Pretty good example of what happens when newspapers lay off their metro sections and housing reporters, but then decides they want to pontificate on city affairs

Love this suggestion for more HS architecture and planning curriculum in NYC www.nytimes.com/interactive/... // wrote about a graphic novel used in Chicago a few years ago @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/culture/cult...

Mayor Mamdani said over the weekend that he wants the Department of Transportation to add daylighting before someone has been killed rather than wait to ban parking at intersections after a completely avoidable tragedy. nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/01/05/m...

I've received many messages about this over the last two weeks — people still read, reference, and link to these stories WRITTEN BY REAL REPORTERS who knew their cities better than anyone else. I figured a fix might have been delayed due to holiday breaks but this needs to be remedied immediately!

You can do things

A Dutch worker went viral after explaining to their American boss that they have a life outside work.

I have never thought about the "architecture" of sexual consent before! "Kukla mentions '24-hr public transportation,' which allows people to 'be confident that they can leave safely and easily whenever they choose to.'" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

(wrong link in prev post) MoMa is hiring a new R&D Fellow! Two-year position, focusing on public design programs, MA required recruiting.ultipro.com/MUS1002MOMA/...

I noticed this too and I realllllly hope it is temporary @curbed.com @nymag.com because there is nothing else like it and it is half of my archive 😭

Thanks Susan! Books on this list by @paulgoldberger.bsky.social @mlamster.bsky.social @langealexandra.bsky.social & many more

When our kids were young we stayed at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky and loved it! shakervillageky.org

I have a brief notice in this weekend's WSJ of a new reprint edition of "Moby-Dick" with all of the iconic Rockwell Kent illustrations--something that's nice to have on the market, as previous editions can get very pricey www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

In the online queue for my Eras tour (Michael Heizer City tickets) and I’m 931st in line one minute after reservations opened

I’ve actually been trying to speak with an archivist at NASA for weeks … was wondering if there was a political reason for no response

Also this show in LA: www.hauserwirth.com/make/cradled/

New York Transit Museum announcing Old City Hall Station members only tours today -- smart! www.nytransitmuseum.org/old-city-hall/

The Shaker Heritage Society (on the site of the original settlement) is also quite wonderful. It’s basically directly behind the Albany Airport: home.shakerheritage.org

The Shaker Historical Society is wonderful and inexpensive to join as a member. They also have a great free newsletter www.shakerhistory.org

If this Ann Lee movie spurs more Shaker aesthetic appreciation, I recommend a) Hancock Shaker Village https:// hancockshakervillage.org b) Canterbury Shaker Village www.shakers.org c) Shaker exhibit opening in Philly Jan 31 icaphila.org/exhibitions/...

If I was working the NYT end of year death list, I would write this one up so HARD. Rest in Power Cecilia Giménez, creator of Beast Jesus. www.euronews.com/culture/2025...

My main takeaway is that Trump's contractor (Clark Construction?) is doing him dirty by saying yes to his every whim

In Ada Louise Huxtable’s original knives out review of the Kennedy Center she says DC “uses marble like cotton wool” 🧐

Think how many millions of public school students have created glorious holiday art with their own minds and hands this month. Weingarten could be sharing actual art and celebrating actual human kids whom the @aft.org is supposed to be serving. But no. She's sharing "A.i." garbage based on theft.

Thanks to CityLab’s daily newsletter for resharing my Pulitzer-winning essays today www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet... 2025 really was the craziest year for me: won big prize, wrote new book, helped children get into the HS and college of their choice 🫠

I just need to say this out loud: I finished the draft of my next book. I love a deadline! Mood is this image by Suzanne Szasz of a quilting bee in Central Park in 1973 (year I was born).

““The beauty of the urban playground … was that you could end up playing with so many different kids.” Whereas suburban backyards are, by definition, exclusive and limited in their social value. @langealexandra.bsky.social on Decoder Ring.

Canadian malls get citified: I spoke to @shawnmicallef.bsky.social for this story @azuremagazine.bsky.social www.azuremagazine.com/article/the-...

At times I have been mad that my dual tenured professor parents never taught me to have a back-up plan

14yo has to write a 3-5 page screenplay and one of the rubric notes is “no dream sequences” 😅 this teacher has seen too much

motorbike schmotorbike, apparently my midlife crisis is manifesting as an irrational need for a rolodex

For comparison, this is Christopher Anderson's photography when he's NOT trolling for everything he's worth. Every choice made in the photos of this administration is a choice. It's fucking art, is what it is.

I've been trying to help our longtime nanny get a job and I can attest that this is true. People want *so much* www.thecut.com/article/nyc-...

as the hosts hint that they would like to be invited to watch the movie at the white house, one asks "is there a movie theater in the white house?" no, dumbass, there is not. It was in the east wing.

One surprising piece of research I found when writing the book was that while the number of kids biking & walking to school has dropped by a lot since 1969, the number of kids living within a mile of their school has only gone down by about 15%.

14yo is verrrrry mad he has to get up at 6AM to go to school while 18yo is home from college and sleeping until 1PM. 6 week break vs. 1 week break as well.

I'm no luxury shopper but I'm buying secondhand LL Bean! I also think contemporary jewelry is SO trend-driven, you're much better off browsing second-hand and figuring out what you really like.

Pauline Copes Johnson, a descendant of Harriet Tubman, has died at 98. She spent a lifetime guarding that legacy from the small city where Tubman spent her final years www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/11/t...

Wanamaker's lives on as mixed-use! A galleria + housing www.archpaper.com/2025/12/pau-...

I'm on Decoder Ring this week talking about one of my favorite topics. So simple, so perfect. The sandbox! slate.com/podcasts/dec...

Justin Davidson says Mamdani should look at ... courtyard housing! www.curbed.com/article/mamd...

"Asawa devoted much of her time not to making art about mothering, but to scaling up her artist-mothering to citywide level—what Troeller calls 'caretaking in public.'” newrepublic.com/article/2042...?

Rare copy of the original DR book for sale! "This book tells the story of DR, told by the people who were there. (And there are a lot still around. People are always coming in and telling us about working there.)" ksmallgallery.com/collections/...

Any Boston folks know how the renovation plans for Madison Park HS know how they plan to handle the Breuer buildings? www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/12/m...

Grand Avenue has LA's best architecture clumped haphazardly along a very bleak street. Yet Frank Gehry had a vision to change that. "You close that piece of Grand Avenue, put some chairs out there and you've got something special," he said. "We're not just building buildings, we're building places"

I also got to run by my favorite oddball place in Baltimore, Safety City, a mini faux streetscape used to teach children how to navigate

How much is a 6-7 foot tree on the streets of Brooklyn this year? I’m sending the teens to get one but I need a ballpark figure.

I think that's right because I instantly think of this is "Spencer's Gifts humor" that pre-teens and teens found edgy when they went to the mall. Back when malls existed...

LOL this is the most real comment on this story about the NYC HS process "Of all the truly hellacious admissions processes the DOE subjects families to, the high school process is the least painful. The good news is you will be battle tried for college admissions." nymag.com/intelligence...

So offensive to design workers on multiple levels

"As mothers, our worst nightmare is a car killing a child just for trying to cross the street," write @powers4queens.bsky.social and @cmjuliewon.bsky.social . "Kids are the city’s most vulnerable residents, and the status quo endangers them ... They deserve universal daylighting." buff.ly/yUjASQ0