TODAY 4pm: Pride Flag Rally at the Stonewall National Monument In the wake of the Trump administration’s anti-queer decision to remove the Pride flag from Stonewall National Monument earlier this week, I’m joining other elected officials and activists to re-raise the flag and protest this erasure of LGBTQ+ Americans and our history. I invite you to join us today, Thursday, February 12 at 4pm at the Stonewall National Monument (38-64 Christopher St.) and rally in support of protecting our community from these ongoing extremist attacks. Manhattan is the home of Pride and we will not be silenced. Calling museums, public schools & nonprofits Need capital funding for an arts or cultural project? Apply by February 19: bpbhs.com/budget Plus – we’re actively seeking partners to match and help make every dollar go further. Apply or Get More Info Here Want to have a greater voice in how matters like housing, transit, sanitation, and more are decided in your neighborhood? Then apply for one of the 300+ open community board seats! Applications are open through February 27 – apply here. You can learn about the location and work of your community board here. You must be at least 16 years old and live, work, or attend school in the community board to which you’re applying. Apply by February 27

Please join me Sunday, February 22, from 1 – 4 pm, at Alice Tully Hall for my Inauguration as Manhattan’s 29th Borough President—and our first ever Borough Convention.   We’ll feature discussion stations where you can help us map out priorities on housing, transit, public health and education. We’ll also have immersive, hands-on activities, including: • Record your personal history with StoryCorps • “Build a Dream Borough” mapmaking project • Anti-ICE “Know Your Rights” station   Refreshments will be served; bring your family, friends—and your ideas!   RSVP Here Meet Deputy Manhattan Borough President Miesha Smith We’re thrilled to welcome Miesha Smith as Deputy Manhattan Borough President, who brings a deep commitment to public service, higher education, small business vitality, and equity for working families. A Harlem resident and the daughter of immigrants from Guyana, DBP Smith was most recently Assistant Dean for Student Life at Hunter College, where she launched Hunter’s food pantry and fresh food program, expanded emergency support services, and advanced initiatives that improved student retention and graduation. In her new role, DBP Smith will focus on supporting public education, strengthening small businesses, and advancing arts and culture. Take the NYC LGBTQIA+ Community Safety Survey Take this brief survey to help identify safety concerns among LGBTQ New Yorkers and understand the dynamics between the community and the NYPD. Conducted by the NYPD’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, the data collected will help create a 2026 Safety Benchmark used to advocate for policy changes and a more equitable public safety environment. Take the Survey OMNY Call Center Now Available 24/7   The OMNY Call Center is now available 24/7, able to answer questions about trips and transactions and assist riders with any inquiries or issues. While speaking with an OMNY Customer Service representative, riders can access their OMNY account, hear their trips and charges, manage their travel cards, and more.   Riders can call the OMNY Call Center at 877-789-6669 or use the digital chat function available on the lower righthand side of the OMNY website.   All best regards, Brad Hoylman-Sigal Manhattan Borough President

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David Sable

Dear Loyal Readers…You already know the obvious. AI will grow. Autonomous cars will improve. Robots will learn to fold laundry (maybe). Crypto will continue to confound us. And China….?

But you don’t need me for that. You have headlines and hype machines at work…fueled by self-serving analysts…and yet, for all the advances in tech, people are still worried about affordability. All the tech in the world hasn’t helped the price of eggs go down…or made rent any easier to pay. That’s the murk we need to explore…because innovation that doesn’t touch people’s lives just frustrates them more.

So let me go somewhere else…into the deepest murk. The places where humanity is pushing back, where culture is asserting itself, and where leadership, creativity, empathy…yes, even joy…are refusing to be optimized away.

These are not predictions for specific technology or better states applied technology . These are predictions about people…us (you and me), who will influence everything.

Most people don’t wake up wondering about autonomous cars driving or how many safety parameters a new model has. They wonder whether AI is coming for their jobs… and whether they’ll still be needed.

That’s the Luddite Dilemma…a term you will be hearing more about. It’s not a fear of machines, tech, or AI, but a fear of being replaced. Our challenge? Evolve that fear into something future-facing…something productive, and…something hopeful.

Are you ready? Let’s go…

1. The Human Brand Will Matter More Than Ever.

The algorithm delivers reach. But only humans deliver resonance. In a world where ChatGPT and its cousins generate endless content, audiences will hunger for voice, perspective, vulnerability, and…intentional imperfection.

Proof point: Watch the rise of creator CEOs…unpolished internal memos that go viral…brands dropping AI disclaimers as a badge of pride…..because AI is….why go on about it? Who cares that Coke used it to create another flat Holiday commercial? Many of us use it every day. It is everywhere.

2. Trust Will Become a Growth Metric.

Not ESG. Not DEI. Just T. Trust. Simple. Measurable. Valuable. Audiences will reward brands that act in ways that feel true…and punish those that hide behind performance. Not authentic…a word my Loyal Readers know I revile….but real. Trust is built on real.

Proof point: Investor pressure on social platforms…decline in fake follower campaigns…growth of direct-to-community platforms.

3. Physical Space Will Reassert Its Power.

The office isn’t dead. It’s just waiting to be wanted. Smart companies will stop forcing returns…and start designing reasons to show up. Expect a renaissance of space as experience.

Proof point:New builds that feel like cafés…museums…theaters. Hybrid models that earn commutes, not mandate them. Hot desking? Please….. I can go to Starbucks.

4. Ethics Will Shift from Silo to Strategy.

We can’t bolt on “ethics” after we build the machine. We have to bake it in. The companies that integrate ethical frameworks into product dev, hiring, and AI training will lead.

Proof point: Surge in Chief Ethics Officers…investor panels demanding tech bias audits and model transparency. This isn’t woke. It’s real.

5. The DaVinci Factor.

AI can copy. AI can remix. But only a human could be a DaVinci (see my IMAGINE). The creative outliers…the unpredictable, the wonderfully different, the messy, and the weird…will become disproportionately valuable.

Proof point: Campaigns that embrace really never-before-seen…art that defies algorithmic taste…brands willing to break format. The messy and weird….

6. Quiet Will Become a Competitive Advantage.

In a noisy world…silence signals strength. Listening becomes leadership. Focus becomes strategy.

Proof point: Growth of slow content…demand for asynchronous teams…meetings replaced with meaning.

7. Soft Power Will Drive Hard Outcomes.

Empathy. Curiosity. Presence. The stuff we used to dismiss as “nice to have” will show up on the balance sheet.

Proof point: Executive coaching budgets are rising…boards are hiring based on EQ. Gen Z refuses to work for robots in suits and BTW is backing off of Social Media while showing up in Malls

8. The Big Question Will Be: What Is Enough?

Enough content. Enough optimization. Enough data. Enough growth. The leaders who pause to ask this…and answer with clarity…will create organizations that last.

Proof point: Shift from scale-at-all-costs to sustainable models…subscription fatigue…minimalism in UX and brand design. The backlash against the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle campaign…not just the hate, but the defense of it …was a signal. Erika Kirk’s thoughtful pushback against conspiracy and division reminded us that enough doesn’t mean less…it means human. The conversation will only grow.

And with the World Cup ahead, a moment when the world actually pauses together…the question is: what will we use that spotlight for? What will we decide matters when we’re watching, not coding?

So yes…AI will rise. Autonomous everything will continue. But the real story of 2026? The fight for what makes us human. The courage to aspire to DaVinci…The wisdom to listen…The bravery to say…this is enough.

Call it the age of the evolved Luddites…

The original Luddites didn’t fear machines…they feared being replaced. Their mistake wasn’t resisting technology…it was removing themselves from the future it created. They smashed the tools…and lost their voice. And now? Their name is used as an insult.

Let’s not let that be us. We don’t win by saying no to progress. We win by saying yes to humanity, yes to design with purpose, and yes to a future we help shape…for all of us.

And as Yuval Noah Harari reminds us…”Technology is never deterministic. We can use the same technology to create very different kinds of societies.”

So, I ask you…What kind of society will we imagine in 2026? Will we waste the opportunity of the World Cup? Can we all become DaVinci’s?

You know where I stand on all of this….Keep me honest…in 6 months, let’s revisit.

What’s your view?

#CloudyCrystalBall #Imagine #PeopleFirst #HumanityByDesign #EvolvedLuddites

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It was rare for the two rival Korean governments to agree to allow a group of peace activists to pass through the border area, known as the DMZ.

Yet some of the symbolism the activists had hoped to generate with their Women Cross DMZ campaign was lost when South Korea denied them permission to walk through Panmunjom, a border village where a truce was signed in 1953 to halt, though not formally end, the conflict, leaving the divided Korea technically in a state of war.

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Activists Say Both North Korea and South Korea Approve Women’s Peace WalkAPRIL 24, 2015
Instead, the women, who had traveled from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, were detoured to a checkpoint southwest of Panmunjom. There, convoys of South Korean trucks go to and from a joint industrial park in the North Korean town of Kaesong. The women, carrying banners, were again barred from walking across the border, and had to cross by bus.

Still, they considered the endeavor a success. “We have accomplished what no one said can be done, which is to be a trip for peace, for reconciliation, for human rights and a trip to which both governments agreed,” Ms. Steinem told the South Korean news media. “We were able to be citizen diplomats.”

The women — including the Nobel Peace laureates Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia — arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday for the march, which they hoped would highlight the need to build peace and set the stage for Korean reunification by formally ending the war with a permanent peace treaty.

The crossing, however, took place amid tension over the North’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and over its human rights record.

Just two days before the women’s arrival in Pyongyang, the North’s state-run media hurled one of its harshest — and most sexist — screeds against President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, calling her “a fork-tongued viper” and one “not worth calling a woman” because “she has never given birth to a baby.” Last week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the North Korean government, led by Kim Jong-un, was “one of the most egregious examples of reckless disregard for human rights.”

Some rights activists in the United States and South Korea opposed the women’s trip, saying that it would be used as propaganda by North Korea. They urged the peace activists to call on the North to dismantle political prison camps and end human rights abuses.

When the activists marched in Pyongyang on Saturday, North Korean women in colorful traditional dresses lined a boulevard waving red and pink paper flowers, according to North Korean television footage.

One of the roadside signs said “Let us reunify the divided country as soon as possible!” On the other side of the border on Sunday, hundreds of South Korean activists welcomed the women who crossed into the South Korean city of Paju, north of Seoul. Not far away, however, hundreds of conservative South Koreans, including defectors from the North, also rallied, accusing the activists of “flattering Kim Jong-un” and promoting a “fake peace.”

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“Go back to the North!” they chanted.

The conservative protesters cited reports in the state-run North Korean news media that quoted some of the visitors as praising North Korean leaders. In its reports about the activists’ meetings with North Korean women in Pyongyang, the North’s Korean Central News Agency also cited “speakers” who it said called the United States “a kingdom of terrorism and a kingpin of human rights abuses.”

The conservatives said those reports proved that the activists had been used as propaganda tools by the North. But organizers of the trip said that none of the visiting women had uttered any of the remarks that were reported in the North Korean media. The organizers stressed that their trip had been aimed at easing the mistrust and hostility that not only divided the two Koreas but also people in the South.

Several South Korean activists have in the past defied the ban on visiting North Korea without government permission and traveled to Pyongyang to promote reconciliation. When they returned home to face arrest, North Korea gave them a rousing send-off at Panmunjom. South Korean officials did not want Ms. Steinem and her party to cross Panmunjom partly because they did not want North Korea to use the trip for similar propaganda.

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