Patrick Sisson - Writer, Journalist, Cultural Documentarian, Music Lover

344 posts by Pat

Bloomberg CityLab January 2021 Robert Futrell has spent decades studying right-wing militia movements. A professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he watched as a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, killing a Capitol Police officer. Four others also died in the attack, which was part of an ongoing […]

New York Times December 2020 A plan to upgrade a cluster of nine unremarkable apartment buildings in Brooklyn typically would not merit a second look. But this isn’t a quick fix; the project, called Casa Pasiva, aims to be a new model for the sustainable transformation of the city’s housing stock. Sleek new skyscrapers that […]

CoMotion News December 2020 While the full impact of the 2020 election is just beginning to come into focus, Uber, Lyft, and other tech firms in the gig economy notched a clear victory. Proposition 22, a California ballot initiative that creates special labor regulations for workers of rideshare firms and delivery companies like DoorDash and […]

Marker December 2020 “None of us knows how long this crisis will last,” pleaded Robert Reffkin in a letter to Nancy Pelosi and her Republican counterpart Kevin McCarthy in March. Reffkin, CEO of real estate startup Compass, was urging Congress to include independent contractors like real estate agents— some 2 million of them in the United States, according […]

CityLab November, 2020 When a tub of popcorn can run nearly $10, renting out an entire theater for $99 seems like a steal. For AMC Theatres, the mega-chain that recently introduced the private screening plan as a Covid-era concession to safety and shrinking audiences, it’s more a desperate ploy to keep the lights on as the […]

Bloomberg CityLab October 2020 This summer, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti found himself generating international headlines for cracking down on a house party. On Aug. 19, city officials disconnected utilities at the Hollywood Hills home of Bryce Hall, Noah Beck and Blake Gray, young stars on the video platform TikTok who had turned their residence — a rented 8,500-square foot mansion […]

Vox November 2020 Holiday hiring events for malls used to be a big deal, with lines rivaling those for jaw-dropping Black Friday electronic deals. Anchor retailers and specialty stores held huge in-person hiring events as early as September, heralding the start of the busiest, most exciting part of the retail year. This season, don’t expect […]

CityMonitor November 2020 They died out of sight, underneath a scorching late-summer sun. In Los Angeles, when midday temperatures reach 38°C (100°F), the asphalt cooks at a blistering 66°C (150°F). Over the Labour Day holiday weekend of 6 September, when temperatures in the city’s Woodland Hills neighbourhood hit a record 49°C (121°F), at least three […]

CityMonitor October 2020 Infrastructure often gets sold as a new solution to past mistakes. In Mumbai, India’s financial capital, an ongoing project to fill in part of the city’s coastline and build the initial 9.8km (6.1 miles) of an eight-lane Coastal Road can best be understood as an old mistake applied to a new problem. […]

Bloomberg CityLab November 2020 As a nail-biter U.S. election creeps to its resolution — and tallies in urban areas decide key battleground states — a few things are clear. While the ideological cleavage between urban and rural parts of the country continues to grow, progressive candidates at the local level had a strong showing on […]