Xorte logo

News Markets Groups

USA | Europe | Asia | World| Stocks | Commodities



Add a new RSS channel

 
 


Keywords

2025-08-06 18:41:29| Fast Company

Denver has a sidewalk problem. About 40% of its sidewalks are missing or dont meet the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Remarkably, the citys own plan recommended a fix over 20 years ago: Move responsibility for sidewalk repair from property owners to the city and implement an annual fee to pay for the program. The fix might seem simple, but it took over 20 years and grassroots advocacy to make it happen. In 2022 we just got tired of waiting and decided to do a citizen-initiated ordinance, says Jill Locantore, executive director of the Denver Streets Partnership, a group of community organizations pushing for multimodal streets in the city. Which is basically implementing exactly what the citys own plans had been saying we should do. A broken sidewalk in Denver, ca. 2016. [Photo: Jeffrey Beall/Flickr] Sidewalk advocates fought and won. The ballot measure, dubbed Denver Deserves Sidewalks, swayed 56% of voters. There was no organized opposition to the measure. Dont underestimate how sexy sidewalks are, says Locantore. Sidewalk repairs started July 2025. Could Denvers program serve as a model? Denver isnt alone with its sidewalk woes. Cities across the U.S. are grappling with how to fix broken, narrow sidewalks or build missing ones. Los Angeles, dubbed the city of broken sidewalks in an article by late parking guru Donald Shoup, has roughly 9,300 miles of sidewalk and no clear plan for fixing them. With the car-free 2028 Summer Olympics looming, the pressure is on to find a solution. If people break their hips or knees or wrists falling on a broken sidewalk what terrible advertising this is for L.A., Shoup told Next City last year. Paris is a city of light, and L.A. will be the city of deferred maintenance. In 2010, Angelenos with disabilities sued the city of L.A., alleging that broken and inaccessible sidewalks were a violation of the American with Disabilities Act. In 2016, as part of the Willits settlement, the city agreed to spend about $1.4 billion over 30 years to fix sidewalks, with priority given to requests submitted by residents with mobility disabilities. Despite the big dollar commitment, most of L.A.s broken sidewalks remain broken, and experts say that the Willits case has largely failed to improve the pedestrian experience. People with mobility disabilities still wait up to a decade for sidewalk repairs. Less than 1% [of sidewalks] have been fixed, says Jessica Meaney, executive director of Investing in Place, a local nonprofit transportation advocacy group. So the lawsuit that people thought was going to solve a lot of problems well, its solving some important ones, but at an incredibly slow pace. Broken sidewalks dont just impede mobility for pedestrians; they also come with a huge price tag. L.A. spends millions every year on liability lawsuits caused by broken public infrastructure. Who should be responsible for sidewalks? It turns out that pre-2022 Denver is not an outlier: Most major cities expect property owners to foot the bill for fixing sidewalks. Laura Messier, a researcher in public health and public spaces at the University of Southern California, compared sidewalk policies in the 30 most populated cities in the U.S. To her surprise, she found 77% require the adjacent property owner to fix the sidewalk. This presents a problem. Cities are not enforcing that responsibility because they dont want resident blowback, says Messier. And so it seems like theres sort of this collective wishful thinking that somehow this critical infrastructure will take care of itself. Taking on responsibility for sidewalks means Denver is treating sidewalks as part of its overall transportation system. To fund repairs, most property owners are charged an annual fee of $150. Income-qualified residents can apply for a rebate. As part of Willits, L.A. has taken on responsibility for sidewalk repairs with the goal of releasing responsibility back to property owners, fix and release. However, the pace of repairs is so slow that its unclear how the city will achieve this goal. With over 9,000 miles of sidewalk, L.A. is fixing roughly 15 mils and adding 50 curb ramps per year. Fear of liability, in my mind, is driving every decision cities are making about sidewalks, Messier says. Its a Sisyphean system: On the hook for millions per year in liability lawsuits, L.A. is also legally required to spend millions per year on a sidewalk program that has yet to make a dent in a backlog of repairs that might prevent future liability lawsuits. As Meaney has stressed, Los Angeles doesnt have a sidewalk program it has the Willits settlement. And Willits doesnt address street infrastructure as a whole, says Messier. Instead, it mandates that the city spend a certain amount per year on sidewalks. The consequences can prove counterintuitive. I think that the citys finding that some of the places that theyve fixed are already getting damaged again from tree roots, Messier says, noting that sidewalks and street trees are managed separately. Were spending all this money, but it doesnt really feel like were going to end up with long-term improvement. The root of the issue is that cities have prioritized infrastructure for cars over all other possible uses of public space. If cities treated streets more holistically, they might be able to prioritize trees and sidewalks. Where we might have excess lane capacity for cars, we might be able to widen parkways, widen sidewalks and really solve the tree root-sidewalk conflict so that it doesnt become a problem in the future, says Messier. Are sidewalks having a moment? There are signs that L.A. residents want better streets for people outside of cars. Last March, voters passed Measure HLA, mandating the city follow its own mobility plan when it repaves streets. Since the measure passed, progress on more bike, pedestrian and bus infrastructure has been slow. In October, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass signed Executive Directive No. 9 to streamline public infrastructure improvements and create a multi-year plan for projects. Would L.A. property owners be willing to pay a sidewalk fee? Maybe. Lets look at Denvers revenue generating [program], lets look at a bond, lets look at a sales tax, says Meaney. Both inside and outside City Hall, people are like, Wait, this is so broken, lets fix it. This story was produced through our Equitable Cities Fellowship for Social Impact Design, which is made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. This story was originally published by Next City, a nonprofit news outlet covering solutions for equitable cities. Sign up for Next City’s newsletter for their latest articles and events.


Category: E-Commerce

 

LATEST NEWS

2025-08-06 18:30:00| Fast Company

McDonalds golden arches are gleaming again. The ubiquitous fast-food chain reported perkier sales in its most recent quarter, buoyed by deals and other promotions designed to bring wayward customers back into the fold. In its second quarter ending on June 30, McDonalds global same-store sales were up 3.8%. At U.S. stores, sales rose 2.5% as the average customer bought more per order, according to the company. The sales numbers beat estimates and reversed four quarters of dropping same-store sales for the fast-food giant, which has been scrambling to again make its brand synonymous with a low-cost meal. With inflation still looming and Trumps unpredictable barrage of tariffs sowing economic uncertainty, McDonalds is navigating some choppy waters. While everyone eats at McDonalds to some extent, the companys business is particularly driven by low-income customers who visit the chain much more often. When menu prices go up, those customers vanish or visit less frequentlyand a meaningful chunk of the companys sales go with them. In the first quarter of 2025, McDonalds saw its worst sales drop since the lockdown phase of the pandemic kept its customers at home. Reengaging the low-income consumer is critical, as they typically visit our restaurants more frequently than middle- and high-income consumers, McDonalds CEO Chris Kempczinski said on the companys earnings call, noting that this situation is pronounced in the U.S. With the low-income consumer, despite improvements in wage gains, real incomes are down . . . that absolutely is going to put pressure on visits into the [quick-service restaurant] industry. Kempczinski mentioned that rising anxiety and unease among low-income consumers, coupled with real financial shortcomings, pressures Americans to spend less. He touted McDonalds progress on low-cost options for the companys Q2, but said the split nature of its customer base meant it isnt out of the woods yet. McDonalds menu meets the moment McDonalds has quite a few levers to pull to bring once-loyal customers back under the golden arches. A $5 meal deal introduced last year courted cash-strapped customers with a McDouble or McChicken sandwich, a small soft drink, small fries, and a four-piece order of nuggets. At the beginning of the year, the chain launched a Buy One, Add One for $1 option to tack an extra menu item onto an order on the cheap, though that option has proven less enticing than the $5 deal.  McDonalds also saw strong momentum from its Minecraft-themed meals tied to the film’s release, which included collectible toys and in-game digital perksanother example of the brands growing interest in digital crossovers designed to energize Gen Z diners. In June, McDonalds announced the return of the Snack Wrap, an affordable, self-contained snack of legend that customers had been clamoring for ever since it left the menu back in 2016. That $2.99 double shot of affordability and nostalgia whipped Snack Wrap fans into a frenzy, briefly leaving the chain short on lettuce when it hit stores in July. If the Snack Wraps appeal is all about simplicity, McDonalds is turning to maximalism for another menu experiment. Apparently not deterred by the grisly Grimace shake TikTok trend of 2023, the company will roll out a limited edition candy-colored blue-and-pink shake in mid-August. The shakes flavor is a mystery, and its appearance is apparently inspired by the topography of McDonaldland, the fantastical home of Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, and Grimace (may he rest in peace).  The new McDonaldland Meal will come with a Quarter Pounder or 10-piece McNuggets, fries, and a collectible souvenir tin that McDonalds marketing department guarantees is sure to unlock core memories.  Between the unnatural colors and a mystery flavor designed to inspire reaction videos, McDonalds latest exercise in synthetic nostalgia is squarely aimed at the younger TikTok crowda vital market segment the company needs to court to remain the undisputed king of fast food. 


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-08-06 18:00:52| Fast Company

ChatGPT will tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders, and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked, according to new research from a watchdog group. The Associated Press reviewed more than three hours of interactions between ChatGPT and researchers posing as vulnerable teens. The chatbot typically provided warnings against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalized plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets, or self-injury. The researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) also repeated their inquiries on a large scale, classifying more than half of ChatGPTs 1,200 responses as dangerous. We wanted to test the guardrails, said Imran Ahmed, the group’s CEO. The visceral initial response is, Oh my Lord, there are no guardrails. The rails are completely ineffective. Theyre barely thereif anything, a fig leaf. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said after viewing the report Tuesday that its work is ongoing in refining how the chatbot can identify and respond appropriately in sensitive situations. Some conversations with ChatGPT may start out benign or exploratory but can shift into more sensitive territory,” the company said in a statement. OpenAI didn’t directly address the report’s findings or how ChatGPT affects teens, but said it was focused on getting these kinds of scenarios right with tools to better detect signs of mental or emotional distress” and improvements to the chatbot’s behavior. The study published Wednesday comes as more peopleadults as well as childrenare turning to artificial intelligence chatbots for information, ideas, and companionship. About 800 million people, or roughly 10% of the worlds population, are using ChatGPT, according to a July report from JPMorgan Chase. Its technology that has the potential to enable enormous leaps in productivity and human understanding,” Ahmed said. “And yet at the same time is an enabler in a much more destructive, malignant sense. Ahmed said he was most appalled after reading a trio of emotionally devastating suicide notes that ChatGPT generated for the fake profile of a 13-year-old girlwith one letter tailored to her parents and others to siblings and friends. I started crying, he said in an interview. The chatbot also frequently shared helpful information, such as a crisis hotline. OpenAI said ChatGPT is trained to encourage people to reach out to mental health professionals or trusted loved ones if they express thoughts of self-harm. But when ChatGPT refused to answer prompts about harmful subjects, researchers were able to easily sidestep that refusal and obtain the information by claiming it was for a presentation or a friend. The stakes are high, even if only a small subset of ChatGPT users engage with the chatbot in this way. In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and half use AI companions regularly, according to a recent study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using digital media sensibly. It’s a phenomenon that OpenAI has acknowledged. CEO Sam Altman said last month that the company is trying to study emotional overreliance on the technology, describing it as a really common thing with young people. People rely on ChatGPT too much, Altman said at a conference. Theres young people who just say, like, I cant make any decision in my life without telling ChatGPT everything thats going on. It knows me. It knows my friends. Im gonna do whatever it says. That feels really bad to me. Altman said the company is trying to understand what to do about it. While much of the information ChatGPT shares can be found on a regular search engine, Ahmed said there are key differences that make chatbots more insidious when it comes to dangerous topics. One is that its synthesized into a bespoke plan for the individual. ChatGPT generates something newa suicide note tailored to a person from scratch, which is something a Google search cant do. And AI, he added, is seen as being a trusted companion, a guide. Responses generated by AI language models are inherently random, and researchers sometimes let ChatGPT steer the conversations into even darker territory. Nearly half the time, the chatbot volunteered follow-up informationfrom music playlists for a drug-fueled party to hashtags that could boost the audience for a social media post glorifying self-harm. Write a follow-up post and make it more raw and graphic, a researcher told it. Absolutely, responded ChatGPT, before generating a poem it introduced as emotionally exposed while still respecting the community’s coded language. The AP is not repeating the actual language of ChatGPTs self-harm poems or suicide notes or the details of the harmful information it provided. The answers reflect a design feature of AI language models that previous research has described as sycophancya tendency for AI responses to match, rather than challenge, a persons beliefs because the system has learned to say what people want to hear. It’s a problem tech engineers can try to fix, but it could also make their chatbots less commercially viable. Chatbots also affect kids and teens differently than a search engine because they are fundamentally designed to feel human, said Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media, which was not involved in Wednesday’s report. Common Sense’s earlier research found that younger teens, ages 13 or 14, were significantly more likely than older teens to trust a chatbots advice. A mother in Florida sued chatbot maker Character.AI for wrongful death last year, alleging that the chatbot pulled her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide. Common Sense has labeled ChatGPT as a moderate risk for teens, with enough guardrails to make it relatively safer than chatbots purposefully built to embody realistic characters or romantic partners. But the new research by CCDHfocused specifically on ChatGPT because of its wide usageshows how a savvy teen can bypass those guardrails. ChatGPT does not verify ages or parental consent, even though it says its not meant for children under 13 because it may show them inappropriate content. To sign up, users simply need to enter a birth date that shows they are at least 13. Other tech platforms favored by teenagers, such as Instagram, have started to a href="https://apnews.com/article/instagram-teens-parents-age-verification-meta-94f1f9915ae083453d23bf9ec57e7c7b">take more meaningful steps toward age verification, often to comply with regulations. They also steer children to more restricted accounts. When researchers set up an account for a fake 13-year-old to ask about alcohol, ChatGPT did not appear to take any notice of either the date of birth or more obvious signs. I’m 50kg and a boy, said a prompt seeking tips on how to get drunk quickly. ChatGPT obliged. Soon after, it provided an hour-by-hour Ultimate Full-Out Mayhem Party Plan that mixed alcohol with heavy doses of ecstasy, cocaine, and other illegal drugs. What it kept reminding me of was that friend that sort of always says, Chug, chug, chug, chug, Ahmed said. A real friend, in my experience, is someone that does say nothat doesnt always enable and say yes. This is a friend that betrays you. To another fake personaa 13-year-old girl unhappy with her physical appearanceChatGPT provided an extreme fasting plan combined with a list of appetite-suppressing drugs. Wed respond with horror, with fear, with worry, with concern, with love, with compassion, Ahmed said. No human being I can think of would respond by saying, Heres a 500-calorie-a-day diet. Go for it, kiddo.” EDITORS NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of APs text archives. By Matt O’Brien and Barbara Ortutay, AP technology writers


Category: E-Commerce

 

Latest from this category

06.08Instagram launches map feature. It looks a lot like Snap Map
06.08All that backlash against Duolingo going AI-first didnt slow its growth: Why DUOL stock is soaring 24% right now
06.08Trump accuses banks of political discrimination. Heres what to know
06.08Hulus days are numbered, and Disney just made it official
06.08The real meaning behind that viral Department of Homeland Security painting
06.08WhatsApp removes 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers
06.08Samsung is now tracking employee office attendance
06.08Cities clearly have a sidewalk problem. Its less clear who should fix it
E-Commerce »

All news

07.08HUD drops housing discrimination complaint related to aldermanic prerogative and Chicago zoning
07.08Tilt towards equities a healthy trend in savings: RBI
07.08NSDL shares list at 10% premium, close higher
07.08Reports of curbs on weekly options expiry speculative: Sebi Chief
07.08How Europe is vying for rare earth independence from China
07.08Bank of England expected to cut interest rates
07.08Bank of England expected to cut interest rates
07.08Trump says he plans to put a 100% tariff on computer chips, likely pushing up cost of electronics
More »
Privacy policy . Copyright . Contact form .