Essays

Infrastructure & Cities

Selected essays on urban infrastructure, city governance, and the places nobody is writing about. Published via Substack since 2017.

Also writing shorter posts on the Blog →

No. 31April 2025

The cities I actually follow

Everyone is watching Singapore. Everyone is writing about Amsterdam. I want to know what is happening in Plovdiv, in Recife, in Bnei Brak. The interesting experiments are always in the places that cannot afford to fail.

Read on Substack →
No. 30November 2024

What the light rail took

Tel Aviv's red line opened after thirty years of delays. What does a delay that long actually cost a city — in money, in behaviour, in the way people relate to public space?

Read on Substack →
No. 28July 2024

On smart city skepticism

I am not against ambition. I am against ambition that announces itself before it has earned the right to.

Read on Substack →
No. 25March 2024

Why I write about cities

I grew up in a neighbourhood the municipality treated as a placeholder. Not neglected exactly — just unprioritised. You learn a lot about infrastructure from the places that have to wait for it.

Read on Substack →
No. 22October 2023

Bnei Brak and the eruv

The eruv is a form of spatial governance that no urban planning curriculum I know of takes seriously. It should.

Read on Substack →
No. 18May 2023

Plovdiv, quietly

The second city of a country losing population for thirty years. Every infrastructure decision made under demographic decline. More interesting than anything Amsterdam has done lately.

Read on Substack →
No. 14November 2022

The infrastructure that does not need you to believe in it

When I talk about quiet infrastructure, I do not mean invisible infrastructure. I mean infrastructure that does not require you to believe in it before it works.

Read on Substack →