Three weeks into the new school year, and we have our first sore throat. So it begins…
Matthew Yglesias wants D.C. to repel the century-old Height of Buildings Act so we could have proper skyscrapers in the district. I couldn’t disagree more: the city’s decentralized downtown — a consequence of not being allowed to build anything taller that 40m (130 feet) is a remarkable feature that more American cities should adopt.
The are many reasons why building more high-rises are not a good idea, from enrionmental to urbanistic to Talebian arguments against concentration. Now, having just spent a couple of days in Midtown Manhattan I can see their appeal as a backdrop to city life: dramatic skyline, bustling streets, smell of rotten garbage in the air. But DMV is not Manhattan in geography, population size or culture. To picture restriction-less DC, look at Rosslyn — a skyscraper-laden area just across the Potomac. It is… not great to walk in. The tall parts of downtown Bethesda are marginally more walkable but irreparably ugly and dead at night, much as downtown DC would be if it were filled by office buildings. But who even uses office buildings any more? The whole thing makes no sense.
Disclosure time: I, in fact, live in downtown DC, right in the triangle Yglesias proposes to be the center of a high-rise building boom. He himself also lives in DC — outside of the triangle. And that may as well be the root cause of the difference in our opinions.
But I think there’s more to it than that. He comments that, because of the HoB Act, companies have offices in Dupont and NoMa, like mixed use is a bad thing. What he proposes would further centralize commercial activity into a narrow area, which goes against the mixed use that YIMBYs are usually for. If you like mixed use, you should be anti-skyscraper and pro mid-rise, just the kind of buildings DC is making more of. The District is generally is pro-building — maybe even too pro-bulding — and has the kind of zoning other American cities could do well to copy. But just read this whopper of a paragraph:
Basically, the inability to fit everyone into the central business district meant that there was always artificially high demand for office space in secondary centers. There are offices out in the commercial corridors of Upper Northwest and in Georgetown and DuPont Circle. And during the course of my time here, the city has built out a series of essentially new greenfield neighborhoods — NoMa, Union Market, Navy Yard, the Ballpark, the Wharf — and each of these has an office component alongside residential. The developers of these large-scale projects liked being able to include offices in the project, because it spread out risk, diversified revenue sources, and made the ground floor retail leases more valuable since you could ensure a lunchtime customer base.
Still, that always struck me as missing the forest for the trees, making individual projects easier to finance and market at the expense of making commutes worse and reducing the agglomeration power of the city.
What is the forest and what are the trees in this analogy? Because I’d say it’s Yglesias who is missing the forest (of many neighborhoods in the goldilocks zone of mixed use) for the trees (skyscrapers).
And this, I presume, is because the whole article started with the wrong premise: is there anything that the federal government could do directly that’s anti-NIMBY, pro-local, and within its powers. Yes, it turns out there is. But that does not by itself make it a good idea.
Unbelievable: I’ve passed by this building dozens and dozens of times, never knowing that behind these stone castle walls lies…
A beer garden
And I only learned this because I randomly opened a hotel room desk drawer. Nestled inside was the Spring 2024 issue of “Preservation” magazine featuring an article about Heurich House. I wonder if they have any events planned for the month of October.
You can curse the darkness, or you can light a candle […] If young people today do not know of events or artists or thinkers or works that you think they would benefit from knowing, you can tell them. That’s one of the main things writers are for.
A funny thing happened as I was reading this passage from Alan Jacobs’ brief article about (un)knowing: my five-year-old was listening to We’ll Meet Again, the 1939 hit that has, c/o Gravity Falls, become his favorite tune. Funny how culture works.
📚 Finished reading: False Dawn by John Gray, written in 1998 and getting many things right, most of all the vibes of a post-liberal, post-free market world. He still writes in the same timbre, though now he sounds more like a broken record played in an echo chamber. What a difference 25 years make.
A few good links for the weekend:
Journalists are reaching their nadir, even at FT. At best, they are misguided newly minted English majors who haven’t yet learned statistics and are easily fooled by randomness. But it shouldn’t take more than a year on the job to realize that most journalistic efforts are attempts to create a story out of pure noise, and at that point you either quit your job and start doing actual journalism, or you call yourself what you are: a professional troll.
The latest episode of The Talk Show was with Taegan Goddard, who all the way back in 1999 founded the blog Political Wire which is apparently a continuous intravenous drip for people interested in US politics. Now, I’ve had other preocupations back then and not being an American citizen still have little to no interest, so this blog wasn’t even on my radar until listening to the episode. But now I wonder: are there any more relevant blogs I’ve missed out on, about medicine and biotechnology in particular?
ChatGPT’s first pass was mediocre. I’ll save you the verbalist padding, but here are its suggestions in response to my prompt: “Is there a website/blog like politicalwire.com or daringfireball.net but for biotechnology?”
It’s a 20% hit rate: only Derek Lowe’s In the Pipeline comes close to what I asked for. The others are all medium to big news outlets that yes, focus on biotech, but that’s not what I asked for. The second try, after I asked for more like Lowe’s, was a tad better:
That’s more like it! 80% now, and if I were feeling generous I’d give it a full 100% since In the Pipeline is, in fact, a Sci Trans Med blog. But then I asked for too much, and it hallucinated 3 more, two of which were hallucinations (BioPunk and BiotechBits, which were at least plausible names) and one was a sub-blog of Endpoints that also didn’t exist.
So, now I have two new blogs to follow (Timmerman Report and The Niche; Biotech Strategy is behind a paywall and I’ve already been following the others), and an ever-increasing urge to update the Blogroll, which has been under construction for the past five months with no end in sight.
I follow most blogs via RSS and imagine everyone doing the same. This makes me forget that this very blog is an actual website that may need tending, and every time I visit (which is rarely) a thought comes to mind: I should really do something about that font … typeface … those fonts.
But I don’t want to just copy someone else, which is what I did with the current version that uses Iowan Old Style. [Note: ChatGPT was sadly lacking in font recognition skills. When I showed it a screenshot of this website it said the font was Georgia. When asked whether it might be Iowan after all, it had this to say: Upon closer inspection, the typeface in the image does indeed have characteristics that are more aligned with Iowan Old Style rather than Georgia. Which is some master-work backtracking and a sign of an expert BS-er. ] Not knowing much about typefaces, I asked someone who might.
Me: What is a high-quality publicly available serif typeface highly regarded by most if not all experts?
ChatGPT-4o: One of the most highly regarded publicly available serif typefaces is “Cormorant.” This typeface is available on Google Fonts and is praised for its elegance and versatility. Designed by Christian Thalmann, Cormorant is inspired by the classic Garamond typefaces but with modern refinements that make it suitable for both print and digital use.
Cormorant is highly regarded for its high contrast, sharp serifs, and a wide range of styles and weights, making it a versatile choice for various design needs. It’s well-crafted and respected among designers for its beauty and readability.
Me: Can it be used as a body typeface? If not, is there a typeface that I can use as body typeface?
ChatGPT-4o: While Cormorant is beautiful and highly regarded, it is generally better suited for display use (e.g., headlines, titles) rather than as a body typeface. This is because of its high contrast and intricate details, which can make it harder to read at smaller sizes, particularly in large blocks of text.
For a high-quality serif typeface suitable for body text, I recommend “EB Garamond.” This typeface is also publicly available on Google Fonts and is an excellent choice for body text due to its readability, classic design, and balanced proportions. EB Garamond is a revival of the original Garamond typeface from the 16th century, known for its timeless elegance and clarity, making it an ideal choice for both print and digital use.
EB Garamond is widely praised for its legibility, even at smaller sizes, making it an excellent option for body copy in various design projects.
Me: What is a good monospace typeface equivalent to EB Garamond?
ChatGPT-4o: A good monospace typeface equivalent to EB Garamond, in terms of quality and readability, would be “IBM Plex Mono.”
IBM Plex Mono is part of the IBM Plex typeface family, which was designed with clarity, neutrality, and versatility in mind. While it’s a monospace typeface, it maintains a sense of elegance and professionalism that aligns well with the qualities of EB Garamond. It has well-balanced proportions and is highly legible, making it suitable for coding, technical documents, or any design where a monospace font is needed.
IBM Plex Mono is also publicly available on Google Fonts, making it easily accessible for a variety of projects. Its modern design and attention to detail make it a strong choice for anyone looking for a high-quality monospace font.
Why ChatGPT would be hawking Google Fonts is a question beyond my pay grade, but hey, it’s free and easily implemented, so I might as well try.
Seven years ago today. Time flies!