
When I met him, Tom already felt part of a larger than life historic cohort of New York journalists. He, and the cadre of civically engaged reporters and columnists then working at the Village Voice (and elsewhere), had a definitively New York sensibility. This was not only as a result of their beats, but in the brave, stubborn way they went about covering stories and uncovering graft, vanity and hubris. No fear or favor. Corrupt political dealings, unions failing on their promise, the perversion of justice or the pernicious influence of organized crime in city life—all were targets for Tom.
He was an avatar of a tradition that stretched back to Jacob Riss and Nellie Bly and went through Breslin, Kempton, Hamill, Newfield and his comrade in arms, Wayne Barrett. Tom worked not only at breaking stories but seeking in his own way to investigate, interrogate and define the promise and peril of New York City.
At the very first, he seemed a little larger than life to me, but swiftly we became friendly, sometimes combatively so when I moved on to become a press secretary in local government. When I later became the steward of City Limits for a time in the early 2000s, Tom was a source of reassurance, wisdom, guidance and realism—not to mention support and generosity. His time as City Limits editor set a template for its work of serious, policy-focused journalism. A journalism that seeks to uplift the afflicted and hold the powerful accountable. The true north he set is still etched on City Limits’ compass.
Tom carried a wry, sometimes slightly world-weary air that was leavened by a gentle sardonic humor, a proverbial twinkle in his eye, a reservoir of deep kindness and a seriousness of moral purpose in his work. He was a good man. He was the best of New York. He will be missed.
—Andy Breslau, board member, City Limits
Tom was the best. We met the late ’70s when he came to City Limits while UHAB was a sponsor and I proudly remained a source ever since. There was nothing better than getting a call from Tom to ask about how some aspect of municipal finance and real estate could be abused and did I know anything about a new budding abuse or story. He will be missed by the city he loved and all who had the joy and privilege of working with him.
—Chuck Laven, City Limits board member circa 1980
Tom was not just an outstanding reporter. He was an exceptional person. When I joined City Limits to “replace” Tom—physically, not remotely in journalistic ability—he was very approachable, offering guidance and encouragement. Some 30-plus years later, when my older daughter graduated from journalism school, he was there to offer her advice. Tom gave himself, literally, to friends, colleagues and the city. It was an honor to know him and I offer my deepest condolences to his family.
—Doug Turketsky, former City Limits reporter and editor
When I think of Tom Robbins, both his passion and compassion come to mind. He truly loved New York and had a unique way of bringing to light (including right here in City Limits) the colorful characters who shaped the city, for better or worse. Also admirable: at any given time, he could be engrossed with a full plate of investigative features to grapple with yet he never hesitated to accept an invite to visit classrooms to share lessons from his many adventures with aspiring journalists. If you got to spend any time with Tom, you knew (in real time) how fortunate you were. His impact is immense. —Curtis Stephen, former City Limits reporter
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