A Day in New York City with The Municipal Art Society's Rawnak Zaman

Rawnak Zaman works at The Municipal Art Society of New York, a civic organization that advocates for planning and public realm policies that foster a more livable city. As a project manager with a focus in urban planning and data analytics, she supports MAS research in topics like resiliency in the public realm and the implications and outcomes of land use proposals, and enjoys visualizing planning concepts and spatial data with education in mind.

8:00am: I adopted a kitty recently and she really is a creature of habit. I know I’ll wake up to her lounging nearby, waiting for me to get out of bed and do something interesting. My little shadow will accompany me patiently as I get through my morning to-dos right up until I serve her breakfast, at which point my presence is summarily dismissed!

8:45 am: I usually have a light breakfast and then I’m off to work. If I’m going into the office, on my subway commute I listen to music or try to squeeze in a chapter of the book I’m currently reading. Right now, that book is Bushra Rehman’s Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, which follows the coming-of-age journey of a South Asian girl from Corona, Queens in the 80s. As a first-generation Queens kid myself, my trajectory to planning was influenced by my own lived experience and a desire to understand how the city ticks and how it can work better for everyone.

10:00 am: MAS has a long history — 130 years, in fact — of advocating for urban planning and historic preservation best practices and convening and joining coalitions to push for policy changes. The organization was also the first to curate architectural walking tours in New York City, back in 1956! Today, our work is a mix of community capacity building, policy research and advocacy, and programming around New York arts, culture, and architecture. Every other week, the planning, policy, and programs staff get together to discuss ongoing projects, upcoming events, and the City policies and public meetings that we are tracking. We also keep up with news, reports, and policy papers related to topics and issues of interest and relevance to the five boroughs. I even have an email inbox dedicated to newsletters that I skim every morning.

11:30 pm: A lot of the impact of an advocacy organization is rooted in relationship building and information gathering. In order to understand an issue better, strategize about how to gain the support of an elected official for a legislative proposal, or support peer organizations in their own efforts, we have the privilege of working with and consulting experts across the city. One such way is through coalitions made up of organizations and individuals that, as the name suggests, coalesce around a policy objective and combine their capacity and expertise. I participate in the Racial Impact Study Coalition, which successfully advocated for legislation requiring data on racialized displacement in the formal application process for large land use projects and is now coordinating an engagement strategy to inform community leaders and organizers about using publicly available data for proactive community-led advocacy efforts.

12:30 pm: Our office is in Midtown Manhattan, across the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Rain or shine, it’s sure to be bustling outside. For lunch, I like to grab food at a street vendor’s cart. If the weather is particularly nice, my coworkers and I will take our lunch outside to one of the privately owned public spaces, or POPS, near the office. POPS are a result of a development incentive: in exchange for additional square footage, a developer constructs publicly accessible open space on their property. However, not all POPS are alike, nor do they all operate as required. MAS has advocated for better agency oversight of the city’s POPS to ensure that they are serving the public interest.

1:30 pm: MAS will sometimes comment on projects or zoning proposals, either in the form of a verbal or written testimony during the City’s formal public review process, or through letters supporting or providing input on policies relevant to our advocacy agenda. Even if we’re not actively commenting on a project, we regularly tune into public meetings and hearings to learn about proposals and hear from stakeholders. Now, with hybrid and virtual events on the rise, it’s also much easier to attend information sessions and panels on planning topics. And as planners and advocates, we also make an effort to go out to visit the projects we are tracking in our work.

2:30 pm: I do a fair amount of research, writing, and data analysis. Often, this entails web research. Other times, it may warrant a dive into MAS files to understand past positions on a topic to inform the next phase of research. MAS is also home to the Greenacre Reference Library, through which we can pull periodicals or archival material. On the data side of things, the City of New York alone publishes hundreds of datasets on city operations, different performance metrics, and all of the different categories of boundaries delineating what can be built where.

Spatial data files, which have a geographic component, enable us to map and analyze information ranging from which buildings are within a floodplain to how much square footage for housing exists within a boundary. Spatial relationships help to demonstrate the interconnectedness of City policies, issues, and geography, and translate rows of data into visualizations that can be more relatable. Here’s an example from a project we completed with the New York City Housing Authority that visualizes elements of their climate adaptation plan for residents. A favorite of mine is a virtual birding tour that a colleague and I created for Jane’s Walk, an annual festival of free walking tours held in cities around the world. MAS organizes Jane’s Walk NYC!

4:00 pm: Late afternoon is a good time to take a walk to stretch my legs and get something to snack on. I do on occasion eat Cheetos with chopsticks. No regrets. I also check in with my fellow planners on projects that we’re collaborating on or intern work that we’re supervising. We’re a small team and our individual work often contributes toward a larger deliverable, so communication and coordination are important.

5:15 pm: As the workday comes to an end I make a note of items for follow-up the next day and browse any new articles that coworkers shared in our group chat.

6:30 pm: After work, I might meet a friend to catch up or opt to head home for a quiet evening with my family. Having a hybrid work schedule has also made it much easier to enjoy local businesses on a weekday. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to live in a city where one can find dishes from dozens of cultures, not to mention a classic New York slice, in a matter of blocks.

8:30 pm: I took up crochet and cross-stitch several years ago, and always have a project ongoing for when the mood strikes in the downtime after dinner, accompanied by a TV show or audiobook in the background. But if the creative flow isn’t flowing, I’ll just as happily settle in with a book or a video game to wind down.

11:45 pm: After some self-care (and cat care) I tuck in for the night and try to avoid scrolling on my phone. Sometimes my cat will come by and proceed to climb everything, which is an entertaining distraction. The dark of night is her domain. Happy adventuring!