About Us

Next American City is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting cities and informing the people who work to improve them. Originally named The Next American City, the organization began publishing a quarterly magazine in 2003. What started as a black-and-white printed publication staffed by volunteers ultimately grew into a popular and influential magazine that reached 1 million people over the course of its 31 issues. It spawned a popular website, local events in cities around the country, and the Next American Vanguard and Open Cities conferences.

In 2012, Next American City announced that it would cease publication of the magazine. Next American City now publishes a weekly long-form journalism product called Forefront, which is available by subscription, and a daily blog that networks urban affairs reporting from around the country. In addition to publishing these media, it also runs The Storefront for Urban Innovation, a Philadelphia hub for events and exhibitions related to urban issues.

Next American City deeply appreciates its funders, past and present: Ford Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Blue Moon Fund, Living Cities, National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Dan & Joanna Rose, Surdna Foundation, William Penn Foundation, as well as our many other generous donors across the country.

Support our work by making a 100% tax-deductible donation to Next American City today.

Our Team

  • Diana Lind

    Diana Lind joined Next American City in 2008 and is the organization’s executive director and editor in chief. Diana was a 2011 Van Alen Institute Fellow and is the author of Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design (Rizzoli, 2008). She graduated from Cornell University (B.A., English) and Columbia University (M.F.A., Creative Writing). Her writing has been published in The New York Times, Architectural Record and many other publications and her work with Next American City has been profiled in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Monocle and many other media outlets.

  • Ariella Cohen

    Ariella Cohen is executive editor of Next American City. Prior to joining the staff of Next American City in January of 2012, she co-founded and helped direct the Gulf Coast region’s first and only non-profit urban affairs news outlet, The Lens. In 2010, her reporting for The Lens on the use and abuse of Hurricane Katrina recovery funds won The Press Club of New Orleans’ highest honors for investigative reporting and best overall feature writing. Ariella also held reporting jobs at The Brooklyn Paper, The Philadelphia Independent and contributed to Newsweek, City Limits, Architect Magazine and other publications. She is a graduate of Oberlin College (B.A., Creative Writing and Politics).

  • Matt Bevilacqua

    Matt Bevilacqua is associate editor of Next American City and oversees the content on americancity.org. Previously, he was based in Washington, D.C. where he attended George Washington University (B.A., Journalism) and wrote for Washington City Paper.

  • Tony Smyrski

    Anthony Smyrski is creative director of Next American City. He has designed books and other projects for clients such as Thames and Hudson, Powerhouse, Steve Powers, the Pew Foundation, Deloitte and Federal Express. In 2005, he and Dan Murphy founded the experimental media project Megawords. Recently, Megawords participated in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, a Creative Time project held in the Essex Street Market in Manhattan and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Our Partners

A good local journalist knows his or her city’s stories better than anyone 100 miles away. That’s why Next American City is building a network of independent local urban affairs outlets.

The aim of the network is to bring together online news organizations that are producing content relevant to our goal of making cities more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable places. We take the best of this network content and republish it on our site, with credit and links back to the partner site, of course. By doing this, we intend to become a more comprehensive and inclusive national platform for local voices. We believe that by co-publishing content from partner organizations within our network, we can help to broaden the content’s reach while ensuring that the national urban policy debate reflects on-the-asphalt realities in neighborhoods far from Capitol Hill. We help our readers by providing a curated yet diverse portal for the latest urban affairs journalism.

The Next American City network is growing every day. Please write to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you are interested in joining.

Our current partners include:

Board of Directors

  • Eugenie Birch, Penn Institute for Urban Research
  • Bruce Katz, The Brookings Institution
  • Andrew Kleeman, Vernon Energy Trading
  • Neil Kleiman, New York University
  • Barin Nahvi, Hearst Innovation
  • Tamar Shapiro German Marshall Fund
  • Jess Zimbabwe, Urban Land Institute

Board Emeritus

  • Vicki Been, New York University
  • Paul Brophy, Brophy Reilly LLC
  • Seth Brown, Aspen Equities
  • Adam Gordon, Fair Share Housing Center
  • Michelle Kuly Holland, Scatliff+Miller+Murray
  • Anika Singh Lemar, Wiggin & Dana
  • Vickie Tassan, Ally