Portrait of Emily Badger

Emily Badger

I’m interested in housing, transportation and inequality — and how they’re all connected. I try to make visible for readers the often-unseen policies and forces that shape cities and their residents’ access to opportunity. That means I care about zoning rules that dictate what kinds of housing can be built, infrastructure decisions that reinforce or relieve segregation, and urban planning choices that determine who gets to live near parks, good schools and jobs.

More so than my education, it is the places I have lived that have shaped my thinking about the topics I cover. I grew up in Chicago, where I first learned about the value of architecture, the toll of racial segregation, and the importance of public spaces and transit. I have lived in car-dependent Sun Belt cities (Orlando and Atlanta), in mid-sized cities (Tallahassee, Fla., and Norfolk, Va.), and in expensive coastal cities such as San Francisco and where I now live, Washington — a place where competing political ideas about urban America often collide.

All Times journalists are committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. I strive for my stories to reflect the diversity of the places I cover. That means I try to include voices from a range of racial and economic backgrounds. I seek out both powerful officials and residents who may feel powerless. I often rely on data to help me tell stories, and I try to consider who may be missing from that data. And when I interview people who may be particularly vulnerable, I try to help them understand what it may mean for them to share their stories in The Times.

Latest

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    The Absurd Problem of New York City Trash

    Is this how one of the world's greatest cities still deals with garbage? Here’s what will be required to take New York’s trash bags off the street.

    By Emily Badger and Larry Buchanan

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    The Americans Most Threatened by Eviction: Young Children

    About a quarter of Black babies and toddlers in rental households face the threat of eviction in a typical year, a new study says, and all children are disproportionately at risk.

    By Emily Badger, Claire Cain Miller and Alicia Parlapiano

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