NYC’s Floating Pool Might Finally Open—and Everything Else You Need to Know About This Week

• Born from a 2010 Kickstarter and countless rounds of testing, New York’s +Pool is closer than ever to turning a small part of the East River into a public swimming pool, with opening targeted for 2027. Here’s where things now stand with the long-anticipated project. (Domus)

• The A.I. boom is driving San Francisco rents up faster than any other U.S. city, with start-ups snapping up luxury units to keep talent within walking distance of the office. Average rents have now topped $3,300, leaving regular renters scrambling to find an apartment at all. (The New York Times)

• Brightline’s sleek Miami-to-Orlando train has been hailed as the glamorous future of U.S. high-speed travel, but a new investigation reveals it’s also the deadliest major passenger railroad in the country, with 182 fatalities since 2018. Here’s why many are calling it the "Death Train." (The Atlantic)

• Massachusetts’s four-percent surtax on income over $1 million—held up by NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani as a model for taxing the rich—has delivered a $5.7 billion windfall to fund transportation repairs and literacy programs, and all without triggering an exodus of the wealthy class. (Bloomberg)

• Demolition crews have begun tearing down part of the East Wing of the White House to make room for Trump’s $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom, despite his earlier pledge that the addition wouldn’t interfere with the historic structure. The project has drawn major backlash from Democrats who say the president is prioritizing a Gilded Age–style showpiece over, say, reopening the government. (The Washington Post)

Top photo courtesy Friends of + POOL.