There are residential neighborhoods in cities though, where straight roads with roundabouts and other traffic calming makes more sense than a curving a road, for the purposes of lowering driving speeds. Neither is better or worse inherently, we should just tailor solutions to the environment they’re needed in.

There’s a flipside too though. Straight lines aren’t great for suburbs for the speed reason, but once you reach enough density and the roads get narrow enough, grids make planning easier, and navigating easier for pedestrians. Roundabouts are a nice way to slow traffic through straight roads

Only from above. When you’re on foot, grid systems feel plenty variable and lively

Haha that very much feels like a case of justified hierarchy

No one becomes a firefighter because they enjoy wielding authority over other people

Right?! It was right there

Up to a certain point. If an actor or artist is just like an asshole, that’s fine. People are allowed to be curmudgeonly. When it crosses the line into hatred, like JKR and Kanye, then I’m out.

I strive to be, but I know I fall short of living entirely true to my values. I think we all do. But I at least try.

It’s a total mixed bag. You can easily have the best school and the worst school just miles apart. The best school imaginable is probably in an affluent area, in a progressive state, and is private. The worst is probably in a public school in a low-income rural area in a red state. The country is so huge you’re going to have the whole spectrum of school quality, it’s the social inequality that’s the hallmark of American education