In early February 1976, a newsletter was printed on yellow paper, stapled and sent out to housing advocates around New York. The name across the top was “City Limits.” Over the subsequent four decades, City Limits would grow to become the city’s leading source for policy news and investigative reporting on issues facing low-income communities. The design, the staff and our medium changed. Our commitment to reporting on the New York that most media don’t cover did not.
In early February 1976, a newsletter was printed on yellow paper, stapled and sent out. The design was utilitarian. The writing was straightforward. The name across the top was ‘City Limits.’
Since its launch four decades ago, City Limits has tried to tell the story of New York City from the perspective of people who, when they strolled the corridors of power, did so with a visitor’s pass.
Launched to share information among the housing advocates and community leaders rebuilding New York, City Limits grew to cover the issues, neighborhoods and people who made the city what it was over the past four decades.
Watch Wayne Barrett, Tom Robbins, Henry Garrido, Julissa Ferreras-Copeland and others celebrate City Limits’ 40th anniversary.
You, too, can possess the journal from our 40th anniversary gala celebration. Autographs cost extra.
City Limits exists to show New York another side of itself, and over the past 40 years, a roster of talented photographers (joined, occasionally, by a not-so-talented editor who happened to be holding a camera) has helped capture the people and places we covered.
As City Limits celebrates four decades of reporting, past leaders recount the sites that were central to the city they lived in and reported on.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
