About

Upper West Stories is an online collection of interviews and photos with different people on the Upper West Side. The project started with a personal question: what does this neighborhood mean to me?

The UWS has been famous for its charming architecture, bohemian history, and family-oriented nature. But this desirability comes at a significant cost. I began interviewing people about their experiences living or working in the neighborhood, and a general theme of affordability (or rather, lack thereof) emerged.

This project is meant to be expanded upon, by myself, and the larger UWS community. I have developed a short question template that served as the jumping-off point for many of my discussions. It is my hope that with your engagement in this project, we can better understand where we see ourselves in the neighborhood, and what ‘desirability’ really means.