In India, the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Noori & Another v. State of U.P. & 4 Others, (HC Allahabad, Feb. 23, 2026), issued an order protecting the right of unmarried interfaith couples to live together. The court said in part:
3. A large number of petitions are being filed in this Court wherein the petitioners have decided to stay together in an interfaith live-in relationship and they claim that they have an apprehension of life threat from the private respondents. The Police of concerned Districts have been approached by them, but no heed was paid....
31. This Court does not see the petitioners herein as Hindu and Muslim, rather as two grown up individuals who out of their own free will and choice are living together peacefully and happily for a considerable time. The Courts and the Constitutional Courts in particular are enjoined to uphold the life and liberty of an individual guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Right to live with a person of his/her choice, irrespective of religion professed by them, is intrinsic to right to life and personal liberty. Interference in a personal relationship, would constitute a serious encroachment into the right to freedom of choice of the two individuals. This Court fails to understand that if the law permits two persons even of the same sex to live together peacefully then neither any individual nor a family nor even State can have objection to hetrosexual relationship of two major individuals who out of their own free will are living together. Decision of an individual who is of the age of majority, to live with an individual of his/her choice is strictly a right of an individual and when this right is infringed it would constitute breach of his/her fundamental right to life and personal liberty as it includes right to freedom of choice, to choose a partner and right to live with dignity as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
51.... (i) The petitioners herein are at liberty to approach the police authorities for reddressal of their grievances, in case any harm is caused by private respondents or their associates. Upon receipt of such application, the police authorities shall examine the matter and age of the petitioners and if they find any substance in the allegations of the petitioners, they will act in accordance with law for protection of life, limb and liberty of the petitioners.
(ii) The petitioners may lodge a report/complaint if anybody attempts to convert their religion against their wishes, or by any fraudulent means, force, coercion, allurement, undue influence or practice of misrepresentation....
Minnesota-based Wolf River Electric makes their money installing solar panels, but they're also happy to hand out a free tip for reducing your energy bill. Noting that windows are a key source of heat loss in a home, company founder Justin Nielsen points out: "One of the simplest and most overlooked ways to keep heat in your home this winter costs almost nothing, bubble wrap on your windows."
"It sounds unconventional, but the science is solid. Bubble wrap works as an extra layer of insulation by trapping air between the bubbles, slowing down heat transfer through the glass. Windows are one of the biggest culprits for heat loss in a home, and this is a near-zero-cost fix anyone can do in minutes.
"All you need to do is cut a sheet of bubble wrap to fit your window, lightly mist the glass with water, and press it against the pane, the surface tension holds it in place with no tape or adhesive needed. It lets light in while keeping the cold out.
"It's not something I'd recommend for your main living areas, but for rooms that don't see much use during winter, a guest bedroom, a basement, a utility room, it's a genuinely effective hack. You'd be surprised how much of a difference it makes to the feel of a room and potentially your energy bill."
"Two important tips I'd give though are firstly not to overly mist your windows. Too much moisture behind the bubble wrap can cause condensation. And secondly, make sure that you lay the bubble wrap bubble side to the window.
"It seems counter intuitive, as you'd presume that the other side has more area to stick... but by doing it this way, you get an extra layer of insulation."
Dupont Circle. Georgetown. Capitol Hill. Mount Pleasant. Historic Anacostia. These historic neighborhoods — dense, walkable, and layered with small businesses and street life — are held as proof that DC works. They anchor the local economy and define the city’s image.
And yet, if DC tried to build a modern version of these neighborhoods today, its permitting system would likely prevent it, or stretch the process across multiple generations. One need only look at the history of Dupont Circle to see how painfully difficult it would be to repeat its success under today’s rules. Those rules don’t protect neighborhoods. Instead, they protect incumbents by turning delay into a filter only the well-resourced can survive.
Dupont Circle evolved — it wasn’t permitted into existence
Dupont Circle did not arrive fully formed in its current state. Its character emerged over decades because of small, continual changes. In fact, most of modern day Dupont Circle came from it’s gradual initial growth.
According to the DC Office of Planning, a majority of Dupont’s still-existing buildings were built between 1875 and 1931. This leaves a glaring question: How is it that buildings constructed in the nearly 100 years since 1931 are in the minority?
Much of the growth in those 56 years between 1875 and 1931 predated the systems that now regulate incremental change. DC’s comprehensive zoning regulations took effect in 1958. Advisory Neighborhood Commissions were created in the 1970s, with their “great weight” authority later codified in DC Code § 1–309.10. The Dupont Circle Historic District was designated in the mid-1970s, and the Historic Landmark and Historic District Protection Act followed in 1978, adding another layer of discretionary review for developing many of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods.
Each reform was reasonable on its own. But together, they fundamentally changed how, and how quickly, neighborhoods can evolve.
What Dupont would face today
Imagine trying to create a modern Dupont Circle now, not through one megaproject, but the way it actually formed: through hundreds of ordinary, low-impact changes implemented over time. A mixed-use building opens with ground-floor retail. That retail space later becomes a café. A bookstore adds wine service. A restaurant expands its seating to the sidewalk. A bar replaces a shop as demand shifts. None of these changes are dramatic on their own, but as a whole, they made Dupont Circle what it is today.
Under today’s rules, however, each of those steps would trigger a new permitting sequence across multiple agencies.
Changes of use or occupancy may require zoning interpretation or relief through the Office of Zoning or the Board of Zoning Adjustment under Title 6 of the D.C. Code.
Interior work requires plan review and permits through the Department of Buildings under D.C. Code § 6-1451.01.
Alcohol service requires a license from the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration pursuant to D.C. Code § 25-104, with protest and hearing procedures governed by Title 25, Chapter 6, including the standard 45-day “protest period” during which objections can be filed.
Outdoor seating or sidewalk activation requires a public space permit administered by the District Department of Transportation under public space occupancy authority in D.C. Code § 10-1141.03.
Advisory Neighborhood Commissions weigh in at multiple points with “great weight,” but without any statutory deadline to act. Approvals move in sequence, not in parallel. A pause at any stage halts everything that follows.
H Street NE knows these dynamics well
Just look at H Street NE, where everyday business changes, like adding alcohol service to a restaurant or expanding seating, have been subject to repeated ANC protests and multi-stage approval processes that can last months. These processes have stopped the kinds of incremental evolution that once happened more organically. For instance, KitchenCray, a locally-owned restaurant, faced so much scrutiny and investigation over a proposed “substantial change” — turning its empty basement into a lounge — that its owners said they were forced to close.
For established corporate operators, delay is merely an inconvenience. For even established local DC business owners like those of KitchenCray, to say nothing of someone trying to open their first business, the delay can be the end of the line. This is how time and politics become a gatekeeper.
Outdoor dining and the cost of gatekeeping
When it comes to permits for outdoor dining, the tradeoffs make the problem easy to see.
A single curbside parking space, roughly 20 feet long, can support two dining tables seating about eight people total. If each diner spends a modest $30 and tables turn twice per evening, that space generates roughly $480 per night, or about $144,000 per year in gross restaurant revenue. That activity is taxable. At DC’s 10% meals tax rate, one outdoor dining space supports roughly $14,400 per year in meals tax revenue alone, before counting alcohol taxes, income taxes paid by workers, or business taxes paid by the restaurant.
A parking meter on the same curb typically charges about $2.30 per hour. Even assuming 10 paid hours per day, that space would generate roughly $8,400 per year, much of which is offset by enforcement and administrative costs.
When DC removes outdoor dining to restore a single parking space, the tradeoff is not neutral. The city is choosing to give up tens of thousands of dollars in economic activity and at least $14,000 in annual tax revenue in exchange for just half that amount, while also eliminating jobs, wages, and street life.
The same logic applies indoors, where delayed openings, abandoned leases, and frozen ground-floor spaces quietly shrink the tax base one permit at a time.
A failure of governance — not demand
The cost of today’s rules aren’t just to DC, which trades jobs, tax revenue, and vitality for a tighter budget. Everyone else also pays the price. The go-getter who never gets to open their shop. The worker who never gets hired. The resident who gets an isolated, emptier street instead of a place to gather.
This is not inevitable. It is a policy choice. Dupont Circle remains popular because it was allowed to evolve, and because people were trusted to adapt buildings and streets to how life actually worked.
What makes it so frustrating is how simple the fix actually is. Nothing radical is required. Ordinary, low-impact changes in mixed-use neighborhoods could just be allowed by default. Agencies could be required to act within real timelines before a permit is automatically granted so that delay can’t quietly kill good ideas. Community input could be taken into serious consideration without every small change leading to a drawn-out standoff. Sequential permitting could be removed in favor of a simultaneous, or cross-department, centralized permitting process.
Instead, DC asks people to celebrate neighborhoods it would no longer allow to become what they are.
The next Dupont Circle isn’t failing to appear because the demand isn’t there. It’s because the rules won’t let it. And until those rules change, DC will keep congratulating itself on its past, while quietly foreclosing its future another quarter century.
Top image: A sidewalk market in Dupont Circle. Image by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.
DC (and probably most cities) could eliminate 90% of their permitting process if they did 3 things universally instead of sporadically: 1) enforced noise laws; 2) engaged in pest/waste abatement; and 3) made public transit good enough that people would feel dumb complaining about parking.
Seriously. Once you eliminate the busybodies and the bullies, every ANC complaint is noise, filth, and parking.
ive said it before and i’ll say it again not enough historical romance focuses on technicalities
really for this kind of thing it’s no use going to published trad romance and i should know that. the really good shit is 400k on fanfiction dot net for a heterosexual pairing you’ve never considered from a piece of media you havent thought about in years written by a bored doctoral candidate who’s read a lot of primary sources from the long 18th century
recently rediscovered my absolute favorite entry in the genre: customs and duties by tortoiseshells, which is an insane technicalityromance set in 1738 boston, ft the stuffy british navy guy from pirates of the caribbean/ofc, smuggling, puritanism in the john calvin sense, the legal realities of widowhood, several real historical governors of massachusetts, debts, accounts, and of course customs regulations
I would also like to nominate and psyche’s lamp shall darkling be, a story based on the 2025 Frankenstein movie that gets into the intricacies of 1850s convent school life, the process of Catholic ecclesiastical courts verifying miracles, multiple points of mid 19th century marriage and inheritance laws pertaining to property, and also spells the word connection with an X so you know the author has been in the 19th century literature trenches 
Hovertext: I need to do an upbeat comic week one of these days. They all end with hooray.
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Kansas has sent a letter to each of their trans residents saying they are suspending their drivers licenses, effective today (February 26th), with no grace period for updating credentials. It directs trans people to go to a DMV to surrender their old license and be issued a new one that shows their sex as the one assigned at birth. (Though they can’t drive themselves to the DMV because, y’know, their drivers licenses are suspended.)
They are doing this the extra cruel way on purpose. If they knew which people to send this letter to, then they could have just as easily just automatically mailed them replacement licenses. But forcing them to make arrangements to travel to a DMV, present themselves in person (to be potentially humiliated/deadnamed by the DMV employees to their faces), and to be unable to drive themselves to their work/school in the interim, are all just ways of making this process even harder. And because there’s a National Driver Register database that lists individual drivers’ status and history information, it’s not necessarily even as simple as just moving to a different state and get a new license issued there, because it will presumably show their previous license as being suspended.
Someone has been comparing this to the day in 1938 when the German government invalidated all German passports held by Jewish people, forcing them to surrender their old passports and instead have passports stamped with a “J” for Jewish on them.
For trans people, carrying an ID that misgenders them opens them to intrusive questions, harassment, and even violence.
There’s a nonprofit in Colorado, the Trans Continental Pipeline, that helps queer people relocate from unaccepting/unsafe states to Colorado. Colorado shares a border with Kansas, and is the closest blue state. Apparently they are getting overwhelmed with requests. If you have spare money to donate, now seems like a good time. If you’re in Colorado and have time to volunteer, their volunteer form is here.
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