Bankruptcy is not as bad as you think. Before you dismiss this seemingly novel idea, give Phill Mahony a chance to explain it to you.

I am decades older now than I was on that visit to Mermaid Avenue in Coney Island but fundamentally I am the same. I am still the hopeful romantic about my city, albeit now a warmer one with different flora, mountains, tastes and accents.

Because public canvases can do a lot more than brighten a wall.

When Margaret Eby moved from her native Alabama to New York City, like many college freshman before her, she found that her first New York experience revolved around Manhattan. But after graduation she found her way to an apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. "It feels more like home" than other spots she's lived, she says.