They’re not knocking down their Frank Lloyd Wright

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We knocked down our Frank Lloyd Wright office building nearly three-quarters of a century ago. Oklahoma still has one, although it’s not doing well, lacking an anchor tenant and up for sale after several failed revitalization efforts. 

An architect, writing in 1949, has this to say about the demolition of our Wright masterpiece: 

The Larkin Building set a precedent for many an office building we admire today and should be regarded not as an outmoded utilitarian structure but as a monument, if not to Mr. Wright’s creative imagination, to the inventiveness of American design. The destruction of all but one pillar of the Larkin Administration Building is tragic in the architecture community.

Ken Kruly offers his take on voter turnout in presidential elections and what it might say about this year’s contest.

Childcare providers across New York are hurting. A new report found that close to half have raised tuition and a third have lost staff. A loss of federal pandemic aid is a major factor.

Economic development subsidies are generally wasteful. New reports from Good Jobs First and the Cato Institute – at opposite ends of the political spectrum – explain why. 

Why do people leave Donald Trump rallies? The reasons vary, according to The Washington Post, including Trump’s insistence at speaking for at least two hours. 

Our right to protest is on the ballot next month. Trump and the GOP are hostile to the right of peaceful assembly.

I’m a fan of the Pew Research Center. Among its latest offerings:

• A study of immigration patterns in the United States. There’s been a dramatic shift from Europeans to people hailing from the Third World. And while our share of the population that’s foreign born has nearly tripled over the past 50 years, it’s still lower than at the peak of European immigration in the late 1800s.
• A poll gauges American attitudes regarding Gaza. Half of Democrats think Israel has gone too far. Only 13 percent of Republicans think likewise.

Julian Assange made his first public remarks since being released from prison. “I pled guilty to journalism,” he said. Here are reports from the Guardian and Democracy Now.

Billy Shaw was arguably the greatest offensive lineman in Buffalo Bills history, a Hall of Famer and a mainstay of the team’s championship seasons in 1964-65. He died Friday at 85. I have a fond memory of Shaw. As a young fan, I wrote him in the mid-1960s asking for an autographed photo. He wrote me back on a postcard, apologizing he had no photo to share and encouraging me in my studies. I still have the postcard – autographed. Classy.

I try to end my newsletters with something on the light side. I’ve found music videos are especially popular. For example, my Blues Brothers clip last week generated nearly twice as many clicks as anything else I posted. So, by popular demand, I bring you a fresh interview with David Gilmour and a video featuring his most famous guitar solo. (Pink Floyd, by the way, sold its catalog last week for $400 million.)

Jim Heaney