Letter from the Founder: An All-New Untapped Cities Launches

To the Untapped Cities community:

Today, we’re excited to share with you the all-new Untapped Cities. We’re a guide, a magazine, a community.

The site has been redesigned with you, our readers in mind, to seamlessly help you find the most “untapped” places in your city. Expect the same level of original content as before, as we continue to uncover the best of your city, and the ones you’re traveling to.

Check out what’s new, besides the look:

• Articles will now be geolocated with map, address and transit information
• Introducing “Untapped Cities Live,” a live feed of Instagram photos readers hashtag with  #untappedny  #untappedparis  #untappedtravel  or  #untappedcities
• A new  video page  for each city where you can check out what we’re watching at the moment
• Our new Untapped Cities  home page, with a blog about what’s going on in our HQ and new developments at Untapped Cities
• Our new  Untapped Shop  featuring the illustrations of our contributors.

Untapped Cities began as a simple idea. Rediscover your city.  I had a realization that there was so much of New York that I didn’t know about despite growing up here. I grabbed my brand new SLR camera and started poking around–riding the 6 train after it ended to catch a glimpse of the abandoned City Hall subway station, basking in the warm glow of Manhattanhenge, climbing to the top of Freshkills Landfill.

Those were the early days. Since then, we’ve shown you the secrets of the Metropolitan Museum, broken into the third section of the High Line,  reported from the pop-up flash mob  Dîner en Blanc,  climbed the tallest peak in Papua New Guinea, taken the Trans-Siberian Railway, shown you the unique  street art movement in Rio, and much more. While our content primarily centers around New York City and Paris, we’ve already reported from 65 cities–and we feel like we’re just getting started.

From the beginning, the idea was to openly invite people along to these expeditions. But the virtual response stunned me. Never would I have imagined my humble little blog, Untapped New York, to grow into the global network it is today, powered by over 250 contributors from all around the world.  The greatest asset of Untapped has always been, and will continue to be, its contributors–adventurous explorers, impeccable writers and storytellers, inspiring photographers and creative illustrators.

If we can inspire people to see their cities differently, to discover something transcendent and new, to unravel a little more of the complexity that makes a city tick, that is to have succeeded.

A special thanks to our partners:

The Huffington Post
Flavorpill
OnSwipe
Underground Eats
Vingt Paris
Let’s Go
Municipal Art Society of New York City
Guardian Select
Atlas Obscura
Slidechute
The Good Life France
Columbia University URBAN Magazine

Take a look around and let us know what you think!

Michelle
Founder, Untapped Cities