I don't want to turn this into a free speech blog, though it would be easy to do. There's so much going on every day. But there were a couple more hot off the presses items I wanted to cite as a final installment in this series. The first is a report by the New York Times that Facebook may develop a censorship tool to get back into China: Facebook does not intend to suppress the posts itself. Instead, it would offer the software to enable a third party — in this case, most likely a partner Chinese company — to monitor popular stories … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2016
Will History Repeat Itself With Driverless Cars?
I don't hate cars. In fact, I think cars were an amazing invention that dramatically improved life in the world. But we did go too far in over-designing our world around the automobile, something we are now trying to change. But it strikes me that we're poised to make the same mistake with driverless cars. I've attended a few conferences recently, two of which stuck out for their emphasis on driverless cars. One was the Atlantic's City Lab conference (where I moderated a panel on regulating the new urban economy) and the other was Meeting … [Read more...]
“There Can’t Be a Successful Indianapolis Without a Successful Indiana”
Back in 2008 or 2009 I gave a Pecha Kucha presentation in Indianapolis in which I said: Cities can’t survive on gentrification alone. The broad community has to be a participant in its success. That’s why I’m somewhat down on the notion of the creative class. It’s good as far as it goes, but it’s a self-consciously elitist vision. Where’s the working class in that? Arguing among ourselves [city vs. suburbs] is like beggars fighting over table scraps. We need to build the city up without tearing the suburbs down. There can’t be a … [Read more...]
San Francisco Observations
I made quite a few trips to San Francisco during the late 90s into the early 2000s, but hadn't been back in a very long time - probably close to 15 years. Last week I was there for a conference and a long weekend and got to spend some time exploring the city. I won't claim a comprehensive review, but I did have a few takeaways to share. 1. Fewer homeless than expected. Based on the rhetoric you read in the papers, I expected SF to be overrun with aggressive homeless people. This wasn't the case. There were visible homeless to be sure, but … [Read more...]