Ben Schulman
@skyscrapinknees.bsky.social
Soapboxing cities through words, sound, and place. Chicago | Memphis | NY + Hudson Valley | ATX | SF | LA. (Though not necessarily in that order.) Accepting your invite - at any time - to MTL, NoLa, CDMX, or BsAs.
http://benschulman.com
http://benschulman.com
New on TEL: In the Beginning Was the Grid.
A meditation on Genesis, Rabbi Rashi, and the Land Ordinance of 1785. How “light” marks distinction, how distinction becomes form, and how form forms community. How else do we make places legible?
open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
A meditation on Genesis, Rabbi Rashi, and the Land Ordinance of 1785. How “light” marks distinction, how distinction becomes form, and how form forms community. How else do we make places legible?
open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
In the Beginning Was the Grid
Did Genesis Give Us the Land Ordinance of 1785?
open.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 4:37 PM
New on TEL: In the Beginning Was the Grid.
A meditation on Genesis, Rabbi Rashi, and the Land Ordinance of 1785. How “light” marks distinction, how distinction becomes form, and how form forms community. How else do we make places legible?
open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
A meditation on Genesis, Rabbi Rashi, and the Land Ordinance of 1785. How “light” marks distinction, how distinction becomes form, and how form forms community. How else do we make places legible?
open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
Chef and writer Elli Benaiah on finding - and preserving - Jewish life in curry and song. Now, on TEL: open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
January 23, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Chef and writer Elli Benaiah on finding - and preserving - Jewish life in curry and song. Now, on TEL: open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
Clarksdale, MS is the capital of the Delta, the cradle of blues, a place called “the most Southern place on earth.” It was also once home to Mississippi’s largest Jewish community, where there was a world within a world. Now on TEL, here is some of that story. open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
Delta Jews
Synagogues, storefronts, and stories in the cradle of the Blues
open.substack.com
January 10, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Clarksdale, MS is the capital of the Delta, the cradle of blues, a place called “the most Southern place on earth.” It was also once home to Mississippi’s largest Jewish community, where there was a world within a world. Now on TEL, here is some of that story. open.substack.com/pub/telcity/...
Different Landscapes started as an experiment to be an antennae to pick up the signals that places are broadcasting.
Today, that antennae shifts. Different Landscapes is becoming TEL: excavating Jewish histories in cityscapes.
Read the full scoop here: telcity.substack.com/p/and-now-fo...
Today, that antennae shifts. Different Landscapes is becoming TEL: excavating Jewish histories in cityscapes.
Read the full scoop here: telcity.substack.com/p/and-now-fo...
And Now, For Something Completely Different
From Different Landscapes to TEL
telcity.substack.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Different Landscapes started as an experiment to be an antennae to pick up the signals that places are broadcasting.
Today, that antennae shifts. Different Landscapes is becoming TEL: excavating Jewish histories in cityscapes.
Read the full scoop here: telcity.substack.com/p/and-now-fo...
Today, that antennae shifts. Different Landscapes is becoming TEL: excavating Jewish histories in cityscapes.
Read the full scoop here: telcity.substack.com/p/and-now-fo...
In Hebrew, a tel is a hill. It can also mean an archaeological mound made up of prior places, layers of dead cities and stories atop layers of dead cities and stories. Here is the tale of the tel of Warsaw.
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
December 9, 2025 at 9:54 PM
In Hebrew, a tel is a hill. It can also mean an archaeological mound made up of prior places, layers of dead cities and stories atop layers of dead cities and stories. Here is the tale of the tel of Warsaw.
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
When a baseball game breaks time, something weird opens up. Here comes Old Weird America.
Infinite Inning
The Old Weird America At Bat
substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:01 PM
When a baseball game breaks time, something weird opens up. Here comes Old Weird America.
22 years ago (!), I went to a Halloween party where someone came dressed as X’d-out Meigs Field. She won the costume contest, easily.
That memory came rushing back when asked to reflect on Northerly Island at 100.
mascontext.com/observations/northerly-island-at-100
That memory came rushing back when asked to reflect on Northerly Island at 100.
mascontext.com/observations/northerly-island-at-100
Northerly Island at 100
2025 marks the centenary of the opening of Northerly Island, a human-made peninsula and park located on Chicago’s Lake Michigan lakefront. Over its…
mascontext.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:23 AM
22 years ago (!), I went to a Halloween party where someone came dressed as X’d-out Meigs Field. She won the costume contest, easily.
That memory came rushing back when asked to reflect on Northerly Island at 100.
mascontext.com/observations/northerly-island-at-100
That memory came rushing back when asked to reflect on Northerly Island at 100.
mascontext.com/observations/northerly-island-at-100
Cities used to thrive on danger. Should we stop making sense?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/lets-get-r...
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/lets-get-r...
Let's Get Risky
Cities used to thrive on danger. Should we stop making sense?
differentlandscapes.substack.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Cities used to thrive on danger. Should we stop making sense?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/lets-get-r...
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/lets-get-r...
For the High Holy Days, thinking about teshuvah, renewal, and the choreography that cities need. differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/good-form-...
Good Form Gets Loose
Teshuvah, Renewal, and the Choreography Cities Need
differentlandscapes.substack.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:09 PM
For the High Holy Days, thinking about teshuvah, renewal, and the choreography that cities need. differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/good-form-...
From 33% of adults smoked in 1981, down to just 12% today. That's because of policy.
What if housing—particularly renting—got the same focus and force of policy? What if renting was reframed as a path to stability, mobility, and wealth-building?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/renting-co...
What if housing—particularly renting—got the same focus and force of policy? What if renting was reframed as a path to stability, mobility, and wealth-building?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/renting-co...
Renting Could Be the New Smoking (In a Good Way)
What policy did for smoking, it could do for housing.
differentlandscapes.substack.com
September 12, 2025 at 4:24 PM
From 33% of adults smoked in 1981, down to just 12% today. That's because of policy.
What if housing—particularly renting—got the same focus and force of policy? What if renting was reframed as a path to stability, mobility, and wealth-building?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/renting-co...
What if housing—particularly renting—got the same focus and force of policy? What if renting was reframed as a path to stability, mobility, and wealth-building?
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/renting-co...
We’ve long treated a deed as the measure of adulthood, stability, success. That story is cracking.
What replaces it might move us closer to core American traits. Is this the moment the American Dream moves from deeds to dynamism? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/the-future...
What replaces it might move us closer to core American traits. Is this the moment the American Dream moves from deeds to dynamism? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/the-future...
The Future is for Rent
As homeownership dips ever so slightly, the American Dream shifts from deeds to dynamism.
differentlandscapes.substack.com
September 5, 2025 at 2:05 PM
We’ve long treated a deed as the measure of adulthood, stability, success. That story is cracking.
What replaces it might move us closer to core American traits. Is this the moment the American Dream moves from deeds to dynamism? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/the-future...
What replaces it might move us closer to core American traits. Is this the moment the American Dream moves from deeds to dynamism? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/the-future...
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
On August 28, 1981, I was born in Los Angeles, CA.
On August 28, 2001, Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago said: "Do you want to take my shorts?"
Daley didn’t govern to be understood; he governed to get things done.
On August 28, 1981, I was born in Los Angeles, CA.
On August 28, 2001, Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago said: "Do you want to take my shorts?"
Daley didn’t govern to be understood; he governed to get things done.
Do You Want to Take My Shorts?
Big City Ambition Got "Scrutined"
differentlandscapes.substack.com
August 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
On August 28, 1981, I was born in Los Angeles, CA.
On August 28, 2001, Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago said: "Do you want to take my shorts?"
Daley didn’t govern to be understood; he governed to get things done.
On August 28, 1981, I was born in Los Angeles, CA.
On August 28, 2001, Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago said: "Do you want to take my shorts?"
Daley didn’t govern to be understood; he governed to get things done.
Cities need tools that work. Land-value taxation -#LVT - is one of them—and states are finally opening the door. #Baltimore #Maryland #Memphis #LVT #HenryGeorge @matthewdownhour.bsky.social @pandpinst.bsky.social
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/tax-land-m...
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/tax-land-m...
Tax Land. Make Love.
Cities need tools that work. Land-value taxation is one of them—and states are finally opening the door.
differentlandscapes.substack.com
August 22, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Cities need tools that work. Land-value taxation -#LVT - is one of them—and states are finally opening the door. #Baltimore #Maryland #Memphis #LVT #HenryGeorge @matthewdownhour.bsky.social @pandpinst.bsky.social
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/tax-land-m...
differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/tax-land-m...
Earlier this week, @petesaunders.bsky.social called time on the tired city-versus-suburb framing. He’s right. It’s time for a new way to talk about place. Could a City Beautiful heuristic offer a better way to making better places?
That’s Just, Like, Your Heuristic, Man
Could a City Beautiful heuristic offer a better way to think about place?
open.substack.com
August 15, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Earlier this week, @petesaunders.bsky.social called time on the tired city-versus-suburb framing. He’s right. It’s time for a new way to talk about place. Could a City Beautiful heuristic offer a better way to making better places?
When I’m reincarnated, I’d like to come back as a booth at Nate ‘n’ Al’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles.
Your City on Rye
The Deli Keeps The Score (a.k.a. Dr. Brown Will See You Now)
open.substack.com
August 8, 2025 at 6:58 PM
When I’m reincarnated, I’d like to come back as a booth at Nate ‘n’ Al’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles.
For a minute—post–Arab Spring, pre-Trump, pre-COVID—it felt like app-based comms might become a kind of public square. A digital network laid over a street network, capable of fomenting change. Something didn’t quite stick. What's happened since? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/signal-los...
Signal Lost
The city and the screen still haven’t synced up
differentlandscapes.substack.com
July 25, 2025 at 5:21 PM
For a minute—post–Arab Spring, pre-Trump, pre-COVID—it felt like app-based comms might become a kind of public square. A digital network laid over a street network, capable of fomenting change. Something didn’t quite stick. What's happened since? differentlandscapes.substack.com/p/signal-los...
Equiticity doesn’t just imagine a more just city - it’s building it. One ride, one block, one policy at a time. As a member of its board, please join us at our Second Annual Event to help lead efforts that ensure equitable transportation and mobility throughout Chicago, and beyond.
Join us on Friday, September 12, 2025, for our Second Annual Event! Join us for an evening designed to power our racial equity movement and accelerate our work in the face of contemporary challenges.
Click the link here to register eqty.info/second
Click the link here to register eqty.info/second
July 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Equiticity doesn’t just imagine a more just city - it’s building it. One ride, one block, one policy at a time. As a member of its board, please join us at our Second Annual Event to help lead efforts that ensure equitable transportation and mobility throughout Chicago, and beyond.
Fifteen years ago, I wrote about Pittsburgh’s magic of failure: collapse as catalyst. In 2025, “doin’ the fail” might be the most American move left.
#DoTheFail #MagicOfFailure
#DoTheFail #MagicOfFailure
Pittsburgh, and the Magic of Failure, Revisited
Doin' the Fail All Over Again
open.substack.com
July 18, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Fifteen years ago, I wrote about Pittsburgh’s magic of failure: collapse as catalyst. In 2025, “doin’ the fail” might be the most American move left.
#DoTheFail #MagicOfFailure
#DoTheFail #MagicOfFailure
When I was 11, Michael Madsen once chased me through an abandoned Pittsburgh steel mill. He left me a list of Bogart films and a couple of lessons too.
New on Different Landscapes: “You’d Get Along with Harvey”
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
New on Different Landscapes: “You’d Get Along with Harvey”
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
You’d Get Along with Harvey
When Michael Madsen gives you noir homework on a Pittsburgh film set.
open.substack.com
July 11, 2025 at 2:04 PM
When I was 11, Michael Madsen once chased me through an abandoned Pittsburgh steel mill. He left me a list of Bogart films and a couple of lessons too.
New on Different Landscapes: “You’d Get Along with Harvey”
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
New on Different Landscapes: “You’d Get Along with Harvey”
open.substack.com/pub/differen...
15 years ago or so, we started to create a portrait of Chicago through sound. Today, I’m going way back in the Way Back Machine to reflect on the Contraphonic Sound Series and how sound acts as a form of ephemeral, aural memory-place-maker.
The Frequency of Place: How Cities Sound Their Stories
Reflecting on the Contraphonic Sound Series and the search for civic identities through sound
open.substack.com
June 27, 2025 at 12:37 PM
15 years ago or so, we started to create a portrait of Chicago through sound. Today, I’m going way back in the Way Back Machine to reflect on the Contraphonic Sound Series and how sound acts as a form of ephemeral, aural memory-place-maker.
Since returning a year ago, something that has stood out to me is how soft #Chicago feels. For the latest Different Landscapes, I read a couple of books called “Soft City,” wonder about possibilities for Soft City Summer, and really hope to make #softChicagofeels a thing. That’s where you come in…
Soft City Summer
On parenting, place, and plastic cities
substack.com
June 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Since returning a year ago, something that has stood out to me is how soft #Chicago feels. For the latest Different Landscapes, I read a couple of books called “Soft City,” wonder about possibilities for Soft City Summer, and really hope to make #softChicagofeels a thing. That’s where you come in…
In Nov 2019, photographer Joe Crimmings and I went to #Clarksdale. With “Sinners” on the screen and a big recent NYT piece, it seemed time to revisit our piece, originally published in early 2020 for Just Place, as questions about race, money, ownership, authenticity & history are all dancing.
Clarksdale at the Crossroads (Again)
In 2019, we went to Clarksdale to understand place. Now, as Hollywood shines its light, those same questions reverberate.
substack.com
June 13, 2025 at 1:47 PM
In Nov 2019, photographer Joe Crimmings and I went to #Clarksdale. With “Sinners” on the screen and a big recent NYT piece, it seemed time to revisit our piece, originally published in early 2020 for Just Place, as questions about race, money, ownership, authenticity & history are all dancing.
Is this thing still on? Am I?
For Friday, something new: say hello to Different Landscapes, a substack for those looking to get lost in urbanist polemics, tussles with God, desert typologies, and for all of us humming and dancing through different landscapes all the time.
For Friday, something new: say hello to Different Landscapes, a substack for those looking to get lost in urbanist polemics, tussles with God, desert typologies, and for all of us humming and dancing through different landscapes all the time.
Different Landscapes
A Wandering Jukebox Enters a Bar...
differentlandscapes.substack.com
June 6, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Is this thing still on? Am I?
For Friday, something new: say hello to Different Landscapes, a substack for those looking to get lost in urbanist polemics, tussles with God, desert typologies, and for all of us humming and dancing through different landscapes all the time.
For Friday, something new: say hello to Different Landscapes, a substack for those looking to get lost in urbanist polemics, tussles with God, desert typologies, and for all of us humming and dancing through different landscapes all the time.
Thanks Thomas!
Nice article by @skyscrapinknees.bsky.social that looks how urban design can help build resilient kids. design.newcity.com/2025/02/14/a...
Chicago’s Walkable Streets Make Confident Kids
What if the key to raising independent, resilient kids lies not in stricter rules or tech-driven safeguards, but in the spaces where they grow up—in better urban design?
design.newcity.com
February 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Thanks Thomas!
Prediction: Someday historians will look back at Charlie Sheen's 2011 "WINNING" tour with the same gravity as Franz Ferdinand's assassination.
January 20, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Prediction: Someday historians will look back at Charlie Sheen's 2011 "WINNING" tour with the same gravity as Franz Ferdinand's assassination.