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CityLab Daily: HUD Sets the Table

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What We’re Following

For the love of HUD, show us the table: As the Department of Housing and Urban Development awaits deep budget cuts, The New York Times reports that the agency spent $31,000 on a new dining room set in late 2017 for Secretary Ben Carson’s office. The custom hardwood table, chairs, and hutch—made in Carson’s hometown of Baltimore—sure sound cozy, but we’re still wondering, where are the pictures? (Here’s a look at what it’s replacing, per TPM)

Of course, that’s a little beside the point, given that federal law requires congressional approval for any spending over $5,000 on redecorating department head offices. (HUD now says the dining set was “a building expense.”) The Guardian obtained a copy of the complaint filed with a federal whistleblower agency, in which a senior career official at HUD claims she was demoted and replaced for refusing to break the law to fund the redecoration, and faced retaliation for exposing a $10 million budget shortfall.

CityLab context: For 2019, the White House proposes some harsh spending cuts for HUD’s public housing programs.

—Andrew Small

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Taking It to the Streets

(Olaekan Jeyifous/ The New York Times)

A click-worthy illustrated opinion piece in The New York Times makes the case that autonomous vehicles, just like the cars we have today, can’t save cities. In fact, they might make problems like traffic and carbon emissions much worse, and create a dystopian challenge to public space in cities. CityLab context: How driverless cars will change the way cities feel.

What We’re Reading

A tech company is secretly using New Orleans to test predictive policing technology (The Verge)

Is the Hyperloop taking cities for a ride? (Streetsblog)

How top architecture firms measure up on #MeToo (Curbed)

Will a cashless society hurt the homeless? (The Guardian)

The AP gov teacher who taught the Parkland students how to debate (Splinter)

YIMBYism and the cruel irony of metropolitan history (Streetsblog LA)

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