Oscar Perry Abello

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Oh! Did you try the DOF portal instead of the DOB portal?

propertyinformationportal.nyc.gov

Wait maybe I am missing something, it’s a literal map you can just zoom in and click around until find the one you need… is it a condo unit maybe? They can be tricky but they’re in here

& by the way if you want to find more solutions journalism, check out the @soljourno.bsky.social directory or better yet their Solutions Story Tracker storytracker.solutionsjournalism.org

If the places where you get what you call the news make you feel paralyzed, maybe just maybe those places are no longer really producing journalism. Maybe it's something else. I don't know what. But maybe just maybe what you need is journalism, not whatever it is that makes you feel paralyzed.

Maybe just maybe it's because you see or feel something of yourself in those stories, and you're seeing that part of you finally acted upon and manifesting something real and valuable for the world, instead of just feeling paralyzed and hopeless. Journalism is supposed to move us, not paralyze us.

Facts, context, compelling narrative. That's what all journalists do. Traditional or solutions-oriented.

If, after reading any of those stories above, you feel compelled to *do something* similar or not at all similar yet reflective of a more hope-filled vision of the world, ask yourself why.

It's the same for us as solutions-oriented journalists. It's not for me to decide whether you should do what the people or organizations in my reporting are doing. But I can describe for you in fine grained detail what they are doing, why they are doing it, & how they got the idea to do it that way.

When more traditional journalists report about corruption or other wrongdoing, they don't get accused of advocating that someone else should do what the subjects in their stories are doing. They are simply reporting out facts, providing context, and yes maybe a little bit of compelling narrative.

I could go on and on. I've been reporting stories like these for ten years and counting at @nextcity.org, where we practice something called "solutions journalism."

As solutions-oriented journalists, we don't advocate that anybody should do what the people & organizations in our stories do.

Five Years In, Philly’s Kensington Corridor Trust Is Building Momentum With eight new acquisitions made last year, the Kensington Corridor Trust is growing its roots and capacity.

Since inception in 2019, Philly's Kensington Corridor Trust has acquired more than 30 properties under a "neighborhood trust" model where local residents and local business owners have power to decide which businesses they want to keep or attract to their neighborhood. nextcity.org/features/fiv...

Welcome to Boyfriend Co-op, Brooklyn’s New Queer Coffee Shop and Cocktail Bar Designed to feel like “a queer living room,” Boyfriend is all about ethical, sustainable practices – from its cooperative ownership structure to local ingredients to thrifted furniture.

A year ago, Brooklyn welcomed a new queer/woman/BIPOC-led cafe & cocktail bar. It's one of dozens of new worker-owned co-ops emerging across the city as workers realize they want to strike out on their own but not repeat the same toxic patterns of previous employers. nextcity.org/features/wel...

Impact Investing Isn’t Dead ESG is under threat, but racial equity and cooperative investments are still raising millions to finance their mission-driven projects.

The Boston Ujima Project is just one of a handful of BIPOC-led investment or real estate initiatives across the country that are gaining momentum and raising capital to advance their work even amidst these trying times. I caught up with a few of them early last year. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

Boston Ujima Project Is Investing in a Community Land Trust. Here’s Why It Matters. Traditional lenders remain slow to open their coffers to community land trusts. But this community-controlled investment fund did the work to understand the value of investing in a model built to…

The multi-faceted Boston Ujima Project is led & controlled by members of Boston's working class communities of color. One of those facets is perhaps the country's first democratically-managed investment fund. Last year, the fund made its first investment in real estate. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

Keeping the Story of Denver’s Forgotten Chinatown Alive As a landmark exhibit on Denver’s lost Chinatown closes, families and organizers are working to make Asian American history a permanent part of the city’s landscape.

DYK Denver used to have a Chinatown? Colorado's communities of Asian descent are organizing to surface lost histories long tucked away in attics & basements around the region. Stories they once felt shame around, are now proud reminders of how they helped build Denver. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

What If More Community Land Trusts Made Friends With Banks? Most community land trusts struggle to secure construction financing. In Pittsburgh, one has built a steady pipeline by building a relationship with a regional bank.

In Pittsburgh, City of Bridges Community Land Trust has rehabbed or built & sold more than 43 homes since inception in 2019, with dozens more on the way thanks to a partnership with a regional bank that models how other land trusts in other places could do the same. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

A Community Land Trust Is Raising the Bar for Community Power in Economic Development Denver’s Tierra Colectiva is showing how residents can shape — and own — mixed-use projects at a scale once reserved for private developers.

Denver's Globeville & Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods have long been predominantly Latino, working-class areas, but they're now in the crosshairs of a massive new redevelopment project. So they started taking back power over land & development to make sure they can stay. nextcity.org/features/a-c...

This Bronx Project Is Setting a New Standard for Community-Controlled Development After decades of failed mega-projects, the Kingsbridge Armory is now the site of one of the country’s most ambitious experiments in community ownership and shared control.

Members of the Kingsbridge Heights community have been organizing for decades around the long-vacant 570,000 square-foot Kingsbridge Armory. A few years ago they started demanding the city hand over the building to them to develop. They now own 20% of the building. nextcity.org/features/nor...

A New Loan Product Is Helping Power Brooklyn’s Coops A Brooklyn credit union just launched a new loan product designed for worker-owned cooperatives. For one agricultural coop, it’s already made a difference.

Brooklyn Packers celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. As a worker cooperative, its workers democratically own & manage the business. Worker co-ops have challenges accessing capital, but that's starting to change thanks to another kind of co-op — a credit union. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

Three Years In, America’s First New Black-Led Bank in 20 Years Is Picking Up Steam Adelphi Bank in Columbus has grown to $100 million in total assets by leaning into what community banks do best.

Three years ago, Adelphi Bank in Columbus, OH opened its doors to become the first new African American-designated bank since 2003. It's since grown to $100 million in assets, including $23 million in construction loans & $35 million in commercial real estate loans. nextcity.org/urbanist-new...

Black Commercial Corridors Are Still Banking On Culture From West Oakland to Birmingham, historic commercial districts in Black neighborhoods are using cultural preservation to drive community investment.

In Oakland, the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is reclaiming a growing portfolio of properties including the historic but long shuttered Esther's Orbit Room, which it is now reviving as a cultural anchor for a historically Black commercial corridor. nextcity.org/features/bla...

Someone out there is feeling just as much despair & grief as you are, if not more. & yet they still go out there every day to build something — a business, a community, an actual building — in a way that reflects a shared vision for different world, a world where they finally feel seen & cared for.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing recently another perhaps historic uptick in despair & grief. I get it. There are real reasons to feel those things right now. I'm not here to deny that.

But let me show you how I know it's possible to know how fucked up the world is and still choose to hope.

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Explainer from @anabelrose.bsky.social on how Lexington's medical debt relief uses municipal funds to wipe the slate clean - and how organizers in Paducah are pursuing the same partnership via a crowdfunding campaign.

Guy Branum on Instagram: "In honor of @alysaxliu’s Gold Medal women’s #figureskating win at the #winterolympics, a couple of people requested I trace the strange, deeply campy history of her unusual b... 59K likes, 799 comments - guybranum on February 27, 2026: "In honor of @alysaxliu’s Gold Medal women’s #figureskating win at the #winterolympics, a couple of people requested I trace the strange, deep...

www.instagram.com/reel/DVREN0J...

The Bobafication of Manhattan’s Chinatown The proliferation of bubble tea shops displacing Chinatown’s legacy businesses might not “look” like gentrification. That makes it even more insidious, some say.

“The facet of Chinese people that most Americans interact with is through Chinatown,” says Liu. “We had poorly misrepresented tea, which [my father] thought was a huge misrepresentation of our culture and even our values.”

nextcity.org/features/the...

On top of that I moderated a panel discussion years ago at UPenn where the city planning director said something like Philly is already zoned for 2m ppl but currently has 1.6m so there's plenty of room for as-of-right growth without up zoning everywhere. Still trying to verify that number though.