People keep disappearing beneath New York City’s streets through manholes, sometimes carrying tools and emerging at different locations. Police say there is no evidence linking the incidents to terrorism, and some individuals may be searching for valuables. But the repeated entries raise a different concern: how easily can unauthorized people access the infrastructure beneath a major city?
The illustration captures the uneasy space between an ordinary street and the underground systems most residents never see. The concern is not what these individuals might secretly be planning. It is whether the city’s safeguards are keeping pace with a vulnerability that keeps appearing.