Reading The Onion's latest satire of the built environment is a bit like the experience it describes: watching as a crane moves a large object on a construction site, otherwise known as being easily distracted by harmless fun.
"Stopping dead in their tracks and pausing to take in the scene unfolding above them, the entire country reportedly came to a halt Thursday morning to watch an industrial crane move a massive concrete tube across a construction site," according to a satirical article in The Onion.
The absurdity of an entire nation watching such an event, much less one person looking up from their phone long enough even to notice such a mundane display of engineering prowess, is the crux of the joke. The scene continues:
According to reports, upon spotting the 9-foot-diameter cylinder suspended in midair, the nation’s 320 million citizens paused what they had been doing and placed a hand on their brow to shield their eyes from the sun, with many reportedly tugging at a nearby acquaintance’s sleeve to alert them to the sight above. Sources confirmed that, after several moments of gaping, a few million Americans opted to cross the street to get a closer look through the chain-link gates at the construction site’s entrance.
It is true that construction events like the crane activities described in this article do attract mainstream media attention from time to time, though not by the nation collectively gathered in one geographic area. February 2014's longest-ever concrete pour in Downtown Los Angeles comes to mind, but usually demolitions have more appeal.
FULL STORY: Nation Comes To Halt To Watch Crane Move Massive Concrete Tube
Friday Funny: Tesla Invents the Greenest Car
The Fake News website The Onion reports a complete fabrication about Elon Musk and Tesla.
Friday Funny: Sprawl Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Imagine a built environment that starts from a central location of Scottsdale, Arizona, sprawling outwards until it covers 70 percent of all land on Earth.
Friday Funny? The Onion Imagines the Future of the Hit and Run
Satire is supposed to make us uncomfortable. A recent totally fake news report imagining hit-and-run technology for self-driving cars (called the "Culpability-Evasion System") definitely succeeded there.
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?
In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.
Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.
Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service