Ryan Allen—Associate Professor, @SokaUniv. International ed, China, place & space. Read my long-form at College Towns.

So Cal
Now here's what dorms should look like. University of Virginia's new MBA student housing set to open in 2027. Not everything new has to be ugly.
13
17
535
15,349
I wonder if it's because the DoE's website is so horrible and difficult to navigate the robots decided to create an express lane?
Agents from OpenAI that were given data gathering tasks attempted to hack a Department of Education website and meddled with other gov't websites, new disclosures that are emerging as OpenAI continues an investigation into what its agents did this summer nytimes.com/2026/09/25/techn…
2
241
Politics & Education retweeted
Simple brick boxes Inviting courtyard No cars = great place to live
Now here's what dorms should look like. University of Virginia's new MBA student housing set to open in 2027. Not everything new has to be ugly.
2
10
107
2,339
Now here's what dorms should look like. University of Virginia's new MBA student housing set to open in 2027. Not everything new has to be ugly.
13
17
535
15,349
Politics & Education retweeted
This looks like a public storage facility.
Probably one of the ugliest college dorms I’ve seen. I guess give them credit, it does basically look like the ugly rendering. We’ve got to get back to the classics.
1
1
4
254
Politics & Education retweeted
Probably one of the ugliest college dorms I’ve seen. I guess give them credit, it does basically look like the ugly rendering. We’ve got to get back to the classics.
6
2
18
8,266
I regret to inform you that the kids are throwing 2000s parties the same way we did with 80s parties.
6
452
To save the humble dive bar, and with it the soul of America, we need to unbridle the chains on live-work units.
America lost one in six of its neighborhood bars in a single decade, and the killer was real estate math. A bar like this can pour $3 beers because the building was paid off decades ago. The owner often lives upstairs. No rent, no investors, no debt service on a Pabst sign that's been hanging there for 40 years. The moment that building sells, the math dies with it. A new operator inherits a market-rate lease, which forces $9 drinks, which forces a renovation to justify $9 drinks, which produces another exposed-brick cocktail bar where the dive used to be. The Midwest kept its dive bars because of how they got built in the first place. Before Prohibition, Milwaukee's breweries put up corner taverns themselves. Pabst and Schlitz wanted guaranteed outlets for their beer, so they built bars directly into residential blocks. That's why these places sit on quiet snowy corners between houses instead of on commercial strips where rent explodes. Chicago had around 3,300 tavern licenses in 1990. It's down to about 1,200. At the worst of the decline, America was losing six neighborhood bars a day. And every single closure is permanent. You can't build a dive bar. You can only inherit one.
3
458
Probably one of the ugliest college dorms I’ve seen. I guess give them credit, it does basically look like the ugly rendering. We’ve got to get back to the classics.
6
2
18
8,266
Politics & Education retweeted
A full campus is on sale in Massachusetts for just $3 million. Time to live out your dreams of being Professor X!
2
1
19
1,601
Politics & Education retweeted
A hunter shot a woman by accident and a truck driver ran over a cyclist by accident. Both were negligent. But the hunter gets charged with manslaughter and the driver does not get charged. If you want to commit a crime and get away with it. Do it in a car.
7
9
377
17,664
Politics & Education retweeted
This Week's Adaptive Reuse Corner: Which would you choose? -Lighthouses (A/B) -Schools/ Campus (C/D) -Bank/ Live-work unit (E/F) -Church (G)
1
2
481
Politics & Education retweeted
Streets for All’s recent viral video criticizing LA’s palm trees was celebrated in urbanist circles but lampooned by others. I break with my fellow urbanists and defend the palm tree. It’s a debate between function-over-form vs. aesthetics.
1
1
6
401
Streets for All’s recent viral video criticizing LA’s palm trees was celebrated in urbanist circles but lampooned by others. I break with my fellow urbanists and defend the palm tree. It’s a debate between function-over-form vs. aesthetics.
1
1
6
401
Politics & Education retweeted
Bakersfield oil fields. This place could be a Dubai in California.
2
2
14
590