I am slipping into birthday vacation mode.

Actually, there is a great deal of slippage going on outside of my personal sphere.

The unexpected reality is that the island of New York is actually sinking under its own weight, sliding deeper into the Earth’s crust at an average of 1–2 millimeters a year.

I do believe that greed is partially to blame as various NYC mayors and politicians regard the excessive, massive skyscrapers as a badge of self-serving progress.

These towering buildings are densely clustered (collectively weighing 1.7 trillion tons) and are regrettably applying too much pressure to the ground…as if New Yorkers need more pressure and stress.

Ironically, many of these heavy NYC skyscrapers are merely sitting empty as remote work pushed office vacancy rates to a record low.

There is some action being taken. Political hacks are finally dealing with the reality of slippage and climate change.

New York is rebuilding a park on Manhattan’s East Side to make the city more flood-proof and last year it changed building codes to improve drainage.

Personally, I will be slip sliding away for a bit and checking in periodically over the next two weeks.

Take care and remain steadfastly unsinkable?

Graphic: Adobe Stock