Cesare Alemanni

Urban planning does not simply organize space. It also shapes the conditions through which cultures emerge. In his latest article, Cesare Alemanni explores the relationship between segregation, urban development, and the birth of hip hop. Starting with the legacy of Robert Moses, the architect of modern New York, the piece traces how highways, public disinvestment, and housing policies …

Racial inequality in the United States is not accidental. It is designed. Redlining transformed racism into policy, embedding segregation into the financial and urban structure of American cities. Its consequences remain visible today.

Detroit wasn’t just a city: it was an idea of America. It was the place where technology married utopia, where every single engine produced seemed to move not just four wheels, but an entire social system. When deindustrialization hit and the social system faltered, Detroit did not stop being a symbol. It just changed the kind of symbol it represented: from capital of industry to epicentre of …