Downtowns are lifeless. It’s a once-in-a-generation chance to revive them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/19/downtowns-cities-how-to-revive/

Inflation in the U.S. is being driven by profits, not wages. And interest rate hikes don’t reduce profit-driven inflation.

What they do is put the burden of inflation on lower-wage workers and the poor.

How about we target corporate profits, not working people, for a change?

Harvard Square. July 1974. Scanned from a 35mm Kodachrome slide.

#FotoMontag #Photomonday #oldphotos #cambridge #Kodachrome #massachusetts #harvardsquare #harvard

NPR Morning Edition:

“With the average price of a new electric vehicle climbing to over $60,000, might e-bikes be a more affordable solution to ditching gas powered cars?”

Yes they might.

https://npr.org/2023/01/02/1146543157/e-bikes-could-be-a-more-affordable-way-to-reduce-emissions

#cycling #ebikes #climate

I've seen a bunch of people sharing this and repeating the conclusion: that the success is because the CEO loves books t/f you need passionate leaders and... while I think that's true, I don't think that's the conclusion to draw here. The winning strategy wasn't love, it was delegation and local, on the ground, knowledge.

This win comes from a leader who acknowledges people in the stores know their communities and can see and react faster to sales trends in store...

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/what-can-we-learn-from-barnes-and

Love me a good isochrome map!

A 1922 map of how far you could travel from a specified origin point over various time intervals on rail and tram in #Melbourne—and the 2022 version of the same map.

https://www.klumpentown.com/article/melbourne-isochrones

In Puget Sound, al fresco dining and street café’s were fairly rare, but now they are becoming a permanent amenity in many cities. Natalie Argerious takes a look at some of the big ones.

Story: https://www.theurbanist.org/2022/12/28/street-cafes-becoming-a-permanent-amenity-in-more-puget-sound-cities/