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I’ve noticed more people comparing social media to smoking lately, which is a compelling but limited analogy. The parallels are obvious: Both feel grea…
Drew Austin
Sep 18 2
In early 2018, Bruce Sterling proclaimed that the smart city was dead, or rather, that it never quite existed in the first place. The idea of the “smar…
Drew Austin
Sep 17
The last newsletter I sent that wasn’t haunted by COVID-19 went out on February 21, a day I remember vividly. I went to a Knicks game that evening and …
Drew Austin
Sep 4
This year, we’ve spent more time than ever in our homes. Not surprisingly, our relationship to them has intensified. As the only bubbles of private spa…
Drew Austin
Sep 2 2
A year ago, I wrote about the increasingly casual nature of American attire and the aesthetic that Venkatesh Rao calls domestic cozy. I said that “by w…
Drew Austin
Aug 21
Back in 1967, Marshall McLuhan declared that “the city no longer exists except as a cultural ghost for tourists.” Although the internet didn’t yet exis…
Drew Austin
Aug 20
A few months ago, @turtlekiosk tweeted an idea that I keep thinking about: “In the future shoplifting won’t matter, not because loss prevention or surv…
Drew Austin
Aug 7
JANE JACOBS & URBAN DIVERSITY The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written by Jane Jacobs in 1961, is still the bible of urban planning, probab…
Drew Austin
Aug 6
First, a note about the title—I had no choice, given this week’s topic. But I’m not going to discuss the source of the phrase, because: MANHATTANISM “M…
Drew Austin
Jul 30
Reminder: I launched a premium tier of this newsletter and the first issue went out on Wednesday! I discussed ghost kitchens, the new eminence of food …
Drew Austin
Jul 24
Welcome to the first premium issue! I’m excited to kick this off. GHOST KITCHENS Anna Wiener’s recent New Yorker essay about ghost kitchens and food de…
Drew Austin
Jul 22 6
I’m taking a break from regular programming to announce an offshoot of this newsletter that launches today: a subscribers-only weekly installment that …
Drew Austin
Jul 17
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