Kriston asked Ryan and me to write about Larry Van Dyne’s article on historic preservation for DCist. This was at least half of a good idea: Ryan always has interesting things to say about the business of running cities. And for my part, I imagine Kriston was counting on me to bring my own trademark brand of techno-philistinism (“Why preserve buildings when we can just make models of them in Second Life?”).
The joke’s on him, though. The past couple of years’ worth of Ryan’s writing have been so convincing that whatever opinions I may have originally had on these matters have been almost entirely replaced with his — this happens an embarrassing amount when you have smart friends who write a lot. I’m afraid that the essay I produced is consequently just a half-baked version of the one that Ryan wrote. On the upside, I was glad to see Ryan take the potshot at the FBI building that I’d barely restrained myself from making (it’s so awful). So really, he wins on all fronts — go have a read.