i was struck by this comparison from Bryant Simon -- whether because of trust issues, cost issues, or logistics, we have fewer of these "agents of observation" than we used to

parallel situation at Starbucks, which decided to undo their 2018 open bathroom policy last year -- instead we're seeing stuff like this:

the impetus for this was BART's plummeting station maintenance workload after the new fare gates were installed:

San Francisco Solved Metro Vandalism With One Neat Trick The age of the fare-gate society is here.

I wrote about the "architecture of good behavior": fare gates, drugstore plexiglass, speed cameras, leaning benches, code-access toilets, and other mechanical frictions in our shared spaces, nudging us along www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Advent of Fare-Gate Society Some cities are realizing that the only way to provide high-quality public services is through designs that keep disorder out.

i wrote about how fare gates explain a lot about our new, hard-edged public space, which trades away the dream of universal access for the reality of good repair www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Pied-a-terre tax is nice but Zohran could probably fund universal childcare by fining tunnel traffic box-blockers on Friday afternoons

I have to admit the gallery responded very promptly to my email, so, kudos for trying

Total abdication of their role as a public facing institution

i was thinking about going up to Columbia to see the Michael Sorkin exhibit but now I see any non-Columbia ID holder on campus has to be approved no later than 5 pm the previous day! that is an insane policy for a giant urban university to have.

Don’t love this. Blas made skipping The Met part of his “I don’t hang out with rich people” schtick and it was tiresome.

The city is a major underwriter for the museum, the fundraiser is for it. Go, enjoy. You’re the mayor. Both the Met and the Met Gala are institutions.

Public art that isn’t - Chicago Reader Chicago takes its public art seriously—which is why a Big Tech-funded mural of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has drawn scrutiny.

"Remember Iryna is not a grassroots memorial; more so, it is a political campaign funded by men who have been explicit about their ideological goals."

Daring and Dazzling, a New LACMA Floats Above Los Angeles

oops, I stand corrected! Kimmelman's first piece since Feb. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/a...

loooooooooool

The red line shows homicides between 2018 and 2025. The blue line, the number of local government employees. They are mirror images. The blue line trends w/ARPA, a $350B investment in local government. The red line trends down as 1 million teachers, counselors, and clinicians enter the workforce.

Boston people: I’ll be talking to Brian Barth about his remarkable book Front Street on Tuesday at Porter Square Books - come thru! portersquarebooks.com/event/2026-0...

Washington state Supreme Court removes judge for faking document to get cheap parking - The Daily Chronicle The Washington Supreme Court weighed in on a judge's forging of a document to secure cheaper parking, deciding on Thursday to remove him from the bench. David Ruzumna was working as a pro tem, …

Truly, parking deranges.

superhero movie ass shield

and no wonder they do!

Walter (Washington Area Long Train Economic Region) was right there...

60s federal transit policy had three children and named them Bart, Marta, and... WMATA?

he seems to be focused mainly on the Headway stories

to be clear, it's definitely complimentary -- what it's not is a "review"

An Audacious $724 Million Building Reinvents LACMA

weird article about the new LACMA -- dressed up as a complimentary review of the new building, but very much not that

country's biggest newspaper needs to hire an architecture critic! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/a...

Who gets to park in front of your house? An old debate flares anew in the Twin Cities Some Minnesotans see parking in front of their house, even on a public street, as an affront. But for some cities, stepping in raises questions about fairness and neighborliness.

a delightful story about that eternal conflict: who gets to park in the neighborhood? via @gretakaul.bsky.social www.startribune.com/neighborhood...

nice of them to build a corridor big enough for the fire truck

How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran

might as well put a JD Vance byline on this www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/u...

The Pleasure of Living: Lessons from France for US Social Housing

Social housing shouldn’t just be about unit counts—it should be about the pleasure of living. In a new blog, @magdamaaoui.bsky.social argues for renovation over demolition, designing for difference and everyday life, and for resident-led design. @gsd.harvard.edu

www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/pleasur...

I agree, nothing says "casual bicycle mastery" like using an umbrella

if i were a Japanese policymaker i might be more focused on this: "Over the past 20 years, the number of cyclists in Japan has fallen by about a quarter..."