The recent release of the first results from the 2022 Census is fantastic news for anyone who believes in using data to guide business and public policy. The debate surrounding them has already begun, and the real impact will be long-term. From housing policy to legislative representation, much can change because of this survey. Still, caution and chicken soup never hurt anyone, as the saying goes—even if I do not particularly care for the soup.

“The following day, no one died.” Thus begins the novel Death with Interruptions, by Nobel laureate José Saramago. In it, death suspends its services and, for a time, everyone remains alive in an imaginary country. This masterly metaphor conceived by the Portuguese author, already in his final pairs of shoes, serves as the foundation for discussing the dilemmas and conflicts of the end of life.

“The daughter Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs never had.” That is how Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor of New York, describes his Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. The urbanist is one of the leading figures in the field advocating for city streets — the greatest asset of municipal governments — as the primary way to improve people's lives.