Neither Land nor Water

Planning Through Fringe Ecologies in the Meadowlands (18962020)

An urban and environmental history of the New Jersey Meadowlands, where marsh meets megamall.

The New Jersey Meadowlands, the vast marshes across the Hudson River from New York City, are a mysterious and complex wetland. Both strange and well-known to the millions of people who traverse the northeast corridor every year, this landscape is not well understood despite its familiarity. Seemingly natural and unnatural, human and nonhuman, the Meadowlands has long been shaped by urban development, industry, infrastructure, and countless dreams.

In Neither Land nor Water, evin Yldz offers a close look at the planners, scientists, developers, politicians, industrialists, and others who have engaged with, dreamed about, or damaged this transitional ecology in different ways over the decades. She traces key periods in the areas rich histories of urban plannin