This year, Emma Turzillo became the first transgender woman to walk every block in the borough of Manhattan. She started this journey in 2018, shortly after moving to New York City and coming out as a trans. “I was broke and needed something to do. I’ve always been a restless person, and I was really curious about exploring the city and seeing every part of it.”
She didn’t intend to walk every block in Manhattan, just every block in her neighborhood. But before she knew it, she was gaining momentum, telling her friends about her plans to see every bit of the city. “It just became a thing. And at times, it’s been a refuge.” Emma started to take photos of buildings, public art, and landmarks she encountered, and she also began to track the distance of her walks using an app, scrawling a beautiful and tangled web of every route she took onto the map of New York City.
“New York City is very big and overwhelming — [walking the blocks] was a way to make the city more familiar.” But NYC hasn’t always felt like home to Emma. Before she could face the scale of the city, she also faced massive barriers to safe and affordable housing.
“A few years ago, I rented a great, relatively affordable apartment in Brooklyn. The catch was that my landlord lived downstairs.” Emma’s former landlord became overly familiar, and over time, his behavior escalated to sexual harassment, targeted at her specifically because she’s a trans woman. “It made me uncomfortable, but I figured that was the price to pay for the apartment. I didn’t have many other options — I couldn’t afford to move again, and I was in the middle of changing my name on all of my identification.”
The situation worsened when another trans woman Emma’s age moved in. The harassment from Emma’s landlord toward both of them grew more severe, with messaging becoming more intense and specifically transphobic commentary becoming cruder. “One day, my roommate knocked on my bedroom door. I found her totally drained of color, like she’d seen a ghost. Our landlord had told her, drunkenly, that he was in love with me. I felt terrified and violated. I knew immediately that I had to leave as soon as possible. Two weeks later, I moved out.”
Emma says the experience made her distrustful of others, making it all the more important to find safe housing. “I have chronic fatigue from feeling like I can never put my guard down. I try to draw attention away from myself to avoid potential harassment.”
“The need for safe housing is especially important for trans folks. It takes a lot of time and effort to find a good housing situation. Because our relationships with family tend to be estranged, if housing is unstable, there aren’t backup options. And even in terms of roommates, there’s always a risk that people you’ll find will be transphobic.”
“Safe housing and affordable housing are bound up. There might be plenty of safe housing but it’s often not affordable, especially for trans folks, who can find it harder to get consistent work and promotions.” Fortunately, Emma found safer housing in the city, giving her the comfort and space she needed to conquer the task of walking every Manhattan block. She doesn’t yet have plans to walk every block in every other borough, but wherever life takes her, one thing is for sure: she wants a home to herself, somewhere to watch old movies, write, and ideally, walk. “In my perfect future, I hope to find a place where I can afford to live alone, have a little balcony, a porch, and a cat. A place to relax.”