Phillyist VIP: Diana Lind

Diana Lind was born and raised in New York City, but moved down to Philadelphia in April to edit Next American City, a quarterly magazine about urban issues. Next American City is based out of Philadelphia but is distributed nationally and covers cities, sustainable development, architecture, politics, art, and everything in between. April was indeed a busy month: Rizzoli published her book, Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design, and she won the ACLU Stand Up for Freedom contest for best podcast. She loves Philly's bike-ability, hates Amtrak, wishes there was another name for her neighborhood (Graduate Hospital), wants to open a juice bar/bookstore before she dies, and hopes to connect with other members of the Philly design community in the meantime.

How long have you lived in Philadelphia and what brought you here?
I've been in Philly for two months and came down from Brooklyn to edit the magazine, Next American City.

What is your favorite place in the city?
I'm new, so I'm learning, but so far I've been taken by the parks: the little Louis Kahn park on Pine Street and Clark Park in West Philly. Oh, and Capogiro gelato.

What is the strangest thing that has happened to you in Philadelphia?
Does the airport count? I was at the airport and asked the guy selling bottled water how the whole first-come-first-serve thing works on Southwest Airlines. And he said he'd never flown so he wouldn't know. I thought he was kidding me and so asked again, and then he said, "MA'AM, I've never FLOWN." For much of the flight I thought about what kind of middle-aged man works in an airport and who doesn't fly. Did he have a fear of flying? Could he not afford to fly? Or, most likely, did he not want to fly but perversely love airports nonetheless?

If you could change one thing about the City of Philadelphia, what would it be?
The tap water! It's terrible!

Pick one: Rocky Balboa or Benjamin Franklin?
Franklin. I've never even seen Rocky.

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Image Credit: Ian Gittler