Is California the promised land, a bellwether for progress where true freedom flourishes, or simply a liberal hellscape hampered by homelessness, natural disasters, and high taxes? That’s exactly what Joe Hagan sought to answer when Vanity Fair sent him up and down the Golden State for a thorough examination in the magazine’s July/August issue. There may be no clear conclusion to his billion-dollar question—it depends on who you ask—but what he uncovers is a state enmeshed in a doom spiral with no easy way out. Below, our takeaways.

Internecine Politics: Rick Caruso, the billionaire developer who spent $104 million on a failed mayoral campaign in Los Angeles last year, often led media tours through Skid Row to show off government failures. Adamant that homelessness is scaring off businesses, he promised to get 30,000 people off the streets, build 100,000 houses, and hire 1,500 new cops. He was defeated handily, losing by ten points to representative Karen Bass, the first woman and second Black Angeleno elected for the job. Caruso suspects identity politics secured Bass’s victory, though her aim to cut through a notoriously fractious government perhaps also helped.

Vigilante Justice: San Francisco’s troubled Tenderloin District is often perceived as embodying the state’s most urgent problems. Intermingling with the thousands of unhoused people there are members of Urban Alchemy, a controversial nonprofit made up of once-incarcerated people who guide law enforcement in lieu of the defanged police. It has a $39 million contract with the city to maintain order around large encampments while the cops, according to one member, simply “hang out and get their paycheck” now that petty crimes like smash-and-grabs have been decriminalized. Other California cities may follow suit: L.A. city council is considering relieving the LAPD of traffic duties and delegating them to non-deputized citizens.

Intertwining Priorities: Mary Nichols, the California Air Resources Board’s longtime chairwoman, says state residents seem more preoccupied with addressing homelessness than the barrage of natural disasters (drought, torrential rains, mudslides, earthquakes, and wildfires). “Disaster is a way of life in California,” she says. “We’re absolutely used to being knocked out, and that makes people unhappy and anxious.” She also points out that, given California’s staunch rural-urban divide, the state has become a microcosm of the country’s gridlocked climate policy—even though it has strict regulations on that front.

Metastasizing Issues: In her prescient 1993 novel Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler depicted an environmentally ravaged Los Angeles circa 2024, where, as Hagan writes, “the elite barricade themselves in walled fortresses surrounded by poverty-stricken encampments of drug addicts and illiterate poor.” When asked in 2000 if she believed it would happen, Butler simply said, “I didn’t make up the problems. All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.”

Surface Says: The locusts seem to be having their day.

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In the vibrant tapestry of Manhattan’s skyline, 130 William, conceived by Adjaye Associates, emerges as a defining thread. A high-rise tailored for luxury living, the 66-story building—cloaked in a hand-cast skin and punctuated by a grid of arches—embodies both the minimalist ethos of modern architecture and the city’s daring spirit. The building’s design, inside and out, springs from the mind of David Adjaye, whose work spans from the streets of New York to the sands of Abu Dhabi​​. 130 William is a harmonious blend of private and public spaces, with 242 residences, outdoor terraces, and a ground-level public plaza that serves as an urban living room that transitions seamlessly from the city’s energetic hum to the serene haven of private abodes.

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Laxmi Hussain’s latest endeavor, a collection of prints for Design Within Reach, strikes an elusive balance between accenting—yet not overwhelming—its surroundings. In this series, the illustrator’s abstract line art nods to the beauty of the feminine form, with an homage to motherhood in the print Motherhood: Heartbeat & Body Heat. Hussain’s work, and her signature cobalt blue, are everywhere from Tate to Soho House—is home next? From $506

Born in Antwerp to a Belgian mother and Congolese father, Kim Mupangilaï rediscovered her African roots through the art of interiors and furniture making. Her latest collection, on view at Superhouse Vitrine in New York, is a meticulous meditation on both her heritage and ancestral storytelling, making use of natural materials like wood, stone, raffia, and banana leaf fiber to craft memorable pieces that capture the nuances of her cross-cultural identity.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Our Human Relatives Butchered and Ate Each Other 1.45 Million Years Ago [Smithsonian]

Harvard Professor Who Studies Honesty Accused of Falsifying Data in Studies [The Guardian]

Death of Worker “Ingested” Into Plane Engine at San Antonio Airport Deemed Suicide [CBS]

Pink Pauses Song After Fan Throws Bag of Mom’s Ashes on Stage [Parade]

Bloodied Macbooks and Stacks of Cash: Inside the Increasingly Violent Discord Servers Where Kids Flaunt Their Crimes [Vice]

Humans Pump So Much Groundwater That Earth’s Axis Has Shifted, Study Finds [CNN]

A Helsinki Deputy Mayor Is Under Fire After Being Caught Red-Handed Spray-Painting Graffiti [AP]

Last week, the gallerists, designers, and organizers of the North American Pavilion celebrated the exhibition’s opening day on an unusually warm summer solstice night in London. A lively group gathered at No. 43, the pink Victorian townhouse recently restored by Atelier LK in the heart of Hackney’s London Fields. In line with the home’s past life, when the late flamenco dancer Ron Hitchins once hosted parties for like-minded artists, the event was a celebratory affair. Guests sipped on Vivanterre wine and enjoyed local British cheeses while toasting American design’s past, present, and future.

When was it? June 22

Where was it? No. 43, London

Who was there? Alex Tieghi-Walker, Minjae Kim, Emma Scully, Jacqueline Sullivan, Ben Borden, Kristen Wentrcek, Andrew Zebulon, Benjamin Critton, Heidi Korsavong, and more.

When: Until Aug. 20

Where: Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

What: Thaddeus Mosley transforms felled trees near his Pittsburgh home into inventive abstract forms to create large sculptures, five of which are on view here. Made from walnut and created from 2015 onward, the American sculptor’s works reward close looking. The range of his woodworking techniques—carving, chiseling, and joining—come into view as light shimmers along the surface. From a distance, they stand together and unlock shapeshifting experiences. Mosley describes his compositional experimentation as the pursuit of presence, “the alchemy of turning something neutral into something alive.”

David Weeks Studio is a Brooklyn-based design studio founded in 1996. A multi-disciplinary designer renowned for his sculptural lighting, founder David Weeks’s minimalist visual language articulates an ongoing and open-ended dialogue between material and form. His genre-defining work is the result of a distinctly hands-on, sculptural process of formal reduction that marries an artist’s sensibility with technical precision.

Surface Says: A talented and incisive designer, Weeks deftly balances true minimalism with levity and discovery in each fixture created by his studio.

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