HORT/CULTURE: Eric Sanderson + Legs McNeil

New York City is constantly changing, for better and for worse. What was once a forested island of streams, wetlands, and meadows teeming with native species is now a hellish concrete playground for the world’s elite.

For our final event of the season, we are joined by conservation ecologist Eric Sanderson and resident punk Legs McNeil to discuss the good old days of NYC, from 1609 to basically 1979.

Eric W. Sanderson is an ecologist who sees nature through the city. He currently serves as the Vice President for Urban Conservation at the New York Botanical Garden, where he also directs the Center for Conservation and Restoration Ecology. Sanderson is the author of the bestselling book Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City and is currently working on the five-borough sequel, Before New York: The Natural Geography of the City.

Legs McNeil is an author and journalist. His newest book, Resident Punk, is part memoir and part cultural history, chronicling the iconic early days of punk rock in New York City. He is a founding member of PUNK magazine and the co-author of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk.