The UK economy has two regional problems, not one ft.com

This report concludes that low shares of university graduates in lagging regions are no longer a constraint. Nor is a generalised lack of finance. More plausible constraints are weak transport infrastructure, failure to support innovation clusters outside the South East and constraints on migration to London and the South East, due to costly housing.

Why Is Everything So Ugly? nplusonemag.com

The new ugliness is defined in part by an abandonment of function and form: buildings afraid to look like buildings, cars that look like renderings, restaurants that look like the apps that control them. New York City is a city increasingly in quotation marks, a detailed facsimile of a place.

The housing theory of everything worksinprogress.co

Constraints on supply have made houses into scarce assets, more like bonds, fine art or precious metals than durable goods like refrigerators or cars. This only feels normal because we’re used to it, and does not happen in places where developers can easily add more homes to an area, such as Tokyo, Seoul, or New York City before the 1920s. In places like these, rising demand leads to more supply, not just higher prices.

Classic Cafes classiccafes.co.uk

Often dismissed as 'greasy spoons', Classic Cafes are actually little gems of British vernacular high street design. This site celebrates their ambience and architecture with over 130 vintage London Formica caffs (and many others around Britain) reviewed, revealed & reappraised. But as Time Out Restaurant Guide noted, the site isn't simply: "a set of recommendations... it's a whole aesthetic!"; an immersive re-exploration of a cultural phenomenon that is fading all too fast.

Aerial views of London: then and now theguardian.com

Marking the 15-year anniversary of the New London Architecture galleries, the Changing Face of London revisits its 2005 exhibition to capture the transformation of the city’s famous landmarks.

It’s very hard to tear down a bridge once it’s up gothamist.com

I remember his aide, Sid Shapiro, who I spent a lot of time getting to talk to me, he finally talked to me. And he had this quote that I’ve never forgotten. He said Moses didn’t want poor people, particularly poor people of color, to use Jones Beach, so they had legislation passed forbidding the use of buses on parkways. Then he had this quote, and I can still hear him saying it to me. “Legislation can always be changed. It’s very hard to tear down a bridge once it’s up.” So he built 180 or 170 bridges too low for buses.

The Coronavirus Quieted City Noise. Listen to What’s Left. nytimes.com

Days sound more like nights

‘High Maintenance’ and the New TV Fantasy of New York nytimes.com

To this generation of newcomers, moving to New York is quite different than it was in the past. As you arrive in the outer ­reaches of Brooklyn gentrification, you and everyone you know find yourselves spread thin geographically, specks of dust in distant orbit around Lower Manhattan, pressing up against communities that feel threatened by your presence. New York is as safe as it has ever been; if anyone’s the bad guy, it’s probably you. Of course, you hope that you aren’t, that you’re the kind of person who appreciates the city for its polyphony of voices, unlike some other newcomers, but in the end it won’t matter. And besides, after a long subway commute home, it’s easier than ever to not leave your apartment again: to order Seamless even though you told yourself you wouldn’t and pop on some streaming television, because there’s always something new to catch up on. And there, on the screen, is the New York you’d dreamed of, the one that challenges your perspective, the one that forces you to become a better version of yourself, the one where strangers come together and connect — even if it’s only for an instant.

I'm going to tell you about the voice at Embankment Tube station twitter.com

And that is why today, even in 2019, if you go down to Embankment station in London, and sit on the northbound platform on Northern Line, you will here a COMPLETELY different voice say Mind the Gap to ANYWHERE else on the Underground.

How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables meatspacepress.com

What operating system does your city run on? After many months in the making, we are excited to announce the publication of our first book: How to Run a City Like Amazon, and Other Fables

Hel Looks hel-looks.com

Hel Looks is a street style blog from Helsinki. We document individual, unique looks and styles.

The distribution of cities, then and now marginalrevolution.com

In today’s developed countries, cities are thus scattered across historically important agricultural areas; as a result, there is a relatively higher degree of spatial equality in the distribution of resources within these countries.  By contrast, in today’s developing countries, cities are concentrated more on the coast where transport conditions, compared to agricultural suitability, are more favorable.

The Gambler’s Ruin of Small Cities (Wonkish) nytimes.com

Are there policy implications from this diagnosis? Maybe. There are arguably social costs involved in letting small cities implode, so that there’s a case for regional development policies that try to preserve their viability. But it’s going to be an uphill struggle. In the modern economy, which has cut loose from the land, any particular small city exists only because of historical contingency that sooner or later loses its relevance.

Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’ nytimes.com

Five vertical, underground cisterns, almost 250 feet deep, take in storm water from four rivers north of Tokyo. A series of tunnels connect the cisterns to a vast tank, larger than a soccer field, with ceilings held up by 60-foot pillars that give the space a temple-like feel. From that tank, industrial pumps discharge the floodwater at a controlled pace into the Edo river, a larger river system that flushes the water into Tokyo Bay.

Why it is closing time for so many London pubs economist.com

Many of London’s social woes, such as its persistent housing crisis, are blamed on the rich. But it appears that the fall of the pub should not be counted among them.

The Toxic Saga of the World’s Greatest Fish Market eater.com

Built in 1923 on the site of a former imperial naval base, Tsukiji is a testament to an older way of doing business — that just happens to sit in the middle of a grid of impeccable city planning. Take a comfortable stroll a few blocks northeast, and you’ll find the fancifully hooved streets of the Ginza district, where you can literally eat breakfast at the Gucci store, just like in the Kanye song. Meander down another path, and you’ll run smack into the drab concrete towers of salarymen, who scuttle in and out like worker bees serving the inscrutable whims of company queens.

My first ride on the Elizabeth line arstechnica.co.uk

A deep dive into the tech, AC, and ride quality of the Elizabeth line's Class 345 trains.

Revealed: the insidious creep of pseudo-public space in London theguardian.com

Pseudo-public spaces – large squares, parks and thoroughfares that appear to be public but are actually owned and controlled by developers and their private backers – are on the rise in London and many other British cities, as local authorities argue they cannot afford to create or maintain such spaces themselves.

Monocle's View From Nowhere newrepublic.com

The magazine’s globalist chic contrasts sharply with the nationalist movements in the United States and Europe seeking to limit immigration, including visa programs for the skilled workers in tech and finance who might read Monocle. Yet the publication shares with the right a faith in free-market economics; Brûlé himself is less a citizen of the world than a shopper in its gigantic, globalized mall. His magazine, which built its brand by identifying the world’s hippest (and most profitable) trends, feels increasingly out of touch.

Those who leave home, and those who stay vox.com

After 100 years of Americans moving more and more, we're now moving less.

Foreign investors snapping up London homes suitable for first-time buyers theguardian.com

In Westminster, which is favoured by Singaporean buyers, four out of 10 new-build properties were sold abroad over the two-year period. The ratio was one in four in Southwark, favoured most by buyers from Hong Kong, and about one in five in Hackney, Lewisham, Hammersmith and Fulham, Newham and Merton. The most popular destination for Chinese investment was Greenwich, where Chinese developer Knight Dragon is building nearly 16,000 homes.