America’s 11 Most Interesting Mayors
by POLITICO MAGAZINE via POLITICO - TOP Stories
URL: http://ift.tt/2sa0c1J
At a time when one yellow-haired, Twitter-happy personality dominates American discourse, it’s easy to forget how much political energy—and important new thinking—emanates not from the nation’s capital but from city hall. We surveyed dozens of national and local political junkies, and came up with 11 leaders who are compelling for the fights they are waging, their personal backstories and how they are transforming their cities, often without Washington. Plus: Seven more to watch.
Eric Garcetti | Los Angeles, California
The mayor who would be president
By Edward-Isaac Dovere
Back in 1984, when he was mayor of San Antonio and a rising star in the Democratic Party, Henry Cisneros got a final-round interview to be Walter Mondale’s presidential running mate. Mondale decided against it: It was a little too much for a local official to make the leap right onto the national stage.
It’s early still, but many top Democrats have started assuming Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will skip that step entirely and run for president himself in 2020. Garcetti has helped fan that speculation, already talking to strategists and big donors about the prospect. And it helps that, as cities step up their resistance to President Donald Trump, Garcetti has been able to jump into the national debate on issues like immigration, health care and infrastructure.
“My main job, and my overwhelming job, starts with my family, my street, my neighborhood and my city,” Garcetti told Politico’s Off Message podcast in May. “But I’m playing too much defense in my backyard to not get involved in the national discussion.”
If Garcetti runs for president, he wouldn’t just make history as a rare sitting mayor to do so. He also has the potential to be the first Hispanic and the first Jewish president. Garcetti is the 46-year-old grandson of an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, and the son of a former L.A. district attorney—Gil Garcetti, of O.J. Simpson trial fame—and a mother whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia. The mayor can order his bagel and lox, which he loves, in fluent Spanish. He was also a Rhodes Scholar and a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, and likes to tell stories about the time in high school when he traveled to Ethiopia to deliver medical supplies.
As mayor, Garcetti has successfully pushed for tax increases to fund a mass transit plan and more housing for the homeless, and he won a second term this year with 81 percent of the vote. His big project over the next few months is landing the Olympic Games in 2024 or 2028. The choice is expected in September, and Garcetti is putting off any decision about his political future until after that. There’s an open governor’s race in California next year, but people close to Garcetti don’t think that’s where his heart is, especially if he can go straight to a White House run. There’s also the chance of an open Senate seat if Dianne Feinstein retires, but that job doesn’t seem to fit Garcetti’s personality or his experience being the man in charge.
In the meantime, the mayor is firing back hard at Trump, at appearances all over the country, telling people to channel their rage into action—even if he’s also taking a cue from Trump’s “outsider” playbook. Gone are “the old rules of who can run and who should be president or vice president—and that reflects the American people’s desires,” Garcetti says. “They’re not looking for résumé-builders. They’re not looking for a set pathway or a set demographic or a set caricature. They want to go with their gut about somebody who they think has the guts to shake it up.”
Edward-Isaac Dovere is chief Washington correspondent atPolitico.
Hillary Schieve | Reno, Nevada
The re-inventor
By Megan Messerly
Tucked in the desert just east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Reno is best known for its casinos, lax divorce laws and “Reno 911!” But these days it’s also becoming a hub for tech entrepreneurs and companies, pulling coders and data analysts from far more expensive Silicon Valley four hours to the west.
The woman now at the center of this transformation is Hillary Schieve, a 46-year-old political outsider who has her own remarkable transformation story. As a teenager, she was a figure skater elite enough to train with an Olympic-level coach. But she struggled for years before discovering that the fatigue she experienced was brought on by a serious kidney disease. Two years after a transplant—her sister was the donor—Schieve, then 27, was working in the Bay Area when her mother suffered a massive brain aneurysm and fell into a coma. Schieve put her life on hold again, moving home to Reno to care for her mother and become the family’s breadwinner. She had briefly attended Arizona State University, but never returned to college.
After working a few different jobs, the former figure skater without a college degree reinvented herself in 2007 as a small-business owner, opening a secondhand clothing store serving teenagers in a rundown part of the city. That’s where Schieve’s transformation story meets Reno’s. She shot a low-budget commercial to promote the area and lobbied the city to recognize it as a distinct district, now known as Midtown. Today, Midtown is a bustling center with wine bars, breweries, gastropubs and shops.
Schieve never pictured herself in politics. But her personal setbacks gave her a powerful sense of gratitude—“It makes you connect better with others, and I think it’s important really to honestly have a lot of compassion in your life,” she says now—and her work in Midtown convinced her that small-business interests needed a voice on the City Council. In 2014, after two years as a council member, she entered, and won, Reno’s first competitive mayoral race in more than a decade.
As mayor, Schieve hasn’t been immune to challenges. Even as Reno’s economy has boomed and the city’s population has grown by some 20,000 since 2010, it has struggled to promote affordable housing and mental health services, or to fight homelessness—issues Schieve says she is trying to address. In an age of intense partisanship, however, she stands out not just for her up-by-the-bootstraps MO, but because she’s a registered nonpartisan in a purple state, fiscally conservative and socially liberal. A wall in her office is covered in chalkboard material with a to-do list that ranges from cleaning up the blighted downtown to bringing back a gay rodeo that started in Reno in the 1970s. “Everyone likes the taste of beer, right?” Schieve says. “So don’t tell me we can’t find something in common.”
Megan Messerly is a political reporter at the Nevada Independent.
Kevin Faulconer | San Diego, California
The modern GOP executive
By Ethan Epstein
Of America’s 10 largest cities, only one has a Republican chief executive: San Diego, where Mayor Kevin Faulconer is straddling ideological and partisan lines to surprisingly popular effect.
Faulconer became mayor in this border city of 1.4 million during troubled times, after a sexual harassment scandal ousted Democrat Bob Filner. A pension scheme for city employees was also bleeding the budget dry, leading to cutbacks in basic services like library hours and funding for beaches and parks. A city council member at the time, Faulconer campaigned in English and Spanish, pledging to right the city’s financial ship, and easily won a special election.
He has made good on that pledge as mayor, pushing a high-profile legal case that let the city switch new municipal hires from its costly pension system to a 401(k)-style retirement plan. Library hours have been restored, too.
Faulconer has struggled at times with the Democratic city council, which overrode his veto of a bill to raise the minimum wage and provide private-sector workers with guaranteed paid sick days. But given San Diego’s Democratic majority, it’s not surprising that Faulconer, 50, has bucked his own party on several major issues. He speaks often of the city’s integration with its neighbor to the south, saying he views San Diego-Tijuana as “one megaregion,” and pledging that local police officers will not be used to enforce federal immigration laws. He also backed a 2015 plan to curtail San Diego’s emissions, and he has flown a gay pride flag at City Hall. “He approaches things from a pragmatic point of view and doesn’t publicly project his ideology,” says James R. Riffel, a longtime San Diego journalist.
For the most part, Faulconer’s policies have proved popular—he was reelected easily last year—perhaps because, unlike many national Republicans, he tries to eschew ideological labels. He’s quick to say he’s not a liberal. “Fiscal responsibility is a core Republican value,” he points out. But he has no qualms admitting that his conservatism differs from that of the national GOP—not to mention a certain denizen of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
“San Diego is not Washington, D.C., and I’ve done what I can to keep it that way,” Faulconer says. “My approach has always been to keep partisan politics out of governing and focus on what matters most: protecting taxpayers and getting things done for our residents.”
Ethan Epstein is associate editor at the Weekly Standard.
Greg Fischer | Louisville, Kentucky
The data geek
By Katelyn Fossett
At a 2013 conference in San Francisco, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced a new policy in which all his city’s records would be publicly available by default, and delivered a line that married the folksy simplicity of a political slogan with the message of a numbers geek: “It’s data, man.”
Fast-forward nearly four years, and Fischer has carved out just that reputation, defining his tenure in Louisville with high-tech and open-data initiatives that have cut costs and improved public health, as the city has added tens of thousands of jobs. In 2011, shortly after taking office, he named a city “innovation czar.” One result: a partnership with a company that vacuums up data from individual asthma inhalers so health agencies know what really triggers attacks. Fischer also launched LouieStat, a metrics system that in 2012 helped identify problems across municipal agencies—like the cause of 300 monthly inaccuracies in the fingerprinting process at city jails. It was improper staff training, not anything as tricky as software, and after the training was revamped, the number of inaccuracies came down to just 10 in following years.
Fischer, 59, is a Democrat, but in a deep-red state his track record fulfills the most fashionable of Republican beliefs: that a businessman, even with virtually no political experience, can deliver common-sense reforms. A Louisville native, he invented a beverage and ice dispenser and ran the company that made it; later, he started a private investment firm and Louisville’s first business accelerator. His previous life in politics was a single Senate primary, which he lost.
Fischer, who peppers his speech with corporate-sounding phrases like “de-optimizing potential,” entered politics with the same goal he had in business—to “serve as a platform for human potential to flourish.” Although he recognizes that business skills don’t always translate to politics, at a time of sky-high institutional distrust of government, he believes that cities are the best ticket toward earning back public trust, particularly with the help of data and crowd-sourcing. “It emphasizes to people we’re all interconnected,” Fischer says.
Katelyn Fossett is associate editor atPolitico Magazine.
Marty Walsh | Boston, Massachusetts
The union hall progressive
By Lauren Dezenski
Even his fans would concede that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh isn’t usually the most dynamic speaker. But his anger was on full display at a news conference in January. Flanked by dozens of city officials and aides, Walsh railed against Donald Trump’s new travel ban and anti-immigrant rhetoric as “a direct attack on Boston’s people.” Then, he went a step further, offering to house inside City Hall any undocumented immigrants who felt vulnerable.
The picture was striking: A white, blue-collar former union leader from Dorchester, the image of the Irish old guard in a city with troubled race relations, taking one of the most progressive stances on immigration—and making one of the fiercest critiques of the president—of any mayor in the country.
“It was personal,” Walsh, the child of Irish immigrants, said in a recent interview. “I have the opportunity to speak up, to speak against someone. I’m not afraid, and I don’t like bullies.”
A recovering alcoholic and survivor of childhood cancer, Walsh, 50, has always bridged two worlds: the hard-bitten and socially conservative landscape of Boston’s longtime white residents, and contemporary progressive Massachusetts politics. He got his start as the head of a local labor union—one his uncle had run, and for which Walsh had hauled building materials for two years. As a state representative, he was an early advocate for marriage equality. As mayor, an office he has held since 2014, Walsh recently hoisted the transgender flag over Boston’s City Hall Plaza as an anti-transgender “free speech bus” rolled into town.
Walsh admits that “to see a mayor from a blue-collar neighborhood [supporting] transgender rights, progressive policies—it’s a bit of a disconnect.” When he has spoken to union members about social issues, he says, “Sometimes people would look at me [like] I’m crazy.” And for those who object, he says: “What frustrates me about working-class people is: Why focus on social issues, why not just focus on work-rights issues? Be more concerned about your benefits and your health care and pension.”
Conventional wisdom says Walsh will coast to a second term in November—no incumbent mayor in Boston has lost reelection since 1949. But while he remains tight-lipped about higher aspirations, he rejects the “mayor-for-life” approach of his five-term predecessor, raising questions about his future. Last year, Walsh traveled the country supporting Hillary Clinton, and rumors swirled that he could be tapped for a labor role in Washington. But Walsh now says that he wouldn’t have accepted the job before finishing out his first term as mayor.
As for the current president, Walsh says that day to day, “I really don’t make big decisions based on Trump.” But he takes seriously the chance to stand up for Boston: “I’ll continue to do that as long as I’m mayor of the city, or whatever position I have. I did it as a state rep, I did it as a labor leader, I did it as a Little League coach, before I was into any of this stuff.”
Lauren Dezenski is aPoliticoreporter in Boston and author of Massachusetts Playbook.
Michael Hancock | Denver, Colorado
The cool-headed change agent
By Caleb Hannan
The day after Donald Trump was elected president, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock did something he almost never does: He left work early. He had stumped for Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama before her, and was so shocked by Trump’s win that he left shortly after lunch, only the second time he had done so in more than five years in office.
“I had to breathe a little bit and collect my thoughts,” he recalled recently.
Hancock hasn’t skipped a day since. Coming to grips with the shock of a Trump presidency didn’t take him long, a calm response befitting a low-key leader who has moved beyond his turbulent past and faces daily the growing pains associated with a boom city.
Being mayor has been Hancock’s dream ever since he decided, at age 15, that he wanted to be the first African American to lead Denver, whose population is only about 10 percent black. (Wellington Webb would beat him to that goal in the 1990s.) And Hancock’s path was far from clear. He had the kind of childhood that can be an asset only after it has been overcome: an alcoholic father; a brother who died of AIDS; a sister who was murdered by a domestic abuser. Before getting to the mayor’s office, Hancock spent a season as the Broncos’ then-mascot, “Huddles,” two terms as a City Council member, and then defeated the son of a former governor in his first mayor’s race in 2011. When he ran again four years later, he was virtually unopposed.
Perhaps because Hancock, 47, already has his dream job—he’s begun raising money for a second reelection campaign—he wields his powerful personal story with some subtlety. This spring, he created a new office designed to improve affordable housing options for low-income residents without dwelling on the fact that he and his nine siblings were often homeless.
That deft touch has come in handy as Denver has navigated hot-button issues like marijuana legalization. Hancock opposed the amendment that made weed legal in Colorado but worked hard to smooth the transition once voters overruled him.
Because of its progressive stances on a number of issues, Denver also holds, perhaps even more so than other cities, the potential for conflict with the Trump administration. But Hancock has navigated the new national politics with his signature understatement. A week after the election, he posted a two-minute video on his YouTube page meant to reassure Denver residents, but never mentioned Trump’s name.
Then, when the president issued an executive order threatening to withhold federal funds for so-called sanctuary cities, Hancock once again reacted without being reactionary. His response was to spend months lobbying to change local laws, rather than making confrontational speeches. And this spring, in a move that earned applause from the Denver Post, Hancock signed a series of sentencing reforms that reduce penalties for low-level violations in the city—minor crimes that in the past would have set off alarms at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and possibly resulted in deportation.
“It’s easy to be emotional ... and to do things because it looks good politically,” Hancock says. “But if you’re not doing things that are going to protect and help your residents, then what’s the point?”
Caleb Hannan is a writer in Denver.
Jennifer Roberts | Charlotte, North Carolina
The embattled activist
By Greg Lacour
If there’s an embodiment of a mayor whose political challenges have taken on national import, it’s Jennifer Roberts.
The Charlotte mayor, a Democrat, flashed onto the national radar by facing down the Republican state legislature over House Bill 2, the 2016 state law that overturned a city ordinance protecting gay and transgender people. On September 19, having rejected a proposed deal to repeal the ordinance in exchange for possible repeal of HB2, Roberts walked into a City Council meeting to a powerful round of applause from members of the local LGBTQ community.
One week later, she returned to the chamber for another council meeting and faced a crowd with a very different message.
“Shut your goddamn mouth.”
“You should not be in office at all.”
“Fuck all y’all.”
The speakers were members of Charlotte’s black community, infuriated and terrified after the fatal police shooting of Keith Scott, a black man, on September 20. Roberts seemed at a loss. The night after the Scott shooting, she waited until a riot at the center of the city had left a man dead before signing a state of emergency proclamation that allowed the governor to send in the National Guard. She urged patience with the investigation, then wrote an op-ed criticizing the police department for not immediately releasing footage of the incident.
A former diplomat, Roberts, 57, was elected in 2015 with broad backing among disparate constituencies. But her ironclad support for the nondiscrimination ordinance and missteps after the Scott shooting have turned her, improbably, into a polarizing figure as she seeks reelection this year. She is struggling to manage HB2’s economic damage and a hostile legislature that blames her for it, and a perception among some in the black community that she will work for their votes but not their well-being. Roberts has two challengers in this year’s Democratic mayoral primary, both of whom are African-American, and in May, the local Black Political Caucus endorsed placed her in a distant third in an internal caucus vote—although a poll in late June showed her leading both of her primary challengers.
“Mayor Roberts does not have a consistent application of attentiveness with the African-American community and the Black Political Caucus like she does with the LGBTQ community,” says caucus Chair Colette Forrest. “We as African Americans have not seen that consistency on our issues, such as housing, crime and safety, economic development and transportation.”
Roberts says, with justification, that she has urged city action on all of those issues. But many Charlotteans, she says, fail to grasp how little formal power she has as mayor, since the city council sets policy in Charlotte and the city manager handles day-to-day operations. “I can’t really legislate or govern,” Roberts says—which puts all the more pressure on what she says and how she acts in the face of both local and state-level opposition.
“I don’t really think of myself as a politician. I’m an advocate,” Roberts says. “The civil rights movement needed white people. The LGBT community needs straight people. I want to be there when people are fighting for equality.”
Greg Lacour is a writer in Charlotte and contributing editor at Charlotte Magazine.
Tomás Regalado | Miami, Florida
The Republican resister
By Marc Caputo
The Argentinian real estate investor had a question that Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado hated hearing. “I’m investing in Miami. But I want to ask you if I should be concerned that I would never be able to go. … All these Trump laws could impede me and my family.”
This was one of the mayor’s fears during the 2016 election—that Donald Trump’s rhetoric could spook the foreign investors who are essential to Miami’s booming economy. Miami is both a big U.S. city and Latin America’s northernmost metropolis, and keeping its status as the latter requires Regalado to calm the nerves of jittery investors up and down the hemisphere.
Few major U.S. cities have as many reasons to fret about a Trump presidency. It’s not just that Miami has one of the country’s highest proportions of foreign-born residents and relies heavily on foreign investment. It is also among the cities most threatened by rising sea levels, at a time when Trump has labeled climate change a hoax and is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.
That means that, at age 70, Regalado has fashioned himself as one of the most caustic voices of the so-called anti-Trump “resistance,” and from within the president’s own party—both men are Republicans.
For Regalado, opposition to Trump is almost personal. He was born overseas, in Cuba, one of the last of the old-school anti-Castro exiles who helped turn Miami into a Spanish-language mecca more culturally attuned to Havana than Fort Lauderdale. And he empathizes with the flood of immigrants and refugees, particularly from Latin America and the Caribbean, who populate Miami’s metropolitan area. At 14, Regalado was one of 14,000 Cuban children spirited off the island and settled in the United States without their parents. His father, a lawyer and journalist, was jailed by Fidel Castro for two decades.
Regalado went into journalism too, starting out in radio and local TV, before covering the White House. He traveled the world and says he was among the last foreign reporters to interview Egyptian strongman Anwar Sadat. In 1996, he parlayed his name ID into his first political bid, on the city commission, and won the first of his two mayoral terms in 2009. (His daughter is now a congressional candidate in Florida; one of his sons is running for city commission.)
Despite his calm demeanor, Regalado grows animated when discussing Trump. The administration, for instance, recently extended temporary protective status to more than 58,000 Haitians who fled the country’s 2010 earthquake—but only for six more months. “These are good people, hard-working people,” Regalado says. “Now we have this guy saying, ‘Get your things in order. You might go back.’ What the hell? What ‘things’?”
In the end, he says, it’s hard not to see racial overtones in Trump’s immigration rhetoric and policies. “It reminded me of when I was a kid, and the others would tell me, ‘Spic, go home,’” he said during the campaign. “I never responded to that. But I was like, ‘Fuck this. This is my country.’”
Marc Caputo is aPoliticosenior reporter in Miami and author of Florida Playbook.
Jackie Biskupski | Salt Lake City, Utah
The pioneer in Mormon country
By Erick Trickey
Her parents in Minnesota named her after Jacqueline Kennedy. But Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski didn’t turn to politics until she witnessed Utah’s 1990s anti-gay backlash.
“When I first moved here, I was a ski bum and a bartender,” Biskupski recalled in an interview earlier this year. Then the Utah legislature tried to stamp out a local high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. That convinced Biskupski to run for office as an out lesbian. “By hiding, you were legitimizing the discrimination,” she says. In 1998, Biskupski was elected as Utah’s first openly gay state legislator.
If it shocks people outside Utah that Salt Lake City would have a lesbian mayor, given the state’s streak of Mormon-influenced social conservatism, it’s a source of pride to residents of the capital city, who favored Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump 4-to-1 and haven’t elected a Republican mayor since the 1970s. Today, Biskupski, 51, governs from Salt Lake City’s towering Romanesque City Hall, built in the 1890s as a secular counterpoint to the Mormon Church’s Salt Lake Temple.
During her statehouse years, Biskupski waged a near-constant battle against anti-gay legislation. She was sworn in as mayor in 2016 with her fiancée, now wife, by her side. But while her identity helped her get elected as a progressive, it hasn’t been much help with governing: Biskupski is struggling to deliver on difficult goals such as better homeless services and affordable housing.
Salt Lake City’s growing homeless problem, fueled by the opioid epidemic and a housing shortage, has roiled local politics. A thriving drug trade has grown around The Road Home, the city’s main downtown homeless shelter, near a revitalizing neighborhood and the Rio Grande train station. In her first year as mayor, Biskupski joined with the county sheriff to launch a crackdown on drug crime near the shelter that offered the addicted a choice: jail or treatment. About half of the defendants who chose treatment have stayed with it, early results show.
But a controversy over where to move the city’s homeless services has hurt Biskupski. She came to office as the community agreed to replace The Road Home with smaller homeless centers. Under Utah law, the job of finding the sites fell to the mayor. After a year of study, Biskupski chose four sites, and not-in-my-backyard opposition broke out, especially in the middle-class Sugar House neighborhood. Forced to back down in February, Biskupski, the City Council and the county government cut the number of centers from four to three, moved one of the remaining ones outside the city and set 2019 as the deadline to close The Road Home. Critics say the mayor’s decisions weren’t transparent and were sprung on the public. Biskupski says she tried to avoid a divisive debate and find a fair way to distribute the homeless centers around the city. “We did not want to pit neighborhoods against neighborhoods,” is how she often puts it.
In February, Biskupski delivered her long-awaited affordable housing plan, “Growing SLC.” She proposed requiring developments to include affordable units, changing city zoning to allow denser development in neighborhoods full of single-family homes, and buying hotels and apartment buildings to remake them as affordable housing complexes. Her ideas got a positive reception from the City Council and local advocates, though some are pushing for quicker progress. Biskupski calls her plan “bold but equitable.” That’s a good summary of how she would like to be seen herself.
Erick Trickey is a writer in Boston.
Bill Peduto | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Rust Belt rebrander
By Blake Hounshell
When a Nashville Predators fan was arrested for throwing a dead catfish on the ice during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals in May, a home game for the Penguins, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto responded with a barrage of fish puns. “This has turned into a whale of a story,” he wrote in a news release. “We shouldn’t be baited into interfering with this fish tale, but if the charges eventually make their way to a judge I hope the predatory catfish hurler who got the hook last night is simply sentenced to community service, perhaps cleaning fish at Wholey’s.”
It was vintage Peduto, and not just because of the goofy humor: The affable Democratic mayor has a knack for inserting himself into every story about Pittsburgh, a prideful city that has aggressively rebranded itself as a metropolis of the future during his three-year tenure. A self-described “student of cities” who rose to local prominence by championing a bohemian mix of indie art galleries and urban tech centers, Peduto, 52, represents the global aspirations of a city shaking off its smoky past.
There’s no better example of his media savvy than when Peduto seized on President Donald Trump’s speech announcing his decision to withdraw from a 2015 global climate agreement. No sooner had the president said the words, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” than the mayor was pointing out on his lively Twitter feed that in fact, 80 percent of Pittsburghers had voted for Hillary Clinton. He followed it up with a media blitz positioning Pittsburgh as a leader in green technology, and co-bylined a New York Timesop-ed with the mayor of Paris calling on cities to fight climate change.
The flurry of positive press was good for Pittsburgh—and also good for Peduto, who has told friends he has wider ambitions. But he has kept them mostly to himself, just as he did in high school, when for months he hid from his strict, academic-minded parents that he had been elected student council president. “They loved the fact,” he later explained, “but didn’t understand why I wanted to do things like that.”
Blake Hounshell is editor-in-chief ofPolitico Magazine.
Dan Gilbert* | Detroit, Michigan
The shadow mayor
By Nancy Kaffer
Walk the streets of downtown Detroit, and Dan Gilbert is everywhere. The headquarters of his online mortgage firm, Quicken Loans, looms over the park at downtown Detroit’s center—thronged with Gilbert’s employees, eating at restaurants in Gilbert-owned buildings, traveling to Midtown on the QLine, a light rail line championed and partially funded by Gilbert, all under the watchful eye of a network of security guards and cameras installed and paid for by Gilbert.
Gilbert, 55, is not actually the mayor of Detroit, and in most of the city’s sprawling 140-odd square miles, his influence is negligible. But in the city’s now-thriving downtown—Gilbertville, some call it—this billionaire businessman wields the kind of power and boasts a résumé of civic accomplishment that most politicians could only dream of.
At a time of dire need for Detroit, what he has done is remarkable. But for some Detroiters, that doesn’t sit well: Because Gilbert isn’t an elected official, he has no public accountability.
In many ways, Detroit was ripe for Gilbert’s intervention. It had lost nearly two-thirds of its population since 1950; during the recession, it watched the implosion of the administration of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, now serving time on federal corruption charges. The city declared bankruptcy in 2013.
Gilbert grew up just outside Detroit and originally built his mortgage empire in the suburbs. He announced the move downtown in 2007, hoping it would be “transformational,” and city and state officials applauded him. Quicken moved downtown in 2010. Today Gilbert owns more than 95 buildings there, and 4,000 of his workers have flooded the area. Many have also bought homes in Detroit with down-payment assistance offered by Quicken and other businesses. (Separately, the Justice Department is suing Quicken for improper underwriting of hundreds of Federal Housing Authority-insured mortgages during and after the recession. Gilbert vigorously denies those claims; he was not available for an interview for this article.) Dozens of businesses have opened to serve the influx of workers.
But not everyone is convinced what’s best for Gilbert is what’s best for the city. His security force, for example, isn’t required to release the same data as public police departments. And while Gilbert has brought thousands of workers downtown, they’re mostly suburban white transplants. The majority-black neighborhoods where most Detroiters live still languish. “It’s the feeling of, ‘Is it still our city? Are we still included?’” says Keith Owens of the Michigan Chronicle, a newspaper that serves Detroit’s African-American community.
Detroit has a real mayor, of course—Mike Duggan, elected in 2013 as the city’s first white executive since 1974—who has partnered with Gilbert on some projects. Duggan is perhaps more attuned to the contours of the city. The mayor—who has demolished thousands of blighted houses, among other initiatives—has ensured that razed land gets community input as it is redeveloped. (His press secretary did not respond to a request for comment about Gilbert’s work downtown.) Unlike Duggan’s, Gilbert’s job isn’t intrinsically tied to the city of Detroit, since Quicken is an online business. And that has prompted questions about what would happen if the billionaire—who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and has other investments in the Ohio city—ever left Detroit.
“That’s been my biggest worry about Detroit’s momentum,” says Tom Walsh, a retired Detroit Free Press business columnist who covered Gilbert for more than a decade, “that it has relied on a small group of people.”
Nancy Kaffer is a political columnist and member of the editorial board at the Detroit Free Press.

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AskReddit	People who used a Pepsi to get out of trouble, what is your story?	Pepsi
history	Did the United States use trench warfare during WW1?	United
mildlyinteresting	The image of our saviour Terrance has appeared on the bottom of my Starbucks cup	Starbucks
worldnews	Italy issues a nationwide Uber ban	Uber
news	Italy issues a nationwide Uber ban	Uber
food	Homemade copycat McDonald's Szechuan Sauce, thanks to a recipe from u/Xeropoint. Chicken nuggets also from scratch. Fries by OreIda.	McDonald's
AskReddit	What actions should be taken by all to repair the growing political divide in the United States of America?	United
gaming	Ark Evolved preview, Xbox One....sooo does this mean i own it?	Xbox
AskReddit	I must have missed something - what's with all the Pepsi memes?	Pepsi
AskReddit	If you met Donald Trump at a bar in a universe in which he was not the president of the United States or a successful business man, what would you think of him?	United
OldSchoolCool	Circus Circus Casino in Las Vegas, opening night on Oct. 18th, 1968	Casino
worldnews	Odisha: Curfew in Bhadrak town after communal violence over Facebook post	Facebook
Showerthoughts	Whenever I see a Charger, Impala, or Crown Vic come up behind me I hold my breath till I see whether it's Homie From The Block or Officer Pork. I always keep my Pepsi on hand though.	Pepsi
pics	Kelly Brook seen leaving her hotel and arriving at BBC Radio 1 in a skin tight bandage dress, September 9th 2014.	BBC
Showerthoughts	The repetitiveness of GE courses in college with high school seems to be training us to get prepared for working a 9 to 5 job.	GE
AskReddit	Does this whole Pepsi commercial controversy seem like a fortunate mistake?	Pepsi
videos	A Youtube Classic	Youtube
nottheonion	Warren Buffett’s beaming face sells Coca-Cola in China	Coca-Cola
videos	Apple's Forgotten Video Game Console From The 90s - The Story Of The Apple Pippin	Apple
videos	Remember what it was like before Southwest Airlines?	Southwest
television	Am I losing my mind here, or is '13 reasons why' about as cringy as the Jenner Pepsi ad?	Pepsi
todayilearned	TIL: United States, tobacco companies are protected from disclosing their ingredients to the public p.21	United
food	Homemade Chicken Apple Fuji Salad	Apple
gaming	What is the best Lego game for PC not based on another franchise?	Lego
Showerthoughts	The new Pepsi memes are just snickers memes on a larger scale...	Pepsi
funny	The image of our Saviour Terrance has appeared on the bottom of my Starbucks cup	Starbucks
mildlyinteresting	Local McDonald's has a "walk through" window.	McDonald's
funny	Roast of the United States: Alabama	United
gaming	Should I get an Xbox One from Best Buy or Gamestop?	Xbox
AskReddit	What racial issues do people face in the United States that Don occur in other countries?	United
worldnews	Syrian military knew the US raid was coming and evacuated personnel and equipment: ABC News	ABC
worldnews	Italy court blocks Uber services in Italy, citing unfair competition	Uber
news	[Authorities Chase Suspected Another LA freeway chase: Stolen Vehicle Driver on 60 Freeway Near Pomona	KTLA](https://www.reddit.com/news/comments/645idp/authorities_chase_suspected_another_la_freeway/)
Showerthoughts	I hope someone took screenshots of Uber so that we can all tell our kids "back in my day" stories.	Uber
Showerthoughts	Is it a requirement to own an Apple laptop at university.	Apple
videos	Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage	Rogers
television	Famous TV feuds: The celebrities who can't get along off-screen - BBC News	BBC
mildlyinteresting	My friend spent a total of $40.00 at Taco Bell tonight	Bell
Showerthoughts	I won't teach my kids how to use tools, instead I'll walk them through IKEA instructions.	IKEA
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Howcome certain car models have so many of-brand replicas eg. AC Cobra, Lotus 7, Porsche 356, when most classic, desirable cars have none?	Porsche
Showerthoughts	The newfound Pepsi diplomacy, coupled with the Syria strike, remind me of that time back in '96 when some kid tried to buy a harrier jet with 7 million Pepsi points.	Pepsi
Jokes	My girlfriend tried to get me to have sex with her on the hood of her Honda Civic...	Honda
food	Homemade Chicken nuggets and McDonald's Szechuan sauce using XeroPoint's recipe x-post /RickAndMorty	McDonald's
AskReddit	Why does Mike Tyson have a tattoo of Mao Zedong?	Tyson
nottheonion	Escort Who Gave Former Google Exec Fatal Heroin Injection Will Be Deported to Canada	Google
Showerthoughts	The ending of the new Pepsi ad is basically "we got the sucker to drink Pepsi, lets cheer".	Pepsi
gaming	I know the PS4/PS3 and Xbox One/360 and Nintendo Switch and DS are not region locked, but do they play other region games online?	Xbox
videos	How The Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad Got Made	Pepsi
WritingPrompts	WP It is the second coming of Christ. As he finds his way to the United States he finds himself detained in JFK airport.	United
AskReddit	Serious Non-Americans of Reddit, what are you taught about the United States in your history or civics classes and in what light is the United States portrayed?	United
Documentaries	Hillsborough Documentary First Tuesday ITV 1990 Made less than a year after the disaster. Pretty much saying what took 25 more years for the courts to get right.	ITV
todayilearned	TIL: Ethiopia has less income inequality then the United States	United
AskReddit	Would you respect Pepsi more if they stuck by their guns and kept the new Ad up -- why or why not?	Pepsi
news	Feds Accuse Google of Underpaying Female Employees	Google
news	Prostitute responsible for Google exec’s fatal heroin overdose to be deported to Canada	Google
worldnews	Prostitute responsible for Google exec’s fatal heroin overdose to be deported to Canada	Google
AskReddit	Non-Americans, how do you view the recent strike by the United States in Syria?	United
AskReddit	Does Red Bull and Monster taste the same to you? Why?	Red Bull
mildlyinteresting	Confused me at first, but I guess Google can get it wrong sometimes	Google
worldnews	Turkish 'No’ voices struggling to be heard - BBC News	BBC
OldSchoolCool	Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg promote their Paramount film The Assassination Bureau at London’s Hilton Hotel, 1967	Hilton
mildlyinteresting	The first Taco Bell in the Netherlands is about to open in my city Eindhoven.	Bell
videos	Guy wins a lot of money on BBC News	BBC
worldnews	Italy court bans Uber across the country over unfair competition for traditional taxis	Uber
funny	Looks like someone at Unilever spent too much time watching the Big Bang Theory	Unilever
videos	The power of flight from chicken buckets! - RC KFC bucket plane Magnus effect	KFC
movies	First still from BBC movie 'The Child in Time'. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kelly Macdonald	BBC
worldnews	'Suspect device' in Sweden crash lorry - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	Stockholm attack: 'Suspect device' in Sweden crash lorry - BBC News	BBC
Showerthoughts	Maybe Google is so rich and powerful because they can blackmail anyone they want.	Google
videos	My NEW Youtube Trailer Indie Devs, Music Producers, Retro Gamers, Etc...	Youtube
mildlyinteresting	My Granny noticed her car's twin beside it in Tesco car park earlier 🚗	Tesco
Music	Top 100 Most Viewed Music Videos Of All Time - Youtube Updated April 2017	Youtube
AskReddit	People of Reddit who have actually had the McDonald's Mulan Szechuan Sauce, how was it really? Does it live up to all the R&M hype?	McDonald's
worldnews	Syria strikes: Site of chemical attack hit again this time by United States	United
mildlyinteresting	The color separated when I froze these Gatorade bottles	Gatorade
AskReddit	I stepped on a Lego a month ago. Why does it still hurt?	Lego
gaming	Childhood memory, "The Orange Box" - CD full of games, any of you heard of it?	Orange
todayilearned	TIL that In New Zealand, BMW posted a newspaper advertisement that said bring in your old car and they’ll swap it for a brand new one. No one came as everyone thought this as an April fool prank but, it turns out the offer was real and a lady swapped an old Nissan Avenir for a brand new BMW.	BMW
todayilearned	TIL that In New Zealand, BMW posted a newspaper advertisement that said bring in your old car and they’ll swap it for a brand new one. No one came as everyone thought this as an April fool prank but, it turns out the offer was real and a lady swapped an old Nissan Avenir for a brand new BMW.	Nissan
Music	Galapaghost - Mazes In The Sky Folk/Experimental So I self-produced and recorded this and it has managed to get almost 800,000 streams on Spotify. I have no label, manager or band so I'm completely DIY.	Sky
videos	Failed Pepsi Ad feat. Kendall Jenner	Pepsi
EarthPorn	Sunrise in one of our newly protected Wilderness areas in the Allegheny Mountains, United States OC 1400x934	United
videos	Ever since companies like Coca-Cola and AT&T left YouTube ads are now getting around 10 cents per 1000 views instead of $1 per 1000 views. This is affecting a huge portion of creators. H3H3 productions might have been right with their title "Is YouTube over"	AT&T
videos	Ever since companies like Coca-Cola and AT&T left YouTube ads are now getting around 10 cents per 1000 views instead of $1 per 1000 views. This is affecting a huge portion of creators. H3H3 productions might have been right with their title "Is YouTube over"	Coca-Cola
news	Fact Check now available in Google Search and News around the world	Google
mildlyinteresting	Free Aerial Tour of New York City via Delta Airlines	Delta
funny	Bad luck seems to follow Pepsi CEO after resigning and switching sides	Pepsi
movies	Shell NO! A Ghost in the Shell Review A Friends and Film Podcast	Shell
AskReddit	What's the most complicated drink you could get at Starbucks that still tastes good?	Starbucks
DIY	Repairing Thumb Stick Drift and replacing analogue module Xbox 1 controller	Xbox
AskReddit	What makes the new Pepsi commercial so awful more so than just a "bad" commercial?	Pepsi
pics	This poster at the barber shop looks like the Ghost In the Shell lead.	Shell
worldnews	Greece's justice minister said Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis had likely bribed "thousands" of doctors and civil servants to promote its products, amid an ongoing probe.	Novartis
Showerthoughts	One of the greatest joys in being a modern adult is watching as younger generations come to realize MTV is horrible television.	MTV
todayilearned	TIL Disney almost made 'The Dark Kingdom' at Walt Disney World, a Fifth Park that was themed around it's Villains	Walt Disney
Showerthoughts	If they made Pepsi flavored Donuts, the justice system would be crippled.	Pepsi
worldnews	US government drops effort to unmask anti-Trump Twitter account after lawsuit and outcry from free speech advocates	Twitter
todayilearned	TIL that Manchester United is a listed company on the New York Stock Exchange	United
videos	In light of the recent Pepsi and Kendall Jenner debacle, here is a reminder of Bill Hick’s opinion on Advertising and Marketing. Enjoy!	Pepsi
news	US regulators accuse Google of underpaying female workers	Google
Showerthoughts	I could irreversibly ruin my life with just a few Google searches.	Google
Showerthoughts	PornHub should do an April Fools joke next year eliminating orientation-specific categories following in the footsteps of MTV which eliminated gender-specific awards.	MTV
Showerthoughts	Where does the K come from when we abbreviate Coca-Cola to Coke?	Coca-Cola
funny	$339.72 for some batteries? Walmart has lost its mind	Walmart
videos	Introducing Google NO	Google
news	Judge disciplined for offering to pay teenage girl's fine - BBC News	BBC
videos	NYC Uber passenger threatens to call the police on Uber Driver	Uber
EarthPorn	Southern Coastline of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Taken from my Google Pixel 4048 x 3036Original	Google
funny	What is up with the Pepsi meme?	Pepsi
movies	Services like Spotify, Google Play, and Apple Music have practically made music piracy fall off the face of the Earth. When will movie studios take the hint?	Apple
movies	Services like Spotify, Google Play, and Apple Music have practically made music piracy fall off the face of the Earth. When will movie studios take the hint?	Google
Jokes	Why you shouldn't fart in a Apple store?	Apple
videos	Nat Rogers Faulkner: Hop to fakie Manual? BMX	Rogers
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Without programs like Adobe Premiere, how was video edited in the 1970's?	Adobe
news	Department of Labor claims that Google systematically underpays its female employees	Google
pics	Turns out McDonald's is pretty photogenic	McDonald's
AskReddit	Is Playstation or XBox better and why do you think so?	Playstation
videos	CRAZY KFC DRIVE-THRU PRANK	KFC
gaming	I'm an Xbox One Gwent beta tester. I got these codes a few days ago if anyone want to play Gwent Closed Beta	Xbox
AskReddit	Serious Prison guards and former prisoners of Reddit, how accurate is Orange Is the New Black in depicting aspects of life in prison?	Orange
videos	All I wanted was a Pepsi and She wouldn't give it to me	Pepsi
listentothis	Adventure Corps - Apple Fritter Electronic / Pianostep 2017	Apple
gifs	How To Catch An Apple Like A Veteran	Apple
Showerthoughts	Does Microsoft use Visual Studio to create a new version of Visual Studio?	Microsoft
AskReddit	Based on the ads they show you, what kind of person does Google seem to think you are?	Google
gaming	My 7yo sold made me a Lego Switch for my birthday this year! I'm incredibly proud of him for this.	Lego
mildlyinteresting	This spilled cup of McDonald's coffee looks like one of those gag spill cups.	McDonald's
Music	Adventure Corps - Apple Fritter Electronic/ Pianostep	Apple
news	US unemployment rate falls to 10-year low - BBC News	BBC
Showerthoughts	I've been using Google for a majority of my life and have never used the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button	Google
Music	Everlore - Lords of the Sky Power metal 2017	Sky
OldSchoolCool	My Dad and Air Force Friends meeting Harrison Ford 1995	Ford
AskReddit	If Apple unleashed a gaming console how do you think it would be?	Apple
Showerthoughts	It's like the entire planet was just asked "Is Pepsi okay?" And everyone said "No."	Pepsi
personalfinance	Family member offered to buy a 09 Subaru and finance for me as in I make payments directly to her. My C.U. is willing to finance it for 4%. What should I do?	Subaru
personalfinance	I'm 28, just found out family has been hiding a UTMA account from me. Bank of America refuses to give me the records.	Bank of America
pics	I'm unconvinced my package is at UPS Mail Innovations.	UPS
mildlyinteresting	I just realized, that Rolex doesn't use the proper Roman numeral for 4. Which is IV, in case you were curious.	Rolex
television	'Designated Survivor' bringing in fourth showrunner ahead of likely second season "Jeff Melvoin is exiting the Kiefer Sutherland ABC political drama and will stay on until a replacement for season two is named"	ABC
todayilearned	TIL that the Spice Girls had a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with Pepsi. They even produced a song for Pepsi that ultimately featured on their 'Greatest Hits' album	Pepsi
pics	Someone on one of my Facebook groups is selling an old 1950s safe, contents unknown....are we going to go for it, Reddit?	Facebook
Showerthoughts	Since items that Costco offers samples for increase the product sales, they should let you try their brand toilet paper in the bathrooms.	Costco
videos	Neil deGrasse Tyson Interviews MKBHD on The Future of Tech	Tyson
AskReddit	If you could only eat one thing from Taco Bell for the rest of the month, what would it be?	Bell
gaming	PC & PS4 gamets are afraid of Xbox Scorpio	Xbox
videos	Nobody puts Google robot in a corner.	Google
AskReddit	If each United State was a condiment and or sauce, what would they be?	United
askscience	How does Facebook knows what I wanna see?	Facebook
movies	How Ghost in the Shell got its main characters wrong, and why it matters	Shell
pics	Through multiple cancellations via Delta Airlines, I have been living at the airport for 3 days now. Here is the line to get to the help desk. Calling them understaffed is being too generous. I just want to go home.	Delta
Showerthoughts	Why Apple doesn't sell bigger macs?	Apple
history	A People's History of the United States is my APUSH text book?	United
mildlyinteresting	Damn! Even Sprint knows the prices of smart phones are ludicrously expensive!	Sprint
AskReddit	Redditors who got to try the limited time McDonald's schezwan sauce how fucking delicious was it and how did it change your life?	McDonald's
OldSchoolCool	My Lego tote from 1987	Lego
pics	When Delta gives you the bone job.	Delta
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why do places like Costco and Walmart mark your receipt at the door before to leave?	Walmart
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why do places like Costco and Walmart mark your receipt at the door before to leave?	Costco
personalfinance	I am selling my house and buying a new one. Is there an advantage to obtaining my new mortgage with the same lender that had my current mortgage? My loan is with Wells Fargo if that matters.	Wells Fargo
videos	Cliff Burton - Bass solo "Anesthesia - Pulling Teeth" - For Whom The Bell Tolls - 1984 live	Bell
worldnews	Venezuela opposition march over Henrique Capriles ban - BBC News	BBC
Showerthoughts	Whenever I lose something important like my keys one of my first instincts is always to Google "where are my keys"...	Google
AskReddit	Which fast food chain is superior, Burger King or McDonald's, and why?	Burger King
mildlyinteresting	This Walmart is green.	Walmart
worldnews	This is Why Cancellation of Johnson's Visit to Moscow ‘Was Predictable'	Johnson's
funny	So I thought I'd give the help area of the Verizon app a fair shot... it failed	Verizon

Subreddit	Title	Brand
Jokes	Have you heard The Presidents of the United States are re-recording some of their biggest hits	United
news	Gang rapes woman in Sweden and broadcasts it on Facebook live	Facebook
Showerthoughts	Could one say that a Lego man's dick is a cock block	Lego
AskReddit	What are good tips to starting a successful Youtube channel?	Youtube
funny	Casually strolling through Walmart and found this gem of a rollback	Walmart
AskReddit	Former and current Microsoft employees that received the infamous Halloween documents, how did you feel about it at the time compared to today?	Microsoft
gaming	Question about the Xbox messaging on Microsoft website	Microsoft
gaming	Question about the Xbox messaging on Microsoft website	Xbox
news	All United Airlines Domestic Flights Grounded by Computer Outage	United
funny	My Google assistant is on my wavelength.	Google
pics	My favorite Twitter conversion about the Women's March	Twitter
mildlyinteresting	EpiPen for public use in CN tower	CN
worldnews	Trump says Nafta 'renegotiations' with Mexico and Canada to start - BBC News	BBC
pics	Men protesting circumcisions outside Gillette Stadium at the AFC Championship game	Gillette
funny	Appears United Airlines computers are fed up!	United
AskReddit	What is the one thing you see on your Facebook news feed that you cannot help but respond to?	Facebook
news	FAA Says United Requested Grounding of Domestic U.S. Flights	United
funny	Tip of my tongue Google to the rescue.	Google
EarthPorn	Snowshoeing along a lake in Southwest Colorado, 2688x1520OC	Southwest
food	Homemade Southwest Style Scramble	Southwest
mildlyinteresting	Odometer reached 44,444 miles on my 2008 Toyota Corolla.	Toyota
OldSchoolCool	Manchester United Legend George Best, Late 60's/Early 70's	United
gifs	Bizarre Caterpillar That Makes Own Leafy 'Armor' Seen for 1st Time	Caterpillar
personalfinance	Worked UPS seasonal job. No paying me bonuses and paying me very late.	UPS
gaming	I'm starting a double moniter setup I have a 24" dell moniter and I'm looking for another I need it for either Xbox or computer any recommendations	Xbox
Showerthoughts	The White House is the hardest to acquire rental in the United States. Free rent but have to acquire the rarest job in the country to attain it temporarily.	United
news	More than 3M Americans marched in this Saturday's women's marches	3M
aww	Sleeping Otis the Pug..a face only a mother could love !!	Otis
gaming	Resident Evil 7 - Xbox One Exclusive Scene LEAK	Xbox
personalfinance	Chase Freedom vs Discover It Rewards Cards	Discover
aww	This is Mr Winston and this is his morning stretch	Winston
news	Ground stop lifted, United Airlines flights set to resume	United
AskReddit	SeriousHow the hell is BP still allowed to operate after the Deepwater Horizon incident!?	BP
todayilearned	TIL: On January 3, 2017, a bill called H.R.193 - American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2017 was introduced by Republicans. It aims to terminate U.S. membership with the United Nations	United
mildlyinteresting	This Chevron station still uses the Standard Oil name	Chevron
Jokes	What happened when the Orange slept with the skanky Lemon?	Orange
todayilearned	TIL that Taco Bell owns the internet domain www.ta.co	Bell
AskReddit	Walmart workers of Reddit, what's some crazy Walmart stuff that has gone down during your shift?	Walmart
AskReddit	Was Kraft drunk or stoned?	Kraft
Jokes	It is said that Bill Gates once farted in an Apple store which stank up the entire place.	Apple
gaming	[Online Betting	Malaysia
todayilearned	TIL when filming Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Barbra Streisand showed up in a dominatrix suite and whipped Harrison Ford for various reasons. Carrie Fisher came to his rescue shortly after.	Ford
todayilearned	TIL that the Simpsons negotiated a contract in such a way that they could make fun of FOX while being on air on FOX at the same time without network interference	FOX
Showerthoughts	Anytime Google maps tells me how long a trip is going to be, I take it as a challenge.	Google
AskReddit	What was your most interesting Uber ride?	Uber
videos	Play Playstation 1 Games On A Dreamcast! - The Story Of Bleem	Playstation
worldnews	Jallikattu: Two die in Indian bullfight amid controversy - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	Syria conflict: Peace talks due to begin in Astana, Kazakhstan - BBC News	BBC
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: How does Youtube work?	Youtube
OldSchoolCool	August von Mackensen, 1916. A skull in his hat. From "The Great War" Youtube Channel	Youtube
AskReddit	If someone were to look at your Google search history, what's the weirdest thing he/she would find?	Google
Documentaries	Crude: The Real Price of Oil 2009 - An award-winning documentary that chronicles the epic battle to hold oil giant Chevron formerly Texaco accountable for its systematic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon.	Chevron
IAmA	IamA Police Officer AMA! To Be Answered Live on Youtube Live Stream.	Youtube
AskReddit	What kinds of comments/commenters ruin Youtube comment sections for you?	Youtube
television	Anybody else catch the premiere of CBS new show Hunted?	CBS
Showerthoughts	Does witnessing a robbery at an Apple Store make me an iwitness?	Apple
videos	2 Chainz Good Drank Featuring Gucci Mane Quavo Produced By Mike Dean Album Hibachi for Lunch	Gucci
mildlyinteresting	This Walgreens brand sleep aid tells you not to take more than directed, but not how much to take.	Walgreens
AskReddit	We call Kraft's peanut butter simply Peanut Butter, etc... Why do we say Kraft before Dinner? Should it not just be called Dinner?	Kraft
news	Man shot in chest near film set in Brisbane - ABC News	ABC
Jokes	A reporter asked a protester why he destroyed the windows at Starbucks during the protest.	Starbucks
tifu	TIFU by using my Apple Watch to track my "workout". NSFW kinda..	Apple
Showerthoughts	Seeing commercials with the guy who switched to Sprint doesn't convince me at all to make the switch myself. All I see is a guy who sold out	Sprint
videos	It's been 33 years since the Apple 1984 commercial. Here's a behind-the-scenes video of it...	Apple
gaming	Forgot to cancel my Xbox Live gold subscription nearly 4 years ago when I built my PC....	Xbox
funny	I think Google is trying to tell me something...	Google
AskReddit	75% of the United States population must be deleted and YOU have to select the criteria. What petty reason would cause you to add people to the delete list?	United
mildlyinteresting	This extra long Kraft Dinner noodle	Kraft
AskReddit	What would you remove from Facebook to make it less shitty?	Facebook
todayilearned	TIL pc.com redirects to the Intel site	Intel
funny	Went into FedEx Print/Ship store to print, four, forty page booklets for an upcoming interview...the cost $279!! LOL I left #FedExPrintOutOfBusinessInOneYear	FedEx
todayilearned	TIL the longest ever speech delivered in the United Nations is eight-hour long. It was delivered by VK Krishna Menon on On 23 January 1957.	United
personalfinance	What are the tradeoffs between investing in the "nine no-load Vanguard funds" versus a single "Vanguard Target Retirement" fund?	Target
news	Report: Apple & Foxconn ‘mulling’ $7B investment in U.S. manufacturing with ‘highly automated’ display facility	Apple
photoshopbattles	PsBattle: The Official Portrait of the 45th President of the United States.	United
tifu	TIFU By buying the wrong IKEA doors	IKEA
funny	A customer dropped this note off at the Apple store while her computer was in for a data transfer.	Apple
pics	A customer dropped this note off at the Apple store while her computer was in for a data transfer.	Apple
history	How Important Was The United States Contribution to World War 2?	United
Documentaries	The Relaxed Wife: Stress Relief With Tranquilizers - 1957 Educational Film: Atarax Hydroxyzine is a first-generation antihistamine of the diphenylmethane and piperazine classes. It was first synthesized by Union Chimique Belge in 1956 and was/is marketed by Pfizer in the United States.13:24	United
Documentaries	The Relaxed Wife: Stress Relief With Tranquilizers - 1957 Educational Film: Atarax Hydroxyzine is a first-generation antihistamine of the diphenylmethane and piperazine classes. It was first synthesized by Union Chimique Belge in 1956 and was/is marketed by Pfizer in the United States.13:24	Pfizer
pics	Mr. Rogers in the '50s Looks like the guy from Nathan for you	Rogers
television	The BBC TV show about the health treatment you can't get on the NHS	BBC
gaming	Perkins Coie LLP in United States	United
AskReddit	Tim Cook resigns as CEO of Apple to be replaced by Kanye West. What are some things we could expect in these reality?	Apple
worldnews	Republicans Introduce Bill Proposing Withdrawal From United Nations	United
tifu	tifu by overcharging the now vice pres of the United states of America	United
gaming	MY New Youtube Channel. Any tips?	Youtube
gifs	Aaron Rogers Brotherly Love	Rogers
photoshopbattles	PsBattle: the Camel ride is about to start	Camel
pics	The Roman Baths with the Abby in the background. Taken on a recent trip to Bath, United Kingdom	United
news	New seat alert app for pregnant commuters - BBC News	BBC
todayilearned	TIL that a restriction by Paypal was necessitated some years back because many Nigerians used the payment platform to defraud many foreign buyers on Ebay.	Paypal
mildlyinteresting	My Orange was cold this morning	Orange
space	Two sunspots visible on the sun. Image shot with a Nexus 5 through the telescope at the AF Philips observatorium, Eindhoven	Philips
news	DOJ: Microsoft isn’t harmed when it can’t tell users what data we want	Microsoft
videos	Pen Pineapple Apple Pen on the Piano!	Apple
worldnews	US exit from United Nations could become reality with fresh bill	United
pics	Everything is aweso...HERESY - Lego Space Marines.	Lego
worldnews	US President Donald Trump misspells honour in latest Twitter mishap	Twitter
videos	Last year Booking.com gave all 14,000 employees a GoPro and asked them to capture their travels, well this is the result	Booking.com
AskReddit	Have you tried Sprite Banana challenge and how was it?	Sprite
AskReddit	Why did Pres. Nixon choose Gerald Ford to be his VP when Agnew resigned?	Ford
worldnews	President Donald Trump Returns Bust Of Sir Winston Churchill To Oval Office	Winston
pics	Long Exposure of Nissan Skyline at Sunset	Nissan
videos	Formtastic Forms Ways to Use Google Forms in the Classroom ne...	Google
news	Bill Introduced to Remove US From United Nations	United
Futurology	Is this Apple Store-inspired setup the future of health care? Forward says yes - "Members complete their check-in process on an iPad, then make their way to a full-body scanner that sends their vitals to Forward’s AI algorithms."	Apple
TwoXChromosomes	How do you feel about the white man's anger at today's Swedish Facebook story?	Facebook
explainlikeimfive	ELI5:How did MS-DOS make Microsoft an OS power house?	Microsoft
mildlyinteresting	My Coca-Cola can has expanded to it's limit	Coca-Cola
funny	Robin in the new Lego Batman Movie	Lego
AskReddit	What are the equivalent AMD processors of Intel Processors?	Intel
WritingPrompts	WPIn the distant post apocalyptic future of 4017, 4 warring factions rule the wasteland; Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook and Reddit.Unfortunately, there are rumours, legends of an another faction.The forgotten faction of 4chan.	Facebook
funny	An American trying to scam an Indian on Twitter Long	Twitter
Music	Electric Light Orchestra - Mr Blue Sky Pop/Art Rock	Sky
videos	This older man, is an army veteran. He lost his wife a few years ago, and now he doesn't have much besides his Youtube Channel. This reaction to Molly by Lil Dicky is so great. He tears up, and so did I.	Youtube
funny	I wanted to see the two emotions Harrison Ford was showing us. The result was a bit disturbing.	Ford
mildlyinteresting	Doing a Google search for "want to be" will automatically bring you to the music video for Wannabe by the Spice Girls	Google
videos	Amazing Jeep Playing Seesaw	Jeep
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: What effect would leaving the United Nations have on America?	United
gaming	Tekken 7 launches June 2, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via STEAM	Xbox
news	Computer glitch grounds United flights for the second time in three months	United
Showerthoughts	If Google knows my favorite teams it should also know when they get crushed in the playoffs and stop rubbing it in.	Google
Showerthoughts	As the father of two gamers, there will come a day where I'm literally the guy on Xbox Live who fucked their mom	Xbox
AskReddit	How are women discriminated against in the United States today? Serious	United
news	Bill introduced to remove US from United Nations	United
dataisbeautiful	The world split into regions with the same population as the United States OC	United
worldnews	Australian Open: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shares heartfelt letter from ball girl - BBC News	BBC
Music	Explosions In The Sky - First Breath After Coma Post-Rock	Sky
videos	Is Robert Kraft drunk?	Kraft
gadgets	First, the headphone jack. And now, Apple is looking to remove the home button??? NOOO!	Apple
Jokes	Apple is suing Qualcomm for selling them overpriced chips.	Qualcomm
Music	Sam Kent - Smile Alternative Rock	Kent
worldnews	GCHQ director Hannigan resigns - BBC News	BBC
funny	Is Google Earthview trolling us?	Google
television	'Allo 'Allo! star Gorden Kaye dies at 75 - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	'Allo 'Allo! star Gorden Kaye dies at 75 - BBC News	BBC
gaming	Plenty of affordable used-copies of No Man's Sky at Best Buy if anyone is interested.	Sky
worldnews	Ethics lawyers to sue Trump over foreign payments - BBC News	BBC
food	Homemade Tennessee Mountain Stack Cake OR Apple Stack Cake	Apple
videos	What Car Donation in United Kingdom and in California How to Donate a Car to Charity full Information in this tutorial	United
OldSchoolCool	Couple with a dog standing on their shoulders, United Kingdom, circa 1910s	United
space	48 hours til Boeing Starliner suit reveal x-post from /cislunar	Boeing
videos	Ed Roberts activist Google Doodle Top 50 Interesting Facts about Ed Roberts	Google
worldnews	Trump juggles offer to slash taxes with border tax threat - BBC News	BBC
gifs	Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul Reunite for Audi ad	Audi
listentothis	Lawrence Arabia - Apple Pie Bed Indie Pop 2009	Apple
news	A bill has been introduced that would remove the United States from the UN.	United
funny	R.Kelly is driving a Toyota Highlander now!	Toyota
Futurology	The future is electric! New Hybrid Audi SUV Boasts 467 Horsepower, over 1000km range thanks to Lithium Ion Batteries.	Audi
AskReddit	You woke up in the year 2100, what would be the first thing you Google ?	Google
gaming	I think I found the game that is everything No Man's Sky let us down on.	Sky
news	Three men arrested in Sweden after Facebook Live 'gang-rape'	Facebook
worldnews	President Donald Trump signed an executive order formally withdrawing the United States from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal	United
todayilearned	TIL That According to the United States Supreme Court, Tomatoes are Vegetables	United
Jokes	Good Joke From Danmark Im Not Good To English So I Use Google Translate	Google
Documentaries	Krakatoa: The Last Days 2006- a BBC documentary about the eruption based on an observer's firsthand account.	BBC
worldnews	Why Bill Clinton helped a 33-year-old build a $1bn firm - BBC News	BBC
funny	My local McDonald's can satisfy all of your cravings..	McDonald's
AskReddit	Sean Spicer went on a five-year Twitter war with Dippin' Dots. Which company would you get in a Twitter war with and why?	Twitter
videos	I fixed some cool retro Sony Walkman speakers in ep005	Sony
gaming	I have a Apple Mac mini any suggestions for games I want to download a couple.	Apple
todayilearned	TIL that Lucy the australopithecus specimen found in 1974 in Ethiopia, was nicknamed after The Beatle's song 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' which was played often in the expedition camp.	Sky
mildlyinteresting	This Chevron station still bares the Standard Oil name	Chevron
mildlyinteresting	This Chevron station still bears the Standard Oil name	Chevron
pics	The 2017 Renault Trezor concept.	Renault
nottheonion	Farmers in the United States Have Been Feeding Their Cattle Red Skittles	United
AskReddit	You see that your hometown is on the top of Twitter trends. What happened?	Twitter
gaming	Could not pick between PS4 and Xbox One	Xbox
mildlyinteresting	I received a McDonald's Big Mac with no sauce, cheese or lettuce in it...	McDonald's
Futurology	The Volkswagen Hippie Bus Is Back and Now It's Electric	Volkswagen
mildlyinteresting	This McDonald's sign doesn't say McDonald's	McDonald's
Jokes	The President of The United States.	United
Art	Vernon Roche painting	Roche
mildlyinteresting	This McDonald's is green with antler chandeliers to match the nearby sporting goods store	McDonald's
Showerthoughts	Below zero is a lot colder in the United States than it is in Canada.	United
AskReddit	Donald Trump is now the Emperor of the United Empire of America. What is different?	United
AskReddit	What is the worst possible sandwich you can make at Subway using actual ingredients from Subway?	Subway
todayilearned	TIL the Goldman family was awarded OJ Simpson's Rolex in the civil case, only to return it when a jeweler advised it was a $100 fake made in China. The settlement said items that cheap would remain owned by Simpson.	Rolex
AskReddit	SeriousWhat happened to the FailArmy Youtube account?	Youtube
AskReddit	Other than the Lego games, what are some good Xbox One games for young kids ages 8 and 7?	Xbox
AskReddit	Other than the Lego games, what are some good Xbox One games for young kids ages 8 and 7?	Lego
worldnews	UK leader admits she knew British nuclear missile flew towards United States	United
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: How are stores like Dollar General able to stay in business despite selling things for a dollar?	Dollar General
worldnews	Zambian police banned from marrying foreigners - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	UK leader admits she knew British nuclear missile flew towards United States	United
gaming	Please help. Friend won an Xbox One during Gamestop's Dishonored 2 Stream three months ago, no response from them since.	Xbox
todayilearned	TIL that Uber applied for a patent on surge pricing in 2013, but it was denied for being obvious.	Uber
Music	Kenny Rogers had to sit down at his concert, but the audience stood up to applaud him	Rogers

Warning, rampant speculation ahead:
By 2030, there are places that have collapsed. Syria, Libya and Iraq no longer exist, but are now ruled by regional strongmen and stuck in low intensity tribal conflicts that don't come to an end. The problem these countries have is that they are synthetic states, formerly kept together only through force. The European Union as we know it today exists only in name still. To deal with refugee streams from Africa and the Middle East, internal border controls have been reinstated. Italy, Greece and Spain are forced to deal with the mess, the UK has further isolated itself from the European mainland. Large parts of France are no-go areas for non-muslims.
Other places that have undergone balkanization? The United States. Shale oil production peaked somewhere between 2015 and 2020, after which oil production rapidly plunged, leading to mass unemployment and a very rapid decline in GDP. State governments no longer enforce many federal laws. It started with cannabis and gay marriage laws, it eventually moved over to other aspects as well. With every democrat elected as president, red states began to defy the federal government more. There is still a president, but he functions a lot like the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, officially ruling over a patchwork of nations he has no genuine control over. What remains of the poorly maintained infrastructure has by now been turned into a number of toll roads in many places. For outsiders, costs of travelling through the toll boots is very high. Internally, many people have started migrating to Alaska, as it still has potential for economic development.
In Africa, climate change has taken its toll. Large parts of the continent suffer from drastic soil erosion. The population of many African nations saw a peak before 2030 as a result of large civil wars and massacres, often between Christians and Muslims, in other places because of conflicts between pastoral people and agriculturalists. Harvests fail because of fungal plant pathogens that ruin the crop, a problem that was poorly anticipated. In the developed world, this problem is solved by spraying large amounts of pesticide, leading to a rise in prices and health problems. People believe themselves to be "allergic" to a wide variety of food products, in the same way many Americans think they're "gluten sensitive" because they happen to face health issues from the glyphosate in their food.
No mainstream policymakers and politicians ever acknowledge that peak oil was a problem. Instead it is thought that oil demand simply peaked because of some other factor, such as people choosing to work more from home or car ownership becoming less popular. Most regular people blame government incompetence, racism or greedy bankers for the poverty they face. Renewable energy is seen as a buzz from the past. Governments can't afford to maintain the large subsidies for electric cars and other fancy inventions they implemented. Tax revenue is too low for governments to be able to make the infrastructure investments they need to make to increase renewable energy production.
After many years of increasingly dubious statistics, a number of European countries elected new parties, only for the newly formed government coalitions to announce that the people's gut sentiment was right and the economy continued to shrink during the previous administration. Outside of the mainstream media, people stopped paying attention to official statistics and instead started using a variety of alternative metrics, like the number of cars sold in the previous month. Some governments have moved away from the goal of "full employment" towards the goal of providing everyone with "basic necessities". Some have moved away from economic growth towards "controlled degrowth".
What does controlled degrowth look like? Libertarian types have moved to calling it "techno-totalitarianism". They can't be blamed, as it does look dystopian. If your cell phone detects that you're out of the house, it automatically turns off your TV and your computer. You can turn these options off, but it's not easy for the typical consumer. You pay flexible energy prices, which means that young people living by themselves typically can't afford to use a lot of electricity in the evening.
Your employer receives a subsidy for the fact that you work from home and don't have to be on the road. Not working from home, but actually having to go somewhere for your white collar job is now considered somewhat prestigious. Many people secretly have multiple jobs, others make a living combining their welfare with consumer surveys on the internet, often filled in with the help of smart bots. Most colleges don't expect people to actually show up for any activities other than doing exams and most young people don't bother attending classes.
Of course not everyone likes "controlled degrowth". A number of industry lobby groups push their own perspective, which they label "alternative growth". They argue that new technologies will allow us to focus on economic growth by selling "experiences", that don't take a lot of additional energy. Examples they suggest are 200 dollar celebrity fragrances and designer clothing. In libertarian/conservative circles, alternative growth is popular, because it's thought that it will "create jobs" and "put America back on track".
These same lobby groups were engaged in other activities too. The car industry, as it saw sales drop every year, decided to start a media campaign that tried to turn the car into a sex symbol. Pop artists were paid to sing about a particular car brand and how their boyfriend is sexy because she can drive around town with him in said particular type of car. None of this worked, because the car industry refused to face the obvious fact that young people were unable to afford a car, instead of being merely disinterested in one. Because the car turned into a symbol of wealth, it turned into a cash crop for governments faced with tax evasion by the middle class and tax avoidance by the rich.
There is a lot of poverty of the type people formerly knew only from third world countries. Many families are homeless and live on the streets. They tend to do "microwork" through their smartphones, which earns them cryptocurrency. They may report pirated DVD's or videogames found on the internet, they fill in captcha's for spammers, or perhaps get paid to promote an online casino on their social media account. Offically hardly anyone dies of the swollen-bellies type of poverty we know from Ethiopia, instead, people die the way they did after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They commit suicide, die of a drug overdose, die in an accident while drunk. Some die of cold in winter in their tent.
Being rich has become genuinely dangerous and not very enjoyable. Many of the rich have moved to places where they believe themselves to be safe: Luxemburg, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Singapore and some island groups. It's increasingly common for people to be kidnapped, with demands made to transfer cryptocurrency to a particular address. Historically, most hostage schemes failed because people are personally identified when they receive the payment. Cryptocurrency has solved this problem, the result being a rise in crime. The hostage taker himself is typically caught and thrown in jail or commits suicide, but the cryptocurrency has already been received by then at an anonymous address, that's used by friends, family members and/or gang members. Most people own not one type of cryptocurrency, but multiple types. Many are unaware of what types of cryptocurrency they own, as the total amount is automatically translated into dollars for them. New cryptocurrencies are typically created by popular websites and gradually decentralized.
Mixed in with the bad, some good things have happened too. Most people now grow food in their garden. Even rooftops and community parks are used to grow food. Neighbors secretly grow food in gardens in the abandoned homes next to them as well, homes that are owned by banks after the people were unable to pay their mortgage and evicted. The other side of the coin of distrust and animosity is that students move back home to their families. People generally try to know their neighbors again and share food and electrical appliances. As food has become expensive, animal based protein has turned into a luxury good. Chicken hatcheries are continously faced with infectious germs that spread and the process of producing protein by feeding animals edible grains and soybeans is seen as wasteful. Wild overpopulated animals like geese are killed, their meat is typically sold or given to the poor.
The singularity types like Ray Kurzweil are by now seen as a naieve subculture, in the same way Cyberpunk or the Y2K bug hysteria is seen today. There exists such a thing as virtual reality, it's a merger of our TV, music and video games. People put a device on their head and immerse themselves in their digital hallucinations. In contrast to what we feared, even virtual reality in practice ends up boring people. Back in the 80's and 90's we had 3D glasses, digital pistols you could shoot at your screen with, gas pedals and steering wheels for your racing games etcetera, but this was fun for a few months. Virtual reality similarly, is typically fun for a few months. People don't spend their days playing computer games because of their addictive potential, they play these games to hide away from the real world. If the best virtual reality we had was a book, they'd spend their time reading their book.
There are still climate skeptics, but their rhetoric has moved more towards the political mainstream and they now also hold significant influence over politicians. They argue that "the worst is behind us" when it comes to warming. With the poverty people face, concern over warming in the distant future is seen as a decadent worry that most regular people can't be bothered with. Concern over global warming dropped, because somewhere between 2015 and 2030, yearly global CO2 emissions peaked. Methane emissions dropped too, because people could no longer afford to eat large amounts of meat, as did emissions of a number of other greenhouse gasses and climate forcing agents.
Climate change has drastically affected the world, but generally through different mechanisms than we anticipated today. For example, higher CO2 concentrations have had a catastrophic impact upon agriculture, by favoring the spread of fungal plant pathogens. In addition to the positive feedback loops we're familiar with, there also existed a number of negative feedbacks that are rarely heard today. Molecular chlorine released from melting sea ice removes ozone from the troposphere as well as methane, moreso than hydroxyl radicals do.
Do we stay beneath two degrees? I can't claim to know, but I do know that many of the doom scenarios we read today cancel each other out. If oil production is about to peak, we can't raise temperatures by five degree celsius by 2100. If sea levels rise rapidly, the methane clathrates should be stabilized due to the higher pressure. If the ozone layer is depleted in a nuclear war, more ultraviolet radiation enters the troposphere, which means that more hydroxyl radicals are generated, which break down methane and hydroxyl radicals, which are gasses that would otherwise deplete the ozone in the ozone layer.
The result is that the ozone layer, like all of nature, is a self-stabilizing phenomenon. Like a swing, we can exert great energy to push it away from its stable point in the center. Eventually however, our stomach will be empty, we'll go home and the swing will return to its center, as gravity continues to pull. As the late great Lynn Margulis noted, Gaia is a tough bitch. If we start shoving her around, she'll start pushing back, and she has some mean techniques.
I like McPherson's title, "Nature bats last", but as the serotonin concentration in his brain dropped further, it seems his image of Gaia evolved from a tough matriarch who grabs you by the testicles into a fragile maiden whose last act of revenge is inflicting humanity with HIV as she is sodomized to death by a pencil-shaped phallus normally inserted into an anime sexbot. Gaia doesn't die a tragic death, she grabs you by your Google glass, drags you outside of the bar, drowns your cities in tsunamis, turns your crops into a wasteland then laughs as you stumble home and blame "anti-science Facebook moms" who refused to eat your GMO crops or have a Thorium reactor in their backyard for the fact that you got your ass kicked.

Subreddit	Title	Brand
videos	How To Become A Youtube Film Critic	Youtube
worldnews	Mosul IS battle: Mass grave found at Badoush prison, Iraqi forces say - BBC News	BBC
OldSchoolCool	Harrison Ford the carpentry years - 1970s	Ford
funny	Found In A Walmart In Orangeville, Canada	Walmart
mildlyinteresting	My face cream made a Nike swoosh on my brush	Nike
funny	Visited the CN Tower today!	CN
funny	My Dads Facebook Post From the National War Museum Caption "Fuck You Hitler"	Facebook
mildlyinteresting	I think our Target is confused ..	Target
Showerthoughts	The difference between a taxi driver and an Uber driver can be summed up in one sentence: Taxi drivers don't stop at yellow lights.	Uber
worldnews	Dutch police break up pro-Erdogan protest - BBC News	BBC
funny	KIDS INTERRUPT LIVE BBC INTERVIEW	BBC
food	Homemade Apple Smoked Pork Chops with Caramelized Honey Apples and Garlic Mashed Potatoes	Apple
todayilearned	TIL that Bayer came from IG Farben, the company responsible for discovering antibiotics and creating Zyklon B	Bayer
AskReddit	What is your worst Uber ride experience, driver or rider?	Uber
news	Slave auction project: New Jersey school under fire - BBC News	BBC
Showerthoughts	I take Google for granted.`	Google
gaming	[Need For Speed Most Wanted
gaming	[Need For Speed Most Wanted
news	Mosul IS battle: Mass grave found at Badoush prison, Iraqi forces say - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	The Japanese government, fretting over the future of Toshiba Corp's flagship memory chips unit, is prepared to block a sale to bidders it deems a risk to national security, sources said, a stance that gives U.S. suitors a major advantage	Toshiba
mildlyinteresting	My CVS Does Not Deal In Fixing Injuries	CVS
AskReddit	What could you build with an infinite supply of Lego and duplo?	Lego
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: How does an Ed Sheeran album on the Google play store cost more than a monthly subscription to Spotify?	Google
AskReddit	Reddit. What are your favorite bread, salad, cheese and sauce combinations for a Subway sandwich?	Subway
Music	Drake Bell & Josh Peck - Soul Man Rock	Bell
movies	The Scene where Clark Kent returns to the Diner to show the bully who is really The Boss. I just love this entire scene " Terribly sorry about all the Damage, Sir." Ah, so good.	Kent
Showerthoughts	I still haven't forgiven Jurassic World for the Jeep scene. I don't think I ever will.	Jeep
Showerthoughts	How entertaining would a vlog series of couples building IKEA furniture be?	IKEA
Music	How to listen to Youtube Videos without the video	Youtube
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: What is the argument behind not imposing term limits on United States congress members?	United
personalfinance	What are some credit cards I could get, as a 19 year old working at McDonald's part time with zero credit history?	McDonald's
Showerthoughts	I drink Coca-Cola like drug addicts snort cocaine. What a fix!	Coca-Cola
funny	The Michelin Boy	Michelin
funny	Hilarious BBC interview parody	BBC
aww	When you get tired after crashing your daddy's BBC interview	BBC
videos	Sculpting a full-size animatronic T-Rex. Stan Winston Studios footage of the making of the original T-Rex from the first Jurassic Park.	Winston
Jokes	I just found out Microsoft bought Skype for 8.5 billion dollars.	Microsoft
funny	When your friend thinks their BMW can do it all.	BMW
AskReddit	What gun laws do you think would be the best for the United States?	United
videos	Today I Blew Up A Toyota Corolla	Toyota
mildlyinteresting	This Taco Bell order screen has an error message.	Bell
AskReddit	Serious What do you think is a fair compromise on one or more tough political, religious, or social issues in the United States?	United
Jokes	Why did Adobe reader get arrested?	Adobe
Music	Mandolin Orange - Wildfire Folk	Orange
worldnews	Preet Bharara, high profile US prosecutor, says he was fired - BBC News	BBC
Music	Following recent events, here's a great blog post on what kind of visa musicians should get to enter the United States.	United
Showerthoughts	If a broker is someone who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for commission when the deal is executed. Then is Uber a brokerage firm for transportation? We are the buyers looking for a ride and the drivers are the sellers willing to give rides. And the app facilitates the deal.	Uber
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why is IKEA so controversial? Some people appreciate the furniture, some make fun of it.	IKEA
worldnews	Turkey referendum: Dutch expel Erdogan's minister amid protests - BBC News	BBC
funny	Children interrupt BBC News interview but it's a meme	BBC
videos	Robert Kelly’s BBC interview Parody With New Audio	BBC
Showerthoughts	I wonder if we are moving very fast in technology, or Apple is just releasing iPhones too often	Apple
Showerthoughts	I can't even find a Zombie on Google Earth!	Google
funny	Cleverbot's response to the same CIA questions asked to Alexa and Google Home	Google
Showerthoughts	Do Apple employers also have jailbreaks or something, that "roots" their device?	Apple
television	How does YouTube's new $35-a-month TV service compare with mixing and matching SlingTV, DirecTV Now, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and even Apple Music?	Apple
television	How does YouTube's new $35-a-month TV service compare with mixing and matching SlingTV, DirecTV Now, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and even Apple Music?	DirecTV
worldnews	Rash drivers in India are giving BMW a bad name, with 10 incidents of injuries and and deaths in past 11 months	BMW
funny	Without a Starbucks in sight, this herd of 'Basics' has turned to a life on the rails in search of a new home.	Starbucks
funny	I lost it! The best BBC News interview of all times!	BBC
Music	Oasis - Interview at Loch Lomond 1996 MTV / Liam, Noel, Guigsy, Alan	MTV
worldnews	Turkey referendum: Clashes as Dutch expel minister - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	SXSW 2017: Disney 'not in the business of scaring kids!' - BBC News	BBC
AskReddit	Customer support people working for the likes of Google and Microsoft, what have been your worst and best experiences while providing support?	Google
videos	Kids Interrupt BBC Interview Live	BBC
aww	You guys asked for more of Zara - here she is playing with her favourite toy... and, no more collar bell!	Zara
aww	Little miss Zara - strutting her stuff	Zara
EarthPorn	Ireland. But no, not Cliffs of Moher. This is Mizen Head, the most Southwest point in Ireland OC 4585x3257	Southwest
videos	Amazon Alexa and Google Home compare Man Flu symptoms!	Google
worldnews	Turkey referendum: Clashes as Dutch expel minister - BBC News	BBC
worldnews	Ethiopia's rubbish landslide kills 15 in Addis Ababa - BBC News	BBC
WritingPrompts	WP After the latest update moving dots appear on Google Maps. You realize they're cars on the road with you. You click on one and a picture with a name pops up. Underneath the picture are links: online activity, user names/passwords, travel log, purchase history.	Google
AskReddit	What popular Youtube channel do you think is dying out?	Youtube
gaming	Does No Man's Sky deserve a second chance?	Sky
news	Cancer has touched the lives of most American families, according to a recent CBS News Poll.	CBS
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why do Americans pronounce Nissan "nee-sahn" but Brits pronounce it "niss-en"?	Nissan
pics	I suspect an additional word was or will be involved in this Target display soon.	Target
gaming	My experience with steep during the Xbox free to play weekend	Xbox
movies	‘Baby Driver’ Review: Edgar Wright’s Brilliant Car Chase Musical Casts Ansel Elgort As an Outlaw Fred Astaire — SXSW 2017	Chase
AskReddit	Serious Is typing "hiddenwiki" in Google Chrome and opening the site that pops up dangerous? If yes, why is that possible to do in the first place?	Google
AskReddit	AskRedditors, why do you waste our time with questions that can easily be answered with a simple Google search?	Google
videos	Neil dEgrasse Tyson Statements & Interview 3/10/2017.	Tyson
Showerthoughts	Twice a year, I only trust Google to tell me what time it is.	Google
mildlyinteresting	My girlfriend snapped a picture with me and one of my science heroes, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on Friday.	Tyson
videos	Can ANYBODY decipher what the narrator says in the first 5 seconds of this Youtube review? I'm laughing my ass off trying to make sense of his garbled talk. Thanks!	Youtube
pics	Chizza from KFC in Paris	KFC
LifeProTips	LPT: if you can't afford/manage to get your Girl Scout cookies this season, Walmart sells a perfect copycat under their own brand.	Walmart
mildlyinteresting	My mom works for Colgate and got me a year of shower supplies so cheap.	Colgate
history	How did Europe and the rest of the world react to the United States civil war?	United
OldSchoolCool	Harrison Ford driving on set of the Empire Strikes back, 1980	Ford
Music	Kenny Rogers - You can't make old friends country	Rogers
funny	When he realizes the BMW can't do everything.	BMW
pics	A photoshop project popped up in my Facebook memories..	Facebook
AskReddit	What are ways of checking the credibility of a source from what someone posts, Facebook news feed, Donald Trump, etc.? serious	Facebook
personalfinance	My brother wants access to my Paypal because of convoluted reasons. If I take off my bank and bank card but leave address, phone number, and SS#, can anything come back to bite me?	Paypal
todayilearned	TIL that Bell X-1 piloted by Chuck Yeager, was the first manned airplane to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.	Bell
pics	The Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar - do NOT step on this thing	Caterpillar
aww	My first dog and greatest companion! We took Winston home at 4 weeks as the little ball of fluff and rolls he was. He just celebrated his 10th birthday and is still as cuddly and clumsy as the day he came into our life! sorry for the poor quality pics!	Winston
aww	My Uber driver had his family's photos taped on his steering. Now they literally drive him.	Uber
news	America's First Solar Roadway Is A Total Disaster	Total
todayilearned	TIL that the incarceration rate of the United States of America has the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population	United
funny	I asked for Sadness in my Hot Chocolate. Starbucks really delivers.	Starbucks
Futurology	In self-driving race, Hyundai rides alone	Hyundai
mildlyinteresting	Marion Maréchal-Le Pen's two Google images complete each other perfectly	Google
personalfinance	Chase Freedom vs Capital One Quicksilver	Capital One
AskReddit	If you Google yourself, what is the most awkward thing you can find?	Google
television	Popular Blackjack Professional Card Counter Banned From ANOTHER Casino '	Casino
AskReddit	How can we get Google Maps to stop showing our community's private road as accessible to everyone?	Google
aww	"We love the UPS guy!"	UPS
AskReddit	What Twitter accounts do you know that are absolute gold mines?	Twitter
AskReddit	How does a girl about 15 is able to wear a huge cleavage showing almost everything at Walmart but her parents were right there?	Walmart
Documentaries	Farewell Arabia 1968 The Oil Industry's Dramatic Effect on Life in Arabian Society in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates	United
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: Why are the most popular non-music videos on Youtube all about princess or superhero toys and really poorly made?	Youtube
food	Homemade Orange cake!	Orange
todayilearned	TIL: The McDonald's in Roswell, New Mexico is built in the shape of a UFO	McDonald's
news	Immigration tensions seep into South by Southwest music fest	Southwest
personalfinance	Student Cards Discover IT or Citi ThankYou	Citi
personalfinance	Student Cards Discover IT or Citi ThankYou	Discover
AskReddit	What Youtube channels do you suggest I watch?	Youtube
TwoXChromosomes	How do you deal with Facebook messages from strangers?	Facebook
Jokes	What would Mike Tyson say to someone using methamphetamines?	Tyson
news	Turkey referendum: Clashes as Dutch expel minister - BBC News	BBC
pics	Let's all take a moment to appreciate the 45th president of the United States of America	United
worldnews	No evidence yet of crime in Ben Keita's death, FBI says - CBS News	CBS
Showerthoughts	If the Google Maps lady was real, she'd probably be super sexually frustrated because I rarely ever let her finish	Google
gaming	I think Nintendo and Microsoft really should come to some sort of agreement here	Microsoft
AskReddit	People who have been banned on Twitter by a Celebrity what did you do ?	Twitter
Music	Immigration tensions seep into South by Southwest music fest	Southwest
Showerthoughts	Taco Bell crunchy tacos are like a side of fries at burger joint	Bell
pics	Cadillac Mountain, ME & Cape Alava, WA - claimed to be the first and last places, respectfully, to see the sunrise/sunset in the Continental USA.	Continental
Music	Fanfarlo - Life in the Sky Indie Rock/Indie Folk	Sky
funny	My little cousin was using Xbox live to search for some important answers	Xbox
AskReddit	Other than the President of the United States, who should we bring the aliens to if they ask for Earth's leader?	United
todayilearned	TIL Joseph Hazelwood, Captain of the Exxon Valdez which, in 1989, discharged around 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound never had his masters' license revoked and it remains valid to this date. He is referred to as "Saint Joe" in the movie Waterworld.	Exxon
todayilearned	TIL that Ford created advertisements for the Ford Fusion using DBZ character's and an unlisted Youtube video.	Ford
todayilearned	TIL that Ford created advertisements for the Ford Fusion using DBZ character's and an unlisted Youtube video.	Youtube
movies	Ill Stan Lee pulls out of Big Apple Comic Con	Apple
mildlyinteresting	The Publix I shop at censors all publications with Trumps image on it at the checkout line.	Publix
Music	Voss FM playing music in Southwest UK having a taster sesh. Check it out. Chill vibes.	Southwest
todayilearned	TIL in 1998 Sony released a videocam that could see through clothes while in an infrared recording mode; 600,000 units were recalled.	Sony
mildlyinteresting	Apparently Porsche made tractors at some point	Porsche
mildlyinteresting	This Subway coffee cup lid closes the mouth-hole by twisting the top.	Subway
Music	Explosions in the Sky - The Birth and Death of the Day Post-Rock	Sky
Showerthoughts	I wish I could ask Google where I put something in my house that I can't find.	Google
videos	Very Casual Saxophone Battle On NYC Subway Train	Subway
explainlikeimfive	ELI5: How does one make money off of a website that doesn't sell anything, such as Facebook or Twitter?	Facebook
AskReddit	What are your views on Google changing its logo font from Times New Roman to the abomination we see today?	Google
todayilearned	TIL That the United States is very Corrupt The Human Experiment Documentary	United
AskReddit	You are strapped in Costco and have to defend against a murderer for one week. You have 48 hours prep, what do you do?	Costco
explainlikeimfive	ELI5 Facebook Ads?	Facebook
funny	I'm pretty sure Yahoo got trolled by a graphic designer... #TrustYourDickButt	Yahoo
todayilearned	TIL 21.7% of United States Prison Inmates Are Not U.S. Citizens	United
mildlyinteresting	Taco Bell hot sauce packet doesn't have the usual funny phrase printed on the front.	Bell
mildlyinteresting	Found this in my nearest Walmart and I thought you guys might like to see this gem	Walmart
AskReddit	What do you think of the way that man handled the situation when his 2 children walked into the room during the BBC interview?	BBC
food	Homemade Berry Rose Apple Pie	Apple
mildlyinteresting	A man in front of me at Costco bought 88 gallons of milk.	Costco
AskReddit	You have been invited to address a Joint Meeting of the United States Congress at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. All 100 US Senators and 435 US Representatives will be in attendance. What is your speech?	United
listentothis	Mars Red Sky -- The Mindreader doom / prog 2016	Sky
worldnews	A Russian government spokesman expressed impatience Sunday that bilateral relations with the United States have not improved more quickly since US President Donald Trump took office.	United
aww	My dog Pepsi is 16 today! I think she has earned a nice nap!	Pepsi
Showerthoughts	What if Google is actually evil company, but nobody would know because they filter Google search?	Google
mildlyinteresting	This truck I saw at Walmart today.	Walmart
OldSchoolCool	Me and my 1966 Model 88 Land Rover in 1987 - It had M1 Garand rifle racks front & back, made to be dropped from 10K feet, all hydraulic, aluminum body, etc.	Land Rover
videos	That BBC interview that gets interrupted...by ME!	BBC
videos	My friend created the amazing music box animation that went viral a year ago. McDonald's stole it to use as a commercial in Korea. Original and comparison in comments.	McDonald's
funny	VAGINAS Sony receiver	Sony
Art	My take on Lichtenstein's Girl in Window. Done on my iPad Pro with Apple Pencil :-	Apple
todayilearned	TIL that most photocopiers and scanners can detect and refuse to scan currency, as well as Adobe Photoshop	Adobe
food	homemade KFC copy cat coleslaw	KFC
gaming	No Man's Sky cool base I've been working on	Sky
mildlyinteresting	This Ghost In The Shell -like sewage logo	Shell
space	Ultra Deep Field Sky Walker	Sky
AskReddit	If fictional supervillains from the Marvel / DC universe came to life, how would they REALLY be handled by the United States government?	United
mildlyinteresting	The 'globe' Facebook notifications icon rotated after I traveled from the US to Japan.	Facebook
videos	The secret to making KFC Popcorn Chicken	KFC
AskReddit	You, Simon Cowell, Finn Balor, and Michael Fassbender are all chilling at a Casino in St. Louis. What do you do next?	Casino
WritingPrompts	WP You are an agent for a private militia, your aim is to eradicate all nuclear weaponry on earth, But when you reach command HQ- you find that the nuclear weapons have nothing to do with human wars, but are a global, United defence system for a much larger threat...	United