Taste of Home? "The Death of Jeffrey Pendleton."

Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.
-- Henry Anatole Grunwald

But cooking school.

The Death of Jeffrey Pendleton, by Brentin Mock (City Lab)

Jeffrey Pendleton was found dead in a jail cell in Manchester, New Hampshire, on March 13. His death can be chalked up to a number of issues: the paradox of overbearing yet negligent policing, America’s addiction to criminalizing the poor and homeless, the uninhabitable conditions of local jails, and how cities make bank from those paradoxes, bigotries and conditions. His death also illuminates how the ridiculously paltry wages inside the food-service sector leave its workers vulnerable to the predatory nature of these factors.

It would be great if we could say that these issues represent the worst of how cities run; instead, we know that they are embedded in the essential functions of the civic ecosystem. People like Pendleton are not residents in these systems, they are the victims of it.

Yo, Warren: "Unless a city prioritizes basic service, people will not want to build roots in it."

In a perfect world, political functionaries charged with basic infrastructure would be delighted to learn of eyesores ripe for cleaning, as with mattresses dumped within eyesight of Break Wind's intended upscale millennial pizzazz, but when informed of this on social media, Warren Nash advised against encouraging the sort of person who would bring this to his attention -- after two weeks of it moldering there.

Imagine the immediate reaction had it been suggested that the mattress was a public art installation.

If the notion of human rights embraced health and safety, then basic infrastructure is one guarantor of rights and freedoms. Have you ever heard Nash, Adam Dickey or other local paragons of "democratic" propriety talk about such a topic, even once?

The Not-So-Secret Secret About Growing a Healthy City, by Anna Clark (Next City)

It may not have as much placemaking pizzazz as a new bike-share or downtown arts district, but unless a city prioritizes basic service, people will not want to build roots in it. From safe drinking water to solid public schools, brass-tacks urbanism is the not-so-secret secret about growing a healthy city ...

... Reese and Sands are not arguing against all the innovations in today’s urbanism, per se, but they do suggest that projects like riverwalks and casinos are isolated initiatives that can’t make up for a city’s inconsistent trash pickup or broken street lights. Compare it to an old house: New windows and a fresh coat of paint are great, but it won’t compensate for a sinking foundation and ragged roof.

Why do you think politicians like roads and bridges so much?

This article gives whole new meaning to considerations of the usual suspects.

The impact of public officials’ corruption on the size and allocation of U.S. state spending, Leighton Walter Kille (Journalist's Resource)

 ... A 2014 study in Public Administration Review, “The Impact of Public Officials’ Corruption on the Size and Allocation of U.S. State Spending,” looks at the impact of government corruption on states’ expenditures.

The study’s findings include:

Construction projects find particular favor because they present a wealth of corruption opportunities: “First, construction involves large, complex, nonstandard activities, so the quality of construction can be very hard to assess. Second, domestic and international construction industries are dominated by a few monopolistic firms. Third, the industry is closely linked to the government. Governments have major roles as ‘clients, regulators, and owners’ of construction companies. It is very common to bribe government officials to gain or alter contracts and to circumvent regulations related to construction.”

The Onion cracks me up.

It's unfair of LEO's Fat Lip blog to make me laugh this hard ... courtesy of the old reliable, The Onion.

Two hand jobs and a stick of beef jerky

If smokers on the outside think the rising cost of cigarettes is out of control, maybe they should just be happy they’re not behind bars.

The Onion reports on what it takes these days to score a pack of smokes in prison.