Donuts by Dave Crosby licensed under Creative Commons.

A bakery’s mural clashes with local zoning laws, sparking debates over free speech. City block designs reflect the deeper character of cities. How cars and sprawl suck time out of everyone’s day.

Donut art clashes with zoning laws: On the blank space above the front door of his bakery in Conway, New Hampshire, owner Sean Young had art students paint a colorful mural full of donuts and pastries. But the happy painting became a target of the city’s zoning board and started a debate about free speech and what constitutes art versus advertising. Young has sued the city saying the rules discriminate based on the speaker’s identity and the content of the speech. (Kathy McCormack and Robert Buakty | Associated Press)

City block design: City blocks are often emblematic of their cities and the histories of how those cities came to be. They also dictate the designs of the buildings they encompass including apartment blocks and houses. Adele Belitardo takes a look at six different apartment block types and how they interact within themselves and proximal streets. (Adele Belitardo | ArchDaily)

Cars deprive us of time: Americans spend a lot of their time in cars but it doesn’t have to be this way, argues Doug Gordon. In order to get rid of the time suck of driving, we must reduce the distances between important destinations, which is the heart of the 15-minute city idea developed by Carlos Moreno. While this particular phrasing of planning for proximity has received a lot of attention, it also is central to how cities have been planned and organized for millennia. (Doug Gordon | The New Republic)

In-person government services shrinking: As the public sector retains hybrid work schedules, many in-person services like the issuing of licenses and permits are only available by appointment in some cities. The reasons are not from lack of funding but rather because many cities have been slow to lift pandemic-era rules in an effort to keep workers who have been in high demand happy. The lack of human interaction has been frustrating for many, especially when computer programs often can’t answer questions and are hard to navigate. (Alec MacGillis | Pro Publica)

Saying “yes” to building for a green future: Environmentalists have won a lot of hard-fought battles by saying “no” to things that were harmful to the natural world. But now, in an era of climate change and a rapidly changing world, Bill McKibben argues that we need to say “yes” more often. From building power lines to housing in urban areas, there are many ways that building can be valuable, and saying “yes” to the right projects will better protect the environment overall than saying “no.” (Bill McKibben | Mother Jones)

Quote of the Week

“Even though GM warns that you should use the [WTF (Watts to Freedom)] mode on a closed course, it’s not geofenced. Anyone can turn it on anywhere. There are so many scenarios in which that speed and that acceleration are just dangerous to others on the road.”

Michael Brooks of the non-profit Center for Auto Safety in Global News discusses the dangers of heavier and more powerful electric vehicles. The “Watts to Freedom” mode is a feature in GM’s new electric Humvee that allows drivers to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds.

This week on the podcast, Yonah Freemark of the Urban Institute is back for our annual Prediction Show. This year, we chat about our predictions from last year and next year of course, but also about regional rail in France, interesting transportation projects around the world, and the high cost and management of big transit projects.