Everyone should have an exit strategy from the day they walk in. Too many organizations suffer because they expect one person, or a core group, to stay in place forever. — adrienee maree brown, Emergent Strategy On an ordinary May…
An update from Semilla Pocket Park — The Bronx, NY
The biggest challenge, two professional horticulturists advised me, wouldn’t be watering the plants. It’d be the dogs.
Last month, we planted at the new garden I’m starting (still of questionable legality, as we still have not heard back from New York City’s Department of Transportation).
I walked to another garden to pick up the “starter” plants.
I remember the moment when I saw through J.D. Vance. It was during the V.P. debate. He said, “You have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce…
Since I was a teenager, I have done some form of New Year’s Resolutions. When I was 15, I wanted to bench 200 lbs. At 18, I wanted to learn Spanish. Last year, I wanted my website to get a…
I missed last year, but I intend to make this a yearly thing. Here are the five books that most shaped my thinking and decisions this year. This is deliberately not called my “favorite” books of 2025. If it were…
A surprising amount of the backlash against building protected bike lanes, and perhaps against investing in cities in general, can be summed up with the “bean soup theory.” The bean soup theory emerged from TikTok in 2023, when a creator…
Note: This essay appeared in my newsletter. If you’d like to receive the next one, subscribe here. Zohran Mamdani Got The Little Things Right I first heard of Zohran Mamdani last summer. I saw him in a video on Reddit. He was being…