City Journal

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Conservative policy magazine

title: "City Journal" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["magazines-established-in-1990", "manhattan-institute-for-policy-research", "political-magazines-published-in-the-united-states", "quarterly-magazines-published-in-the-united-states", "conservative-magazines-published-in-the-united-states"] description: "Conservative policy magazine" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Journal" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Conservative policy magazine ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox magazine"]

FieldValue
titleCity Journal
logoCity Journal logo.svg
logo_classskin-invert
logo_size250
image_fileCity Journal 2015 anniversary issue cover.png
image_captionCover of the 25th anniversary issue released in Autumn 2015.
editorBrian C. Anderson
frequencyQuarterly
categoryUrban policy, political science, culture
publisherManhattan Institute for Policy Research
founded
firstdateAutumn 1990
countryUnited States
basedNew York City, New York
website
issn1060-8540
oclc25172204
::

| title = City Journal | logo = City Journal logo.svg | logo_class=skin-invert | logo_size = 250 | image_file = City Journal 2015 anniversary issue cover.png | image_alt = | image_caption = Cover of the 25th anniversary issue released in Autumn 2015. | editor = Brian C. Anderson | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | frequency = Quarterly | circulation = | category = Urban policy, political science, culture | company = | publisher = Manhattan Institute for Policy Research | founded = | firstdate = Autumn 1990 | country = United States | based = New York City, New York | language = | website = | issn = 1060-8540 | oclc = 25172204

City Journal is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research since 1990. City Journal covers a range of public policy topics on urban affairs, such as education, labor, housing, policing, and other issues. The magazine also publishes articles on arts and culture, urban architecture, family life, and other topics that are not policy-related.

History

City Journal was founded in 1990 by Richard Vigilante, editorial director of the Manhattan Institute, who also served as the magazine's first editor. Vigilante originally sought to launch the magazine as a for profit venture but eventually persuaded William M. H. Hammett, head of the conservative Manhattan Institute. to adopt the project. Vigilante positioned City Journal as a more moderate and more cosmopolitan alternative to established right-wing institutions. The magazine initially published articles promoting privatization, fiscal discipline, government downsizing, and educational vouchers. Other New York-related topics covered in the magazine included criticisms of open admissions at CUNY, and the promotion of broken-windows policing.

2020s

During the early 2020s, City Journal has attracted national attention for its role in contributing to a moral panic around critical race theory, LGBTQ+ topics in education, and similar issues in the United States. Contributor Christopher Rufo, in particular, has drawn attention for writing numerous pieces in the magazine that often focus on these matters. In articles published by City Journal, Rufo has accused Seattle's Office of Civil Rights of "endorsing principles of segregationism, group-based guilt, and race essentialism"; highlighted Disney and Twitter workers who have been convicted of child sexual abuse; suggested that there were significant levels of grooming' in public schools" while omitting that the study he cited concluded that the "vast majority" of American schools are safe; accused a California curriculum designer of wanting to make children "chant to the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek." The State of California later paid $100,000 in plaintiffs' legal fees and agreed to delete the Aztec god chants from High School Ethnic Studies programs; and compared the diversity training conducted by the city of Seattle to "cult programming".

City Journal publishes annual college rankings that focus on faculty and leadership quality, student experience, and alumni outcomes.

Publication

The magazine is published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a national free-market think tank based in New York City. It was edited by Richard Vigilante and then Fred Siegel in the early 1990s. Myron Magnet, its editor from 1994 to 2006, is now editor-at-large. City Journals current editor is Brian C. Anderson, who was appointed in late 2006 after serving as senior editor for 10 years. The journal's contributors include experts such as Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald, Edward Glaeser, Steven Malanga, Nicole Gelinas, Kay Hymowitz, John Tierney, and Joel Kotkin. Although City Journal is based in New York City, its scope is national and often international, through the contributions of writers including Theodore Dalrymple from Britain, Claire Berlinski and Guy Sorman from France, and Bruce Bawer in Norway.

Reception

The reception of City Journal is generally divided along ideological lines. Conservative commentator Jay Nordlinger, writing in National Review, called City Journal "a beacon of civilization". In 2016, City Journal ranked second in The Global Grids "Top 20 Urban Planning Websites", and again made the list in 2017, ranked fourth.

Alice O'Connor, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has written that City Journal is "hardly a model of ideological moderation", and that its contributors are "enmeshed in 1960s- and 1970s-era urbanology". She has criticized multiple writers for City Journal for reviving a "relentlessly negative image of black cultural pathology to call for tougher measures to crack down on out-of-wedlock births", following articles praising Daniel P. Moynihan's The Negro Family: The Case For National Action. Conservative author Sol Stern, a major contributor for the magazine since its inception, published a piece in liberal journal Democracy in 2020, accusing City Journal of removing contributors' editorial independence, and criticized the association of magazine trustee Rebekah Mercer with the alt-right outlet Breitbart.

Notable contributors

References

References

  1. Friedersdorf, Conor. (June 1, 2010). "Saving the City: An Interview With Brian Anderson".
  2. O'Connor, Alice. (January 2008). "The Privatized City: The Manhattan Institute, the Urban Crisis, and the Conservative Counterrevolution in New York". [[Journal of Urban History]].
  3. "City Journal".
  4. (January 6, 2017). "City Journal".
  5. Wallace-Wells, Benjamin. (June 18, 2021). "How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory".
  6. Gabriel, Trip. (April 24, 2022). "He Fuels the Right's Cultural Fires (and Spreads Them to Florida)". [[The New York Times]].
  7. Jones, Sarah. (July 11, 2021). "How to Manufacture a Moral Panic".
  8. (18 January 2022). "California to remove Mayan affirmation from ethnic studies after lawsuit argues it's a prayer". [[Los Angeles Times]].
  9. (18 January 2022). "Calif. will delete popular affirmation from ethnic studies after suit claims it's an Aztec prayer". [[The San Diego Union-Tribune]].
  10. (2025-10-24). "Clemson ranks in top 10 in Manhattan Institute’s City Journal college poll".
  11. (2014). "The Manhattan Institute celebrates City Journal's 20th anniversary". Manhattan Institute.
  12. (2020-07-07). "Think Tank in the Tank".
  13. Nordlinger, Jay. (November 8, 2015). "A Beacon of Civilization".
  14. Essbai, Sarah. (December 1, 2016). "Top 20 Urban Planning Websites of 2016".
  15. Essbai, Sarah. (October 18, 2017). "Top 20 Urban Planning Websites of 2017".
  16. Sol, Stern. (July 7, 2020). "Think Tank in the Tank".

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magazines-established-in-1990manhattan-institute-for-policy-researchpolitical-magazines-published-in-the-united-statesquarterly-magazines-published-in-the-united-statesconservative-magazines-published-in-the-united-states