After the rain
The city is never only the route you were given
A conversation at the court, a late bus, a pop-up print show: Side Street follows the small scenes that explain how young people actually move through a city.
In this issue
youth-mediaPeople / 01
At the fence, the conversation keeps going
A court can be a meeting place even for the people who never pick up the ball.
Culture / 02
A poster wall can be a local calendar
The best listings are still passed from hand to hand, even when everyone has a phone.
City Guides / 03
The long wait between two buses has a geography
Transit time is not empty time when you are deciding where a night can realistically end.
From the desk
Side Street starts where official city guides end. We care about the places people teach one another to use: the bench that catches sun in November, the bakery shift where friends swap local news, the practice room that exists because somebody kept asking for it.
We do not treat youth culture as a trend report. It is work, negotiation, style, friendship and the hard business of making room. Our contributors write in their own pace, which means a dispatch can sit beside a photo essay or a sharp note from a transit rider.
This week, our notebook begins at a neighbourhood court after a short rain. The game is not the whole story. The people waiting, watching and making plans for later are the story too.