Kolkata (once known as Calcutta) is infamous for Sonagachi, one of the largest red light districts in Asia. About 10,000 women, trapped in the sex trade, live within a labyrinthine tangle of streets. Many are victims of human trafficking, young village girls lured to the city by false promises of a job or marriage, then sold on the doorstep of a brothel. Others enter the pain factories out of desperation and poverty.

A New York moment: 

Last week a longtime used book store on the Upper West Side, Westsider Books, announced it was closing. Locals were heartbroken: another cherished shop driven out by rising rents. You might have seen the bookstore at some point on the big screen. The narrow, dusty shop has appeared in movies like 2018’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? and 2017’s Wonderstruck.

A New York moment: 

Workers just put up the dreaded scaffolding outside of my apartment building. Under a 1980 law, passed after a piece of falling facade killed a pedestrian, all city buildings must have periodic facade inspections. Indeed just last year, two blocks from me, a huge chunk of a facade fell onto the sidewalk—thankfully injuring no one.