Montreal mayoral race www.ledevoir.com/politique/mo...

(...*wheel* taxes?)

Every Single Day

Just saw my second Cybertruck in real life, all-black like it's a ruggedized laptop. Looked just as stupid as the first time.

Copenhagen, and don't speculate until we get more information from Moscow

Montreal, QC

Calgary, AB elections

Wow, Vancouver is just pumping out the news this week. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Metro Vancouver

And anyway, the debate that matters in a democracy isn't "a debate" between Bob & Jill on a local stage or a legislature or in a TV studio. It's The Debate, e.g. whether your ideas move millions (or, in my niche, tens or hundreds of thousands) to prioritize their fears, follies or aspirations.

Vancouver, BC mayoral race (2026)

Comparative housing production, in (North) America

New York City mayoral race. As I said a few weeks ago, it says something - about Silwa, the quality of his opponents on Mamdani's right flank, or both - that the guy is still holding on to close to 10% of polled votes despite hard pressure on those votes to move.

Housing policy, in the Empire State

Freight regulation, in Montreal, QC

The crash of King Condo, in Ontario and especially the Toronto region

Los Angeles County, and disaster prep

Vancouver, BC

Distinct local events, in Hong Kong

Ghost towns and ghost cities, in Malaysia, Hawaii, Namibia, et al www.nacion.com/ciencia/5-ci...

I'm not opposed to parties in Canadian city politics, per se. I am opposed to dropping parties onto council systems that aren't designed to work with parties, and vice-versa. And it feels like that's what's happened in Calgary, and especially in Edmonton's elxn... www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/art...

Said something nice about (almost) everybody: New York City mayoral race... nypost.com/2025/09/21/u...

The rapture can't happen on Tuesday; I've got a budget meeting.

An unusual (by Canadian standards) municipal initiative out of my grandfather's old stomping ground of Colwood, BC (in the Victoria metro area)

I see the twitterverse is still actively working hard to create a false impression of public opinion, and reality in general.

Distinct local events, in Chicago. H/t @civicwhitaker.com

Leaf-strewn walk, decent cup of tea, and stepping past the wafting smell of another household's Sunday late breakfast 🥓. Not a bad day to pretend the world isn't burning.

Lexington MA

Physical twins, in Ashikaga City, replicating Tokyo

Cheap transit (but good transit), in Madrid. H/t @jen-nelles.bsky.social

Dublin transit

Accidentally reading two books at once. I decided to choose between them by going in historical chronological order. It's the only way (since 90%+ of what I read is history anyway)

Truly insane

Omands Creek Bridge palate cleanser. The beaver dam is gone, I assume from some sort of City intervention that I never saw the details for...? Sucks for the beavers, whatever happened, but flowing like a proper creek now...

Philadelphia, PA

Feeling like I need to find and read a decent history of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal. Reccos welcome.

It's fall. It's no longer blues weather. It's raining - the traditional weather of my people. Current mood: youtu.be/Vj6sbaBnRJg?...

Mass timber, in Toronto, ON www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Los Angeles, and its convention center debate www.torched.la/this-expansi...

Any reccos on Miami-area media that aren't as bang-your-head-against-the-wall as the @miamiherald.com?

St. Paul, MN

Torontoism, h/t @cambryardship.bsky.social

I assume Bannon doesn't have school-age kids? What a remark to make, in a heavily-armed country where school shootings are already an epidemic.

"Must have been a mistake"

The ward-v.-at-large debate, in Vancouver, BC vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/09/19/g...

There is no substitute for a site visit.

The politics of rent control, in Berlin. H/t @yonahfreemark.com www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Charlotte, NC and the politics/realities of transit security www.npr.org/2025/09/19/n...

Fluoridation (as often as not a local initiative), in the US