Nuclear-free NYC: How New Yorkers are disarming the legacies of the Manhattan Project

ABSTRACTIn 2021, New York City passed some of the most progressive nuclear disarmament legislation of any major city in the United States, supported by local activists from the New York Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (NYCAN). In this essay, two of the people behind this effort share some details of their success with local government as an example of what others can do to bring nuclear abolitionist activism home. They also give a sense of New York’s long history as a nuclear city—and as a locus of action for disarmament.