2021
"Blue States, You’re the Problem"
Why do states with Democratic majorities fail to live up to their values?
"The road to ruin — how the car drove US cities to the brink"
There’s an old stereotype in the US of a college junior who studies abroad in France for a semester and who returns obsessed with walking to cafés, biking to class and taking trains across county.
...More"San Francisco’s homelessness is a humanitarian crisis, not an unsightly inconvenience"
To hear many residents, city leaders and, too often, The Chronicle’s online comment section, talk about it, San Francisco is no longer a habitable city. It is, instead, merely an archipelago of safe islands floating in an ocean of human feces and hypodermic needles.
...More"Time Out lists the ‘world’s best’ cities for 2021"
Community spirit
"Why California liberals turn into raging conservatives over housing"
“Counterintuitive or not, California needs a lot more housing, and the fastest, cheapest way to get housing is to let developers build it…”
...More"Data shows the true productivity cost of the city exodus"
“Moretti thinks that in the long run, there will be a loss of innovation and productivity as a result of the pandemic shift to remote work. “It’s hard to create new ideas if you’re physically isolated. It’s hard to interact with clients and ask them exactly what new things they need. Also, it’s hard to onboard new people into teams,” he says.
For this reason, he thinks most workplaces won’t remain 100 per cent remote after the pandemic is resolved…”
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"Viewpoint: Can modular fulfill its long-held promise?"
Watch enough construction and it may occur to you that things have scarcely changed since Ramses II’s building spree. Yes, we have cranes, forklifts and electric saws, but so much of building still comes down to backbreaking labor
...More"The hybrid workplace probably won’t last"
Having some people work from home while their teammates are in the office runs counter to much of what makes organizations tick.
...More"Stocky modular buildings are popping up in East Bay. They look surprisingly good"
“…But the front facade is amiable and warm, with engineered wooden panels framing nine square windows. This is infill pure and simple, and it will hold its own in years to come.
…At 2711 Shattuck, Lowney and developer Patrick Kennedy set out to keep things “clean and simple, as easy to construct as possible,” Lowney said.”
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