Vital City
@VitalCityNYC
Enlightening data. New ideas. Civil conversation. Founder @LizGlazerNYC. Co-editor @GregBerman50.
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In an age of Amazon and free shipping, many types of retail are struggling terribly. Shoe stores still make sense.
Streetcars in downtown Atlanta 1940s.
Great advice on writing and thinking, not just on that weird practice we call punditry.
Some professional news: After 11 years of columnizing at WaPo, I'm taking the buyout. This is my last column. It is my advice to any other lucky pundits who land a perch like this—11 principles I've aspired to, even if I haven't always achieved them: wapo.st/3TU2fGw
There wasn't space for this chart in my Atlantic article on prisons, but these astounding data make clear why the prison population will shrink over the next decade.
Theres no way to use words to “explain” the full picture of having kids … or to convince people “Here’s why you should have a baby” The *only* way is for non-parents to just observe families, in the ordinary routines of life It’s why intergenerational neighborhoods are THE key
Architects imagining what else streets can be, in Vital City: vitalcitynyc.org/articles/envis…
Summer Streets starts this weekend, meaning miles of city streets will close to car traffic. Here's where: pix11.com/things-to-do/2…
Smart stuff by @nicolegelinas: nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opi… And a worthwhile companion piece: vitalcitynyc.org/articles/gover…
A 2019 op-ed on housing that reads quite well in 2025, by @aschierenbeck. nydailynews.com/2019/10/22/end…
This is really important stuff, and raises more questions about Mamdani’s plans to build lots and lots of units using expanded borrowing authority. vitalcitynyc.org/articles/zohra…
The cost of building nonprofit housing in @ZohranKMamdani's world (built by unions, he says): $500,000 per unit The cost in the real world (non-union construction): $921,000. And these are studios and 1-bedrooms only. therealdeal.com/new-york/2025/…
“I checked with City Hall. A spokesperson told me the mayor was comparing the number of units that his rezonings would eventually add to the expected totals of his two predecessors’ rezonings.”
Fact check: Did Adams really out-build Bloomberg and de Blasio combined? therealdeal.com/new-york/2025/…
Here are some of the accomplishments cited on Sadiq Khan's website. sadiq.london/manifesto/sadi…
.@SadiqKhan has been informally advising @ZohranKMamdani on how to win his election, per @thetimes in the UK. Khan sources tell the outlet Mamdani needs to moderate thetimes.com/uk/london/arti…
.@SadiqKhan has been informally advising @ZohranKMamdani on how to win his election, per @thetimes in the UK. Khan sources tell the outlet Mamdani needs to moderate thetimes.com/uk/london/arti…
Oh.
Trump, who ran on lowering the cost of living, has stalled countless affordable-housing developments with his 43% cut to the rental subsidies on which the projects depend. WSJ:
Ross speaks truth.
Not clear at all Lander would've won if Zohran never ran. Lander couldn't excite Zohran's base. Cuomo may have just rolled through, or someone else might have emerged. Cuomo also would have definitely beaten Eric Adams.
Two things can be true: 1) a few public grocery stores wouldn’t represent an all-out assault on capitalism (we already have a mixed economy), and 2) running these stores well would be a huge challenge that might not be worth the taxpayer $ and distraction from core services.
Responding to the @ZephyrTeachout NYT piece, @judgeglock explains @CityJournal why all New Yorkers should be wary of @ZohranKMamdani's public grocery store plan.
America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
What's wild to me is that European countries make it difficult to install air conditioning even if you want to.
"The most 'socialist' parts of the new mayor’s agenda never came to full fruition; local businesses challenged the city-run ice and grocery stores he launched and courts found them to be illegal. The city-run ice store shut down, while the grocery store became a co-op and then…
The Socialist Mayor Who Came 100 Years Before Zohran Mamdani | TIME time.com/7301483/social…
Indeed. Read all about it in our summer-themed issue. vitalcitynyc.org/articles/citie…
“Perhaps because we’ve become so adept at cooling inside spaces with air conditioning, we’ve forgotten the importance of cooling outside spaces, too. There is no technology that cools the outdoors as effectively as a tree.” theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…