Nicole Flatow

It's not clear yet when or where the pain will fall on the chain but an awful lot of rent hasn't been paid www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

How the Ultra-Wealthy Are Building Bigger Mansions in the Heart of NYC Also this week: Oslo opens new government quarters on the site of tragedy, and it’s a tough time to be a Black developer.

This week: Mega-mansions in Manhattan, Minneapolis after ICE, Oslo architecture, self-driving safety, snow-day solutions. And my fave part: A delightful reader email on how she created a “15-minute city for friendship” inspired by a @sarahholder.bsky.social story www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

CityLab Weekly The week’s most thought-provoking stories, ideas and analysis from cities around the world.

Do it for the newsletter's lead author @linpoonsays.bsky.social, whose birthday is today, the day of our first edition www.bloomberg.com/account/news...

CityLab Weekly The week’s most thought-provoking stories, ideas and analysis from cities around the world.

CityLab has shifted to a weekly newsletter, where we’ll be taking a little more real estate to deliver an even better product. If a daily was too much for you but you want to read the best reporting, ideas and solutions from cities around the world, please sign up! www.bloomberg.com/account/news...

The Rise of the Manhattan Mega-Mansion In the West Village and other historic neighborhoods, buyers are consolidating apartments and combining townhomes, a sign of New York’s allure to the ultra-rich.

Behind the preserved historical facades, the ultra-rich are buying up adjacent townhomes in the West Village and Upper East Side, combining them into a megamansion. It's part of a broader trend of small multifamily buildings being turned into single-family homes. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

"The sites essentially created a free archive of early-20th-century municipal history." www.archpaper.com/2026/02/curb...

There are a lot of things we can't control. But we can do a little bit to control whether local news gets funded, and by whom. This is a terrific newborn outlet. Please support them!

The DMV is losing one of the best transportation reporters in the US. I'm sad for Rachel, but even more so for DC.

In Praise of Urban Disorder The book Messy Cities looks at unregulated and informal development from Toronto to Tokyo to show how less planning can deliver more vibrant neighborhoods.

Lovely conversation on embracing "messy" cities. This bit in particular is inspiring me to think of needing to borrow as an opportunity, not a handicap. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

This is totally fascinating

And where are our gold-plated snow plows?

D.C. deploys more contractors, asks National Guard for help with snow Trash pickup is set to begin starting Saturday, while crews are still tackling bus shelters and streets that are piled high with icy snow.

How was the National Guard not already out on the streets hacking at sidewalk ice? www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

Another warehouse owner backed out of a deal with ICE on Friday: Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison! www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

The city's mayor, the president of the US conference of mayors, issues a strong statement: "I ask that every single property owner in Oklahoma City exhibit the same concern for our community." www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

Warehouse owners in Oklahoma City have now refused to sell their property to ICE for a detention center, as @folaak.bsky.social and @sooophie.bsky.social report that the agency is rushing to snap up storage facilities to detain immigrants despite local resistance www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Inside the Plan to Demolish and Rebuild Trump’s Washington When President Donald Trump demolished the East Wing in October, it came as a public shock. But the White House likely won’t be the last historic DC building to face a wrecking ball.

Washington has long weighed a plan to redevelop a vast federal office enclave in SW DC.

Along comes a president willing to demolish the East Wing without warning.

Neoclassical designers sense their moment.

Welcome to DC's next neighborhood-in-waiting, FEDLANDIA: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

JOIN US TODAY: Can Trump make US housing affordable? Bloomberg journalists answer questions on politics, economics and Wall Street’s role in the market today at 10:30 a.m. ET.

🎙️ Stream the Live Q&A here: bloom.bg/49HYwDi

After a White Town Rejected a Data Center, Developers Targeted a Black Area Four million Americans live within 1 mile of a data center. The communities closest to them are “overwhelmingly” non-white.

NEW: After a White Town Rejected a Data Center, Developers Targeted a Black Area

Four million Americans live within 1 mile of a data center. The communities closest to them are “overwhelmingly” non-white.

capitalbnews.org/data-center-...

We Still Don’t Know if Robotaxis Are Safer Than Human Drivers And even if self-driving technology proves to be less dangerous, there are many better ways to improve traffic safety and prevent fatal crashes.

Sorry, but triumphant claims about autonomous vehicle safety are wildly exaggerated.

It's an open question whether today’s self-driving cars are any safer than those driven by humans.

And if reducing crashes is the goal, that isn’t even the right question.

My deep dive, in Bloomberg 🧵

We Still Don’t Know if Robotaxis Are Safer Than Human Drivers And even if self-driving technology proves to be less dangerous, there are many better ways to improve traffic safety and prevent fatal crashes.

If you've been compelled by any of the recent effusive safety assessments of self-driving cars, read this definitive reality check from @davidzipper.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

One thing I wrote about here is how technology has made buses *way* more convenient while techno-futurists were obsessed with flying taxis and self-driving cars.

With Mamdani, the Humble Bus Gets Its Due Enthusiasm for NYC’s mayor-elect may reflect a little-understood reality about the essential role of buses. Still, making them faster won’t be easy.

I wrote about how surprised I still am a candidate for NYC mayor won in large part by talking incessantly about buses, and also about how making them fast as promised will be an immense challenge. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

When DCist was shut down, it had 70,000+ subscribers.
The 51st is proud to carry forward the spirit with which DCist served our city.

But we can’t stop thinking about how most of those subscribers — our neighbors and friends — are just no longer receiving the kind of local news they signed up for.

Why Are Electricity Prices Rising? Probably not for the reasons that you think

Here's a really great, clear explanation from @michael-thomas.bsky.social of what we know about why US electricity prices are rising. (No, it's not data centers, except in some very specific local areas.)

Europe’s Original Climate-Resilient City Has a Lesson for Us All On Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, it continues to be a leader in climate adaptation — showing how a city can thrive in overcoming existential challenges.

Amsterdam might never have become a city if not for climate change. But the city's secret sauce is that it turned its greatest challenges into advantages, @feargusosull.bsky.social and Charlotte Hughes-Morgan explain in this great piece.

The Most Efficient Traveler Isn’t a Bird or a Fish—It’s You on a Bike A famous graphic, now updated, compares locomotion in the animal kingdom

Placating myself by looking at this pretty chart. www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-hu...

‘Car Brain’ Is Making the US Unhealthy and Dangerous. EVs Won’t Fix It. A trio of new books argue that we need to confront the full range of costs that car-based living has imposed on our cities, our health and our society.

Three newly published books argue that cars are destroying society as well as the planet.

Is the world finally ready to rein in the automobile?

My essay, in @bloomberg.com (gift link below)

Thanks, New Yorker