Tag: public speaking

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Empathy in Historic Preservation | Interview with Historian Madeline Feierstein

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In this interview, Myles Zhang discusses with Madeline Feierstein his research project on the history (and possible future) of the old Essex County Jail in Newark. Madeline Feierstein is a historian of American history based in Alexandria, Virginia. She is particularly focused on psychiatric institutions, military hospitals, and prisons. Madeline has developed popular guided tours in Alexandria and Washington, D.C. Her meticulous research has been showcased at prestigious institutions, including the Alexandria Historical Society, DC Preservation League, and National Museum of Civil War Medicine. She leads significant projects documenting the soldiers who were treated and fell in Alexandria’s wartime hospitals.  Madeline’s… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Say no to the Ironbound trash incinerator!

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Speech given in July 2025, at the Newark City Council’s monthly Hearing of the Citizens: Link to full length recording of meeting (five hours) Attached sources: + Covanta’s damage to Newark, a fact sheet Written 2025 by Myles Zhang + Contract between Covanta and New York City Signed 2012, result of OPRA request submitted to New York City Department of Sanitation + Transcription of Spoken Remarks: VIEW PUBLICATION

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Civil Rights Rebellion in the Essex County Jail

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Season 13, Episode 6 of the Abandoned Engineering series for Discovery Channel, explores the old Essex County Jail in Newark, New Jersey. After seeing my research and reading my Master’s thesis project, Discovery Channel approached me about co-creating a documentary about this jail, which was streamed in July 2024, both in the U.S. and internationally in 20 languages. Based on featured interviews with me, this documentary commemorates those incarcerated here by highlighting the building’s historical significance and broader themes of injustice. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Homeownership and the Racial Wealth Gap

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Presented March 5, 2024 at the Newark Public Library and hosted by NJPAC on their website The world’s largest concentration of wealth is in the New York City metropolitan area, yet the region contains many under-resourced cities, including Newark. What historical factors created this division between low-income Newark and its wealthy neighbors along lines of race, housing, income and social class? The agents of change are more complex and nuanced than a simple narrative of redlining and white flight following the 1967 uprising. From discriminatory actions by the Federal Housing Administration and highways that carved through the urban fabric, to… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Racializing Space

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Why does the American city remain so spatially and racially divided? Drawing from the perspectives of architecture, planning, sociology, and history, this conversation considers the evidence for how the American city and suburb – specifically Detroit – remain spatially divided and what steps must be taken to fulfill the dream of an egalitarian metropolis. Panelists include: Karyn Lacy, professor of sociology and African American studies at the University of MichiganLaDale Winling, professor of American history at Virginia TechRobert Fishman, professor of history at the University of Michigan’s college of architecture and urban planning Why does the American city remain so… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Bulldozer Urbanism

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As featured in: James Street Commons demolitions completed and proposed as of April 2021 Note: Visiting NJIT’s architecture school at age six and seeing students working there was what initially inspired my desire to study architecture. NJIT is an asset to Newark, and the school deserves the quality of campus architecture to match. I wrote and circulated this essay about NJIT’s under-performing campus design to members of NJIT and the Newark community. I am sharing it online, too, in the hope that future leaders of NJIT will collaborate with the community to create campus architecture that is culturally and historically… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Zoning and Affordable Housing in Newark

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Featured June 2017 in this NJ.com news article about my computer simulation In the summer of 2017, I helped oppose the gentrification and rezoning of a neighborhood in my city. The area was zoned for buildings no higher than eight stories, which was respectful of the small and community scale of the existing structures. City officials, however, proposed rezoning a large section of the area  to permit structures up to eighteen story structures – four times taller than any other structure in the immediate area. Motivated by profit, the J&L Parking Corporation lobbied the city to increase the maximum allowed… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Say no to Edison ParkFast!

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Newark’s parking and land use crisis Edison ParkFast, among several Newark institutions such as Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, engaged in the systematic destruction of our city’s heritage. In the James Street Commons Historic District, for instance, Edison ParkFast and Rutgers are the single largest contributors to demolition of historic properties from 1978 to the present. Both demolished dozens of historic Newark homes and factories. As Edison ParkFast continues to consolidate its properties into ever larger parcels, the question arises: How will this entity develop this land? Will future development respect old Newark and our history? Too… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Public Speech: “Make Newark more bike friendly.”

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In July 2015, to encourage more bicycle initiatives and to protestthe spread of surface parking lots downtown, I joined several members of PLANewark to speak before the Newark City Council: Here are a few facts: One: Bikes are affordable. On the one hand, the average used car costs $16,000 (National Automobile Dealers Association). On the other hand, the average bike costs less than $500. Cars are 32 times more expensive than bikes, and that’s discounting gas, maintenance, and environmental costs. In a city whose average annual wage is almost $30,000 less than the state average, bikes are a sustainable transportation… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Public Speech: parking vs. preservation

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As featured by NJ.com in spring 2019 Update: Following a case filed by New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center on behalf of PLANewark, Edison Parking admitted that they demolished this building without seeking proper permission from city and state agencies. Edison was in negotations out of court with PLANewark about ways to mitigate the damage they caused. On a warm Sunday in August 2014, bulldozers started tearing away at a historic, turn-of-the-century loft space. Although the first floor was sealed with cinder blocks, the upper floor was adorned with large Chicago-style windows, intricate white terracotta carvings, and Greco-Roman ornament…. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Petition against Panasonic Company’s Newark Offices

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I am saddened when I walk through downtown Newark. The corporate towers of the “Renaissance” Center ignore the very city that gave them millions of dollars in tax breaks. They erect austere metal fences and protect their towers with obedient security guards that threaten pedestrians with arrest. They are scared of Newark. When Panasonic decided to move their national headquarters to Newark, I hoped they would buck the trend of icy disrespect. However, I saw that their new building turned its back to the city like so many other lifeless behemoths downtown. I wrote the following petition, signed by Newark… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Save Our Water: public speech in Newark

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On September 11, 2011, the Newark City Council was on the verge of passing landmark legislation: The Save Our Water Ordinance. This ordinance would guard the city’s public watershed from corporate privatization. I spoke before the city council in favor of the proposed legislation. MUA’s do not work: to see, look no farther than Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg. In 1992, the cash-strapped city sold its garbage incinerator for 42 million to The Harrisburg Authority, their MUA. The incinerator, already plagued with problems, only further deteriorated under private hands. In 2003, only 11 years later, the federal government closed the incinerator because… VIEW PUBLICATION

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End the Privatization Scheme: public speech in Newark

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When Mayor Cory Booker tried to privatize Newark’s water system, thousands of citizens protested by signing an initiative called the Save Our Water Ordinance. Privatization would jeopardize the city’s 35,000 acre watershed, permitting its forests to be developed by private companies. After much public outcry, the city was forced to reconsider privatization. However, the city government still needed to close the corrupt and semi-private agency managing the watershed, the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC). The presiding judge formed a committee to manage the closure. Yet, months later, the procrastinating committee was still not finished and was even trying… VIEW PUBLICATION