Paris to Start Heavily Taxing Vacant Homes  [Better Dwelling]  If cities really want to combat real estate speculators keeping their properties vacant, all they have to do is legalize squatting.

Above Ask:  the Latest in DC Bidding Wars  [Urban Turf DC]  A quarter-mil above ask in Mount Pleasant?!  I once got caught up in the heat of the moment and engaged in a bidding war for a vintage Danzig t-shirt on Ebay, for which I ended up paying over $200.  I wonder if this Mount Pleasant buyer has a similar moment to mine, when the fog of competition cleared my head, and I exclaimed, “for God’s sake, what have I done?”

Some DC Restaurants Now Let You Tip the Cooks with Booze  [Washingtonian]  Sending liquor to men wielding sharp knives around open flames – what could possibly go wrong?

Banksy Redecorates Mideast Hotel with “Worst View in the World”  [The New York Times]  Not gonna lie, if I was a world famous artist, this is exactly the kind of trollish thing I’d be doing.

The Curious Case of the Shaw Bijou  [The Ringer]  I guess DC conclusively can’t support a small, $500-a-head restaurant.  But is that even a bad thing?

A New Map Celebrates Paris’ Brutalist Architecture  [Arch Daily]  It’s never been more convenient to see all the most hideously alienating anti-aesthetic buildings.