If your Momma says you're ugly...

Ed Glaeser, an academic at Harvard, is conflicted about Boston's City Hall. On the one hand, the building is hideously ugly and hated by the People. It also works poorly, and is hated by its Boston city government inhabitants. It is surrounded by a anti-human wasteland, rendering a huge swathe of prime downtown realestate uninhabitable, making it wasteful as well.

On the other hand academic architects like it. Glaeser himself says it "sears his soul", although I've found that it turns my stomach. Here's a picture of the poured concrete Vogon love poem, so you can make up your own mind. Please note that it's much worse in real life.

What does one do when the People disagree with the Academics? Glaeser lays out the plan

City Hall is a great building, and the building's advocates can convince the public of that fact. A democratic process will give architects the right incentives to make the public case for the building, and in making that case, they will help others to experience the masterwork's magic.

One must Educate the People! I thank the Boston Globe for this important public service announcement.