Patrick Sisson

give it to me www.nme.com/news/music/l...

In the rush to build data centers, companies are starting to use their own off grid gas generators. This results in much higher emissions – 60% to 80% – compared with using their local electricity grid and risks locking in longer-term fossil dependence. www.theclimatebrink....

Here’s our recent story about a highway through the Brazilian Amazon. Lula supports it but only with dedicated conservation areas and other rules. Bolsonaro wants to pave more such roads and said that’s slowed by “left-wing ideology in the licensing agencies.” www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Exceptional reporting

Increasingly, tenants facing eviction are turning to habitability—broken appliances, mold, substandard conditions—as a defense. Advocates say it levels the playing field in court, landlords say it’s leading to fake claims & expensive settlements. My latest for Bisnow www.bisnow.com/news/nationa...

We found that as of right now 73% of your campaign donation goes back to the consultants and vendors (!!!), four times more than just 20 years ago. Only 13% to ads. Even I was shocked.

In August, articles began appearing about the Sturges House, a Frank Lloyd Wright home in LA that neighbors & preservationists feared wasn‘t being maintained. I dug into it for @dwell.bsky.social and found the truth about the home’s status elusive & divisive www.dwell.com/article/is-f...

"The last disaster for which CDBG-DR funds were doled out was Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida in October 2024. No disaster since then has received CDBG-DR money." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

This story

Nepal passed 5% battery electric vehicle share in August 2021 and is at 75%. The U.S. passed 5% in October 2022 and is at 6%.

The space race has fueled a terrestrial real estate boom, as a fast-growing number of launches, explosion in satellite manufacturing, and expansion of commercial space ports means big spending on industrial sites. My latest for Bisnow www.bisnow.com/news/nationa...

Donors of $333 million to the ballroom include "contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts and, in one case, a pardon for a family member." From @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/4yiUDPx

Gasoline-only cars now make up just 49% of global new vehicle sales, down from 73% in 2021: electrek.co/2026/10/05/g...

Great question about why Louisiana feels the need to give SpaceX, a trillion-dollar company, a $27 billion tax break: “If Louisiana is the only place on earth that really can accommodate this project, then why do we need to give away this much?” lailluminator.com/2026/09/01/s...

When I looked into how Flock Safety is betting big on drones for @fastcompany.com , I was surprised about just how fast police use of drones is growing — one source told me 125 agencies a month are starting new drone-as-first-responder programs. www.fastcompany.com/91621503/flo...

Essential Chicago bar/nightlife history, correctly highlighting the incredible Muffin Lady/Tamale Guy combination chicagoreader.com/music/music-...

At the same time some cities are talking about banning its license plate readers, Flock Safety is seeing success pushing drone as first responder tech to police and public safety, including a new drone that can go 60 mph. My latest for @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91621503/flo...

“.. Since the final F-150 Lightning rolled off the assembly line in December, it has become one of the most coveted cars in America ..” @bloomberg.com $F www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Truly excited about this book by @katz.theracket.news us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Per @heatmap.news this is quite inspiring. “The world is changing rapidly. In response, a confident Canada is choosing to build.“ Canada just announced a $2 billion investment to deliver one million home retrofits. www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news...

A rise in golf cart usage for everyday trips & a slew of new mini-cars on the market may herald a shift on American streets filled w/SUVs & car bloat: a turn toward smaller, slower & more sustainable. My latest for @fastcompany.com on the shrinking family car(t) www.fastcompany.com/91620959/ame...

The Trump administration’s continued push to roll back Clean Water Act protection and change the interpretation of the landmark law—the “most anti-environmental you could get”—will be a bog boost to development, including data centers. My latest for Bisnow. www.bisnow.com/news/nationa...

Sort of insane fact about how broken US urban planning is—America now spends more building *just the lights for roads and highways* than on all subways & ground mass transit combined Spending on roadway *pavement* is 18x transit spending

My latest for the APA & the data center discourse looks at how planners are reckoning with the challenges of the AI buildout. “Until a hyperscale data center comes to you, you don’t necessarily realize it’s going to be necessary for you to engage with your own code.” www.planning.org/planning/202...

it's a good day for good news. last summer i wrote about how plug-in balcony solar is starting to catch on domestically. and lo, just a few mins ago california officially jumped on the bandwagon, clearing the way for residents to install these small-scale systems

In a rare Newsom W, today he signs AB 2222, the Community NEWS Act, which would establish some of the best tax incentives/rebates for newsrooms in the country. It would send $40M/year back into California newsrooms to keep journalists employed. Check out the presser happening live right now:

Fewer gigs, more AI, less certainty — for AIA, I looked at the challenges faced by new and early career architects in a field faced with rapid change www.aia.org/aia-architec...

Data centers get all the attention, but recent real estate deals in Santa Barbara show how quantum computing is becoming a bigger deal & a hub for development. My latest for Commercial Observer looks at the Central Coast’s advanced computing advantage commercialobserver.com/2026/09/quan...

My latest for @bloomberg.com —> A surge of first-time candidates who share an origin story in the data center backlash is bipartisan, but progressives believe it’ll create a new bench of candidates pushing pro-environmental laws who seek to rein in corporate power www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Feels like any Rahm profile about his preternatural political instincts that doesn’t mention Laquan Macdonald is missing something

Incredible article, with invaluable on-the-ground reporting, about Ukrainian drones by @maxuf.bsky.social www.fastcompany.com/91611099/ins...

I’ve been reporting on the CDC for years, and have written about many of its troubles over the past year. I was still shocked by the extent of the staff losses and political interference I found when reporting this one. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...

The data center backlash has birthed a cadre of candidates for local office whose organizing has made it a “gateway issue.” The surge in new candidates may swing statehouses and shift tech, environmental, & development policy. My latest for @bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

“It identifies clean electricity as the “highest-leverage” transition, because cheaper solar and wind power can accelerate change far beyond the energy sector.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Safe streets activism just grew all the way up. This is massive, game-changing. Second largest city in the US and the most potential for re-balancing streets toward humans. www.streetsforall.org/blog/streets...

i don't know if i've ever seen a poll where the numbers between the two sole candidates are as low as 39/28 with 6 weeks to go and ballots ready to go

“The municipal-bond funds are betting that shedding debt through a potential bankruptcy will give the railroad time to grow ridership and build sufficient revenue to pay off its remaining senior obligations.” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

this is not paywalls, fyi - this chart looks roughly the same for sites that have had paywalls since long before 2022. this is all former SEO traffic that has now vanished in exchange for ai search summaries

Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1

“China, Russia and the U.S. have turned their backs on international law,” Barry Andrews, a member of the European Parliament from Ireland, said in a statement after Ms. von der Leyen’s speech. “We need new allies.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/w...

The city's 2025 park needs assessment prioritized where new parks are needed most. My aha moment: of the 36 highest-need areas (colored squares), 30 overlap with SB 79 station areas (yellow circles). In LA, poor people get transit, and rich people get parks.

"Natural gas is fading from California’s electricity mix more quickly than seemed possible just a few years ago." "a 26 percent drop in the first half of this year compared to the first half of 2025"

I wrote about the massacre at McClatchy, a rough day that saw newsrooms gutted from Charlotte to Miami to Sacramento. Through it all, McClatchy is still implausibly claiming it remains "deeply committed to local journalism." www.status.news/p/mcclatchy-...

After a water main broke and flooded the Sunset Strip this summer, I looked at the health of America’s water systems. Extreme age, and the threat of climate change, are colluding to put these utilities at risk. My latest for Bloomberg CityLab www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Sadly shouldn’t be surprised: the AfD hates the Bauhaus www.wsj.com/world/europe...

For AIA, I looked at the benefits of working with nonprofits on affordable housing — from more long-term support to better understanding of community needs, these partnerships create unique opportunities for meaningful design. www.aia.org/aia-architec...

Data from 10 million US high schoolers show that exposure to air pollution driven by wildfire smoke slows the rate of learning and increases achievement gaps by race and income, from A. Patrick Behrer, Joshua Goodman, J. Parker Goyer, and R. Jisung Park www.nber.org/papers/w35670