I know it was funny for people to laugh about "TACO" a few months ago... but we actually really *do* want him to chicken out on most of this stuff. Sheesh. In a government where all policy is ego and preening and performative dominance displays, giving him an off ramp to chicken out is a good thing.

As I can recall, the "policy planning process" is a) in first term, Trump makes stray offhand, uninformed remark about Greenland; b) people laugh at him about; c) defensive to the slights, he post hoc decides he meant it; d) sycophants race to tell him its genius; e) now its policy... ... RIP NATO??

Life under personalist rule...

I know it was funny for people to laugh about "TACO" a few months ago... but we actually really *do* want him to chicken out on most of this stuff. Sheesh. In a government where all policy is ego and preening and performative dominance displays, giving him an off ramp to chicken out is a good thing.

As I can recall, the "policy planning process" is a) in first term, Trump makes stray offhand, uninformed remark about Greenland; b) people laugh at him about; c) defensive to the slights, he post hoc decides he meant it; d) sycophants race to tell him its genius; e) now its policy... ... RIP NATO??

Thanks. And sorry for my Sunday morning spelling 🤣

But in an urban grid, where the paths are more efficient, people will likely choose walking more often, which creates more street-level interaction. The opposite effect of my paper, basically.

Anyway, though that might be interesting to think about.

But in the US, the grid vs tangled layout comparison is confounded by transit mode choices: the inefficienecy in paths in the tangled layout induces people to just drive, and avoid each other, rather than meet. Nobody walks in those kinds of suburbs because the routes are too circuitous.

In a city like Accra, where something like only ~10% of residents have private cars, the main comparison is walking in a gridded layout vs walking in a more tangled layout. The greater inefficiency in paths through the tangled layout then can create more street-level interaction among pedestrians.

Thanks for engaging with the piece! Really interesting.

On your last point about suburbs, an interesting moderator for generalizing the argument is likely the interaction of transit mode choice and street layouts.