It won't surprise many of you that, according to this recent data from Pew , about half of Americans now get their news at least "sometimes" from social media. Meaning, half consume the news either "sometimes" or "often" through social media, and the other half do it "rarely" or "never".
What may be more interesting, though, is how much TikTok has jumped over the last three years. 43% of its users now "regularly" use it to get the news. This is roughly inline with Facebook and second only to X:
Also interesting:
Different networks seem to have clear gender biases. Facebook is women. Instagram is women. X is men. TikTok is women. Reddit is men. And Nextdoor is men. There also seems to be a racial bias that I wouldn't have necessarily expected.
If you market on social media, you may want to give some thought to these charts. For the full Pew fact sheet, click here .
In this particular case -- Tokyo -- the building type is referred to as zakkyo. And apparently, it is something that emerged over time :
Another is the city’s iconic multistory zakkyo buildings covered in neon signs, like those lining the famous Yasukuni Avenue, which house a spectacular variety of businesses. Zakkyo largely started out as office buildings and transformed over time to house everything from mahjong parlors to karaoke boxes. Almazán and McReynolds point out that these buildings offer a density of destinations rarely found in the West because they offer a vertical—not just a horizontal— dimension to walkability, with elevators that open onto the street and take customers directly up to businesses. Zakkyo are on narrow lots that pull pedestrians along the streets that they line. Unlike larger U.S. office buildings, their small lot sizes also facilitate the easy reuse of zakkyo space for different purposes.
Okay, so small lot sizes seem to help. But what else is needed? Is there a world where this is possible anywhere in the West? It's probably hard to imagine. Conventional real estate wisdom would tell you that multi-storey retail buildings don't work.
But they work in Tokyo, and probably for two reasons. The first is density. Tokyo is dense and I am told that zakkyo buildings tend to emerge around train stations, where foot traffic is high and people are generally looking for things to do and/or consume.
The second has to do with rules. Tokyo has an overall policy framework that allows for micro-spaces and micro-businesses. Said oppositely, Tokyo hasn't erected so many barriers that the only way to open a business is with scale and lots of money.
So maybe these are possible in the West, after all. Assuming you have any sort of meaningful pedestrian density, the only real prerequisite might be to just get out of the way of small business.
And I think this is a powerful way to think about cities. We often think about doing new things to elicit certain outcomes. But what outcomes are we missing out on and not seeing because of the rules that we've already put in place?
" ...he took the department through significant reforms: allowing new houses in back laneways, then garden suites; eliminating minimum parking requirements; even legalizing four-unit apartment buildings on any lot in the city. "
All of this was not easy , as anyone in our industry will attest.
I also got to know Gregg, a little, by way of our development projects. And I can say that he (1) genuinely loved our great city and (2) was always looking for ways to make things better, whether that be through planning policy or through processes internal to City Hall.
Thank you for your service, Gregg.
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Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
