Sam Bloch

Just Keep Watching Do we live in a cult, or a thoroughly entertained society?

"You can say this is denial, or a consequence of propaganda. But perhaps this is what people want. Not because it makes them happy. But because it makes the people making their lives miserable happy. And that is what they care about, whether they know it or not."

substack.com/home/post/p-190128938

AI Boom on K Street: One in Four Lobbyists Now Work on AI A new Public Citizen report analyzes lobbying disclosures for 2025 and finds that lobbying on AI issues has skyrocketed.

"Lobbying activity on AI issues in 2025 would place it behind only the federal budget, tax, and health care issues in the topics listed on congressional disclosures. More lobbyists were active on AI issues last year than on defense or energy." readsludge.com/2026/02/24/a...

It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

Uncool Whacking L.A. trees in a mistaken effort to reduce crime

New piece from me today in L.A. Reported — a new nonprofit publication running original, in-depth pieces about the issues that matter most to Angelenos.

It's about fighting crime by cutting down trees, dismantling bus shelters, and getting rid of shade

lareported.substack.com/p/shade-remo...

More Cities Are Taking Responsibility for Clearing Sidewalks of Snow — Streetsblog USA Rochester, Burlington, Minneapolis, Duluth and Syracuse have either started clearing sidewalks or are moving in that direction.

Reminder that some US cities have teams clearing sidewalks -- not just roads -- when a major snowstorm strikes. Yours could, too.

I started last month! The paperback is too big for bed or travel so my hack has been the audiobook from NYPL

The Avery Review | <i>Shade</i> and the Right to the City The Avery Review is an online journal dedicated to thinking about books, buildings, and other architectural media.

Really, truly an incredible feeling to read a review of your book that not only Gets It but has devastating reporting of its own — sordid tales of landlords chopping down trees "to reassert control, to unsettle tenants, and to make us leave"

averyreview.com/issues/74/sh...

The ‘New’ Saudi Arabia Still Runs on ‘Modern-Day Slavery’ The notorious kafala system gives Saudi employers near-complete control over their workers’ legal status, resulting in widespread abuses.

Saudi Arabia’s notorious kafala system binds workers’ rights and livelihoods to the whims of their Saudi employers, resulting in widespread abuses. And while the kingdom has touted recent labor reforms, in practice little has changed.

Kicking the tires on car-free living in Arizona Culdesac Tempe, held up as a model, is closer to a cautionary tale. Plus: a bumper crop of design exhibitions to open the year

@hawthorne.bsky.social on the peril and promise of Culdesac: "A cautionary tale about the limits of the sort of urban change that’s driven not by community consensus or enlightened policymaking but by private developers selling a particular lifestyle."

www.punchlistmag.com/p/kicking-th...

NEXT WEEK: @samkbloch.bsky.social continues his book tour for "Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource" with a lecture at PDX Design Collaborative, sponsored by University of Oregon.

Portland folks — don't miss this conversation on the role of shade in shaping a cooler, fairer future.

Seattle Council Approves Eight-Unit Apartment Buildings Everywhere - PubliCola By Erica C. Barnett Maybe calling them “stacked flats,” rather than “apartments,” was a stroke of genius. On Tuesday, the…

Here’s a smart way to save a city’s disappearing canopy, which is to strongly incentivize developers to do it. Call it a green bonus, or a shade bonus

publicola.com/2025/12/19/s...

"Willa may or may not get a fraction of the therapy she needs, but she will definitely teach 25 they/thems how to shoot a pistol and help set up community fridges across northern California."

DCCC Scores Massive Palantir and SpaceX Lobbyist Cash Haul The House Democrats' campaign arm disclosed the money in a FEC filing accompanying its January contributions and disbursements.

Our 2-person newsroom published 180+ stories this year exposing the corrupt influence of money in politics. Here’s some of the work we’re most proud of.

First up, how the DCCC is raising millions from Palantir and Elon Musk-linked lobbyists. readsludge.com/2025/02/24/d...

In Defense of the Sidewalk Shed Yes, they’re annoying and a little ugly. I love them anyway.

More sidewalk sheds! Let's rebrand them as cool tunnels for children, or for the wonks, climate architecture

www.curbed.com/article/side...

Contributor: You're not imagining it. L.A. has surrendered to the potholes To avoid a legal obligation to make sidewalks accessible, the city stopped repaving streets in July and doesn't plan to resume.

"LA spends half as much per capita as NYC and San Diego, and a third of Chicago and SF. We may be one of the wealthiest cities in the developed world based on gross domestic product, but we are one of the poorest based on what we invest in our streets and sidewalks."

www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

South Texas homebuilders say ICE arrests have slowed work More than 380 people attended an impromptu meeting that industry leaders in the Rio Grande Valley hosted to draw attention to the chilling effect ICE arrests have had on construction.

"Data from the Federal Reserve of Dallas shows a 5% drop in construction jobs during the third quarter of this year, the single largest dip in jobs in the region." www.texastribune.org/2025/12/24/s...

Revealed: The Corporations Mobilizing to Defeat Biden's Labor Secretary Nominee Uber, Lyft & the National Restaurant Association are desperately trying to kill the president's pro-worker pick to lead the Labor Department.

Julie Su, former acting Secretary of Labor, will join the Mamdani administration in NYC.

Ahead of her confirmation hearings in 2023, we looked into the corporate lobbying groups moving to sink Su, from Uber and Lyft to the National Restaurant Association. Featuring an appearance from "Dr. Evil."

This is sort of my theory about why some streets in hip neighborhoods gentrify and others don't. Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park basically still looks the same as it did a decade ago — while narrower Figueroa Boulevard in Highland Park is now overrun with filterworld cafes and boutiques

Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison

They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.

Heat protections are coming to sports, but just like those in the workplace, the rules aren't based on science.

"Cooling breaks at the 30th minute and 75th minute are quite traditional, but from a physiological point of view it does not make sense."

www.nytimes.com/athletic/687...

"The shoot was outdoors in August where the temperature climbed above 90°. I ended up in triage where doctors determined they had to induce because working in heat caused my blood pressure to reach dangerous levels. My hopes for a natural delivery were shattered for six YouTube videos at $800 each."

America’s plan to protect pedestrians failed. A young woman’s death reveals why. U.S. officials adopted Europe's Vision Zero initiative, but many cities have seen an increase in pedestrian fatalities despite efforts to improve road safety.

What a lede on this story: Man who complained about narrowing a road in order to protect pedestrians, so much that the city eventually reversed the change, then kills a woman on that very road with his car www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...

Jeffries Misleads on AIPAC PAC Money Though Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said that AIPAC PAC gives him only the per-cycle maximum, the group has flooded his campaign with more than a million dollars in earmarked donations.

On WNYC, Rep. Jeffries ( @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) said there are pro-Israel donors "in his community" who donate to him via AIPAC PAC.

I reviewed more than a dozen of his largest donors through AIPAC PAC this year. None are in his district, none are in Brooklyn. Most of them are out of state.

It's priceless that 86 Democrats, including leadership, voted for a pathetic Republican messaging bill about the "horrors" of socialism and Zohran just… charmed Trump and got him to gush about FDR and the New Deal.

Maybe in new builds, but in existing buildings, the portico would be a separate structure, maintained by the same old shed racketeers to meet DOB requirements

What about a shed that's made of stone and marble and permanently fixed to a building facade and privately maintained for public passage for eternity

on your way to East River Park?

The Millennials Who Ditched Cities During the Pandemic Would Like a Word As a result of Covid, many young people moved in search of more affordable lifestyles. But in today’s America, is there any place left where you can have it all?

My last big story for the year is up at @dwell.bsky.social: I spoke with ~a dozen millennials who left big cities during or after the pandemic. What I found was a lot of people trying to redefine what ‘upward mobility’ might mean: www.dwell.com/article/rura...

Man Jailed for Facebook Meme Is Freed in Tennessee Larry Bushart Jr. spent more than a month in jail after a Tennessee sheriff ordered his arrest for a meme trolling a Charlie Kirk vigil.

"Larry Bushart has been freed after nearly 40 days in jail and a $2 million bond over a Facebook post ... A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts.”

theintercept.com/2025/10/30/l...

Experts warn this aggressive approach will likely fuel greater abuses of civil and human rights, heighten public anger and lead to more warrantless arrests, straying far from the previous stated focus on “the worst of the worst.” “Spectacle, not security.” www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/02/b...