Hugh Ryan

Freelance writer

Birth Tourism: The Newest Red Herring in the Anti-Immigration Arsenal

First published on Global Comment on July 23, 2010. Read the original with comments here.
Earlier this year, The Marmara Manhattan, part of a Turkish hotel chain, began offering a package to expectant mothers. For between $5100 – $15000, visitors got a two-month stay, prenatal consultation, crib, and items for both mother and newborn. They say [...]

My Country, My Train, My K-Hole

First published in The Morning News on June 30, 2010. Read the original here.
The train from Chicago to New Orleans passes through Kankakee, Homewood, and Yazoo City; names that evoke images of wagon trains and episodes of Dr. Quinn. I don’t know most of this country.
Were I to draw a map, the Northeast would be [...]

In New Orleans, New Life by the River

First published in The New York Times on June 27, 2010. Read the original, with photos, here.
For residents of the blue-collar Bywater-Marigny area of New Orleans, access to the Mississippi River has been blocked for years by decaying industrial buildings. But it won’t be much longer, thanks in part to R. Allen Eskew, an architect [...]