CityLab Daily: Don't Be a Jerk
Also: The rise of the rest (of the world), and why newspaper websites are so horrible.
What We’re Following
Scoot over: The perceived scooter scourge has been removed from San Francisco’s sidewalks, but the problems they caused were all too human. According to The Washington Post, there’s one big hurdle for electric scooter sharing to clear: jerks. The overlapping dilemmas of clutter and vandalism point to why we can’t have nice things. The Post even wrote handy PSAs for how to behave on a scooter. But the problem is probably best summed up by this kicker:
“People just need to be responsible and know the limits,” said Patrick Tao, 37, after taking his first ride on a Bird in San Francisco on Tuesday. He parked his scooter, which had a flat tire, next to a bike rack. He thinks the tech could have a future, but acknowledges, “There is always going to be some a--hole who ruins it.”
- ICYMI: CityLab’s Laura Bliss covers the turf war breaking out between Bird, LimeBike, and Spin.
Bias training: The Philly Starbucks incident sparked a sweeping national conversation about being black in in public spaces. And today, Slate features an essential discussion with Slate writers Jamelle Bouie and Aisha Harris, NPR’S Gene Demby, and sociology professor Tressie McMillan Cottom about how society’s racism adds friction to the routine transactions of everyday life if you’re black, from getting coffee to attending a yoga class. CityLab context: Brentin Mock writes about how bias is part of Starbucks’s design.
More on CityLab
Photo of the Day
Beauty is in the eye of the destroyer. An exhibit at Boston’s pinkcomma gallery showcases the demolition of Brutalist buildings as a call to preserve this divisive architectural style. Curator Chris Grimley compares the modern distaste for béton brut to a similar wave of “venomous dislike” for Victorian buildings about 50 years after the style emerged, which led to many of them being destroyed. “Now, we’d be like, ‘that’s so short-sighted and narrow-minded,’” Grimley says. CityLab’s Teresa Mathew has the story, and the photos.
What We’re Reading
“Bicycle Day”—how the town where LSD was discovered celebrates the drug’s 75th anniversary (The Guardian)
Illustrations of the hidden masterpieces of the NYC Subway (Fast Company)
“They can’t be here for us”: Black men arrested at Starbucks tell their story (Washington Post)
America’s richest people live in one particular kind of neighborhood (Quartz)
Coachella, underground—how the Latino communities in the Valley have adjusted to life under the Trump administration (Longreads)
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