A beer garden in Astoria, New York by duluoz cats licensed under Creative Commons.

How beer gardens came to be in the US. A new law in Seattle could mean more child care facilities in the city. How transportation planning was impacted by this broken algorithm.

A history of America’s beer gardens: Beer gardens and halls in cities and regions around the United States originally opened to serve immigrant communities from Germany and Eastern Europe that brought the tradition of brewing with them. Instead of saloons which primarily served working men, beer gardens were meant to be family friendly community gathering spaces. The oldest beer garden in America is Scholz Garden in Austin, Texas opened in 1866. (Kara Newman | Wine Enthusiast)

Seattle law could open door to proximate child care: A new ordinance in Seattle changes the land use code to allow for more child care facilities in neighborhoods. A shortage of providers has led parents in the city to pay some of the highest child care costs in the country. But it is hoped that this new ordinance will make child care available within at least fifteen minutes of every home. (Natalie Bicknell | The Urbanist)

The broken algorithm that poisoned transportation planning: Travel demand models have been used for decades to determine whether a transportation project, mainly freeways, should be built in and around cities. The only problem is that trying to determine outcomes so far into the future is impossible, especially in a world where two competing value systems are likely to have different trajectories. (Aaron Gordon | Motherboard)

Outdoor advertising can increase inequality: Evidence from around the world suggests that lower income neighborhoods are bombarded with more and more harmful advertising than more affluent areas. In the US, advertising density is 2 to 4 times greater in lower income zipcodes, worrying public health experts who see the effects of fast food adverts specifically on consumption. (Christine Ro | BBC Worklife)

Hurricane Katrina was a policy disaster, not a natural one: In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and changed the trajectory of the city forever. But observers argue that while a direct hit from a Category 5 storm is devastating, the policy environment leading up to the storm and in the aftermath of it led to more direct harm for many of the city’s Black residents. (Nicholas Lemann | The New Yorker)

Vanya Srivastava contributed to these summaries.

Quote of the Week

“Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City. Feeling sorry for yourself because you can’t go to the theater for a while is not the essential element of character that made New York the brilliant diamond of activity it will one day be again.”

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld in the New York Times reminding us that the human energy of cities will not go away just because some commentators believe they are “over”.

This week on the podcast, Andrea San Gil Leon and Jocelyn Timperlyy join the show to talk about environmental movements and transportation in Costa Rica.