Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 525

https://twitter.com/AndyTheNguyen/status/1513197041710555141?s=20&t=68ekWyKclDcWvfUvZ3v4Dg

The common criticism with NFT art is that it's just a JPEG image. So why bother "owning" it when you can just right-click, save as? Who in their right mind would spend thousands, let alone hundreds of thousands on such a thing?

But as I've argued before, this is missing the bigger picture and missing what this new technology has the potential to empower. Take for example, the new Bored & Hungry restaurant that opened up in Long Beach, California this past weekend (with lines down the block).

It is being dubbed the world's first Bored Ape Yacht Club restaurant, and here's the backstory. Andy Nguyen is a successful food entrepreneur in southern California. And last month he spent US$267,000 on Bored Ape #6184 (yes, a JPEG).

After doing this, he took to Twitter and asked: "Worst decision I've ever made or best idea of all time?" Of course, he clearly had a new business idea in mind.

Fast forward to today and he now has a pop-up restaurant concept that is branded with his Bored Ape. And because the Bored Ape IP is very permissive, he is perfectly within his rights to do this. He can create whatever business he wants on the shoulders of his NFT, as can others with theirs.

His restaurant is also accepting the new ApeCoin that is part of this NFT community, and if you yourself have a Bored Ape, you qualify for perks like free food. All you have to do is scan your crypto wallet. Digital asset ownership = real-life something.

This to me is just one small example of the kind of new businesses that crypto and other digital assets might unlock. And I am sure that it's the tip of the iceberg.

My unscientific Jimmy the Greek Reopening Index has led me to believe that flexible hours have resulted in more people working from home on both Mondays and Fridays. The middle of the week seems to when demand peaks for delicious lunchtime souvlaki.

But that may only be half right. According to some recent transit data from New York City , which looked at weekday subway ridership between October 2021 and March 2022, it seems to only be Mondays where people really prefer to stay at home:

What you are seeing here is subway ridership per day (with any holidays removed from the data set). Mondays, on average, saw 2,815,166 rides per day, whereas the average for non-Mondays was 3,026,371 per day. So over this particular 6 month period, Monday ridership was about 7% lower.

The probable takeaway: People seem to like to ease into the week.

I was driving to the office from the Junction last week, and I passed a brave individual waiting at this bus stop on Parkside Drive :

I immediately thought to myself, "what an undignified and silly bus stop." There's a little bit of paving so you have a place to stand while you're waiting, but how do you even get there?

There are no sidewalks actually leading to said bus stop, and so you really only have two options: 1) jaywalk or 2) cross at some far away intersection and then walk unceremoniously on a narrow strip of grass and dirt on the side of a busy street.

Not surprisingly, this was the first time I had ever seen anyone waiting at this stop even though I take this route all the time on my way to and from Junction House .

I recognize that I was operating a motor vehicle when I saw this guy waiting for the bus. But I also took transit last week. And I know that we have it in us to do much better than what you're seeing in the above street view photo.

It's also a reminder that while High Park is really great, we need to work on its edges. Both the urban edge that I'm describing above, and the built form that surrounds our magnificent park . High Park is an urban park, but we seem to be a little uncomfortable with that idea.