Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1026

Bloomberg recently published this interesting piece talking about the death of clothing . The reasons are as follows: we’re spending more on experiences, as well as technology (tech spending surpassed apparel spending in 2010); casual dress in the workplace has become more widely accepted; fast fashion companies like H&M and Zara are putting downward pressure on prices; and social media influencers – instead of big companies – are now the ones showing us what to buy and wear.

Here is a graph from the article comparing experiences, apparel, and technology expenditures: 

The first thing I noticed is that experiences, while still increasing, haven’t really spiked since 1977, even though everybody seems to be talking about how social media-fueled Millennials are all about experiences. I was also surprised to see that the share of US employers that allow casual dress every day seems to be closing in on 50%. (Informal survey for the comments and for Twitter : Do you wear casual clothes to work? I’m a no.)

But perhaps the biggest contributors to this decline are fast fashion and low-cost manufacturing. Stanley Pignal – South Asia business and finance correspondent for the Economist – pointed out on Twitter that since 1982 inflation in US apparel was only 123% compared to 248% for overall CPI. So maybe a lot of the above reasoning is just a distraction.

Jackson Hole never disappoints. 

The valley is this wonderful combination of cowboy town, expansive flat plains, wildlife, snowcapped mountains, challenging skiing and snowboarding, ‘mountain modern’ architecture, and twangy accents.

One of the highlights of the trip was discovering a hot spring along the side of the Snake River . We never would have found it had it not been for a few locals. Apparently it’s called the “stinky spring.” 

The setup was no frills — a bunch of rocks arranged as basins in order to catch the surprisingly steamy sulfur water. But the experience of sitting in the mountains and jumping between the icy river and hot springs was priceless. 

That’s another great thing about ski towns: they change your perception of snow, winter, and the outdoors. When it snows in Jackson, people smile and grab their skis and snowboards. I aspire to bring that same energy to winter in the city.

I could never be a ski bum, but I can certainly appreciate why others make that choice. Until the 10th annual …

This is impressive: Shenzhen recently finished converting its entire bus fleet to electric vehicles. That’s 16,359 buses and around 8,000 charging stations according to Electrek .

It is estimated that this all-electric fleet saves 345,000 tons of fuel per year and reduces carbon emissions by 1.35 million tons.

Shenzhen is now working on doing the same to its 12,518 taxis. Already 62.5% of them are electric-powered and the goal is 100% by 2020. 

But let’s not forget that China still generates most of its electricity from coal. Coal represented 72% of its electricity generation in 2015 . And in 2014, carbon emissions from China allegedly made up almost 30% of the world .

Photo by Anton Strogonoff on Unsplash