Newcastle’s Grade II-listed The Gibson Street Baths building was constructed in 1906 by FH Holford as a public swimming pool and wash house.

Informal planning guidance says the building could be converted for a range of uses, from private or student residential accommodation to leisure and sports facilities, a hotel, studios or restaurant. ‘The planners are going to be very flexible,’ says Riggall. ‘The city council really wants to see it brought back into use’. — thespaces.com

Legally, sidewalk repair is the responsibility of homeowners, but historically, enforcement of upkeep has been thin. [...]

“[sidewalks] should be part of the money we spend on transportation ... because people who walk are transporting themselves on their feet.” [...]

The liability is actually two-tiered: The property owner is responsible if someone sues after an injury due to poorly maintained sidewalks, but the city has secondary responsibility because sidewalks are public infrastructure. — nextcity.org

Facing a potentially bruising ballot fight over real estate development next year, Los Angeles' political leaders announced Wednesday that they will seek a sweeping update of the plans that govern the size and density of new buildings that go up in scores of neighborhoods.

Mayor Eric Garcetti and several council members said they want the Planning Department to revise nearly three dozen “community plans” by 2026, a task that will require the hiring of 28 new employees at a cost of $4.2M a year. — latimes.com

Cars conquered the daily culture of American life back when top hats and child labor were in vogue, and well ahead of such other innovations as radio, plastic, refrigerators, the electrical grid, and women’s suffrage.

A big part of why they’ve stuck around is that they are the epitome of convenience...Convenience (some might call it freedom) is not a selling point to be easily dismissed [...]

In almost every way imaginable, the car, as it is deployed and used today, is insane. — theatlantic.com

We need to think of technology-enabled furniture as a platform for integrating other technology because in a small apartment it is not practical to put in conventional systems...I don't believe in smart homes, I believe in dumb homes that you put smart things into. If smartness is embedded in the walls then your home becomes obsolete in five years time — BBC news

”...it might be that loneliness is often due to circumstance.

The thing with cities is we are absolutely surrounded by people...We can see other people living richer, more populated lives than our own. At the same time, we can feel very exposed … there are lots of eyes on everyone. That is why the loneliness of the city has a particularly distinct tang to it.

Loneliness, however, is often like bad weather, “it passes through our lives”. — The Guardian

you can spend a lot of money, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to come to an outcome that is going to be good over the long run. I think that, you know, it really comes to the design of the building, how the material transitions are treated, color is a huge issue that often doesn't get I think enough attention and can hugely influence the outcome in a building — Colorado Public Radio

Everything from sidewalks and curbs to streets, building designs, urban layouts, and living patterns will change as computers take the wheel.

“We’re looking at the broader urban effects—and urban opportunities—of this technology,” says Illinois Tech architect Marshall Brown, one of the team members in the Chicago school’s Driverless Cities Project. “It’s in the news a lot, but nobody’s been discussing what it will actually do to cities.” — wired.com

The Information notes that building a city could allow Sidewalk Labs to “rethink government, social policy, and data-driven management.” [CEO Dan] Doctoroff explained that “thinking about a city from the Internet up is really compelling,” while also noting that “cities are hard. You have people with vested interest, politics, physical space…But the technology ultimately cannot be stopped.” — 9 to 5 Google

This is the urban park of today. Unlike the neatly drawn public spaces of an earlier age, these parks are reclaimed from the discarded parcels of our cities: Stranded patches of woods, abandoned military bases and airports, storm-water systems, rail lines and bridges, places where scraps of land are pieced together like quilts or strung together like beads.

The experimentation is global. — National Geographic

According to the Knight Frank Wealth Report, released on Wednesday, the population of multimillionaires in major cities around the world now changes radically from month to month...The American rich, he says, are moving from second-home ownership to more of a hub-and-spoke model. — NYT

Squares have defined urban living since the dawn of democracy, from which they are inseparable. [...]

I don’t think it’s coincidental that early in 2011 the Egyptian revolution centered around Tahrir Square, or that the Occupy Movement later that same year, partly inspired by the Arab Spring, expressed itself by taking over squares like Taksim in Istanbul, the Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona, and Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. — nybooks.com

The fort community houses 59 families, and is well-known for its wooden houses in the early Rattanakosin-style. Faced with strong resistance from the community, and academics and activists, City Hall the plan but dusted it off early last month amid a public outcry. — Bangkok Post