Trump’s 50-year mortgage proposal raises eyebrows, NYC’s bricklayers preserve the last cobblestone streets, and more.
- Sotheby’s has officially moved into NYC’s famous Breuer building, giving the brutalist landmark its most public-facing life yet: 650 works on the walls (all of which are for sale), free entry, and a full museum-grade experience. There’s even a $10 million solid-gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan somewhere inside, which people can see one at a time. (Vanity Fair)
-
The White House is pitching a 50-year mortgage as a way to chip away at the market’s affordability crisis, promising lower monthly payments even as critics warn it could inflate prices and keep buyers in debt longer. Here’s why the proposal is an ambitious, and risky, attempt to get the market moving. (Fortune)
-
New York’s last cobblestone streets are hanging on thanks to a small crew of bricklayers, hired by the Transportation Department and specially trained, who still set each block by hand. With only 15 miles of cobblestone streets left in the city, their painstaking work keeps an iconic slice of its history intact. (The New York Times)
An aerial view of the Sunset Mesa neighborhood in eastern Malibu shows cleared lots and sparse construction after the Palisades Fire.
Photo by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
-
Black women in South L.A. are leading a neighborhood-level climate movement, pushing to shut down urban oil drilling that has long polluted Black and Latino communities and fueled disasters like January’s wildfires. Here’s how their activism is helping reshape California law. (Capital B)
-
Sunset Mesa residents are rebuilding after the Palisades Fire with noncombustible materials, embracing a kind of “herd immunity” where fireproof homes help shield entire neighborhoods from embers and wind-driven flames. (The Los Angeles Times)
Top photo by Stefan Ruiz/Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
