Author: openjargon

• Culdesac is a car-free neighborhood in Tempe, Arizona.
• The housing startup has 200 residents who use bikes, scooters, and ride-share services to get around.
• Take a look inside the walkable oasis filled with courtyards, local shops, and plenty of shade.

Walkable neighborhoods are on the rise. In a country run by cars, many millennials and Gen Zers are willing to spend more to live in a community where it's easy to get around without a vehicle, according to a 2023 study by the National Association of Realtors.

Enter Culdesac — the budding Arizona block making a name for itself as the "first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the US."

Located in Tempe, home of Arizona State University, Culdesac is a community where cars are banned. It's been a project in the making since 2018. Last year, the neighborhood opened to residents. Now, 200 people live on the 17-acre block, a company representative told Business Insider. Eventually, Culdesac plans to house 1,000 residents.

As a New Yorker without a car, Culdesac intrigued me. So, on a recent trip to Arizona, I visited the car-free neighborhood and thought it felt like an urban oasis in the Phoenix suburb.

Culdesac is in the greater Phoenix area.

The neighborhood is located on the east side of Tempe, just about 10 miles from Phoenix.

I recently got a private tour — and the chance to chat with the CEO.

During my visit, I met with CEO and cofounder Ryan Johnson. After years of working in the real estate and transportation industries — and traveling to walkable places around the world — he was inspired to create a neighborhood free of cars.

From New York City to Budapest, Johnson says his travels launched a passion for cities.

"I saw those places and said, 'Wow, this is a much better way to build a city — with thoughtful architecture, great transportation systems,'" he told BI.

Johnson added that developments in the transportation industry, from ride-share apps to public transit systems and electric bikes, have made living car-free possible in places like Arizona.

Johnson, who grew up in Phoenix and currently lives at Culdesac, hasn't had a car in 14 years.

All around the property, I spotted electric bikes and scooters.

Visitors and delivery drivers can park their cars at Culdesac, but residents cannot.

The company representative told BI that for residents with cars, "it's regulated through their lease agreement that they won't park on-site or on any public streets within 0.25 miles."

Some residents park their cars elsewhere in Tempe, while others, like Johnson, don't have a vehicle at all. Residents get around on foot, bicycles, electric bikes, and electric scooters. The neighborhood has more than 1,000 bike parking spots.

One Culdesac resident previously told BI that living without a car can be challenging outside the neighborhood, as the surrounding city was built for vehicles.

However, according to the company's website, Culdesac provides residents with a mobility package worth almost $3,000 a year to make transportation easier. It includes a complimentary Valley Metro pass for the light rail that goes through Phoenix and Tempe and discounts on ride-share apps like Lyft and Waymo, a self-driving cab service.

My tour began in the plaza.

The plaza, located across from the neighborhood light rail stop, is the communal center of Culdesac. It's marked by a sculpture by artist Matthew Salenger that doubles as a canopy.

Here, there are games, shaded tables, and weekly events.

Every Thursday evening, Culdesac hosts Little Cholla, a public outdoor night market with music, vendors, food trucks, art, and activities such as line dancing and yoga.

There's also a two-story gym.

A two-story building in the plaza with giant windows is home to the neighborhood fitness center. It offers workout classes and is lined with equipment.

Across from the plaza, there are local shops run by residents.

From thrifted clothing to unique dishware and candles, there's plenty of local shopping at Culdesac.

According to the company's website, there are about 11 micro-retail shops, including a market, a laundromat, a medical spa, an art studio, and a plant shop.

These micro-retailers have the option to live in their workspace.

The company representative told BI that the small-business owners at Culdesac are residents, and some even live in their stores thanks to a zoning permit that allows them to do so.

All the stores have kitchens and bathrooms, and some have bedrooms.

Steps from the plaza, the neighborhood has a restaurant with outdoor seating.

In April 2023, Culdesac's Cocina Chiwas opened. It's a family-owned Mexican restaurant serving Chihuahuan cuisine.

As I strolled the communal paths, I noticed that Culdesac didn't feel as hot as the surrounding streets. That's because there's no asphalt on the property.

It's no secret that the Phoenix area is hot — sometimes dangerously so in the summers. So Culdesac was built to keep pedestrians cool without asphalt — a road material that gets hotter in the sun.

In the residential areas, the walkways are narrow.

Culdesac intentionally placed the buildings close together to create as much shade as possible.

The buildings' color is also no accident. Culdesac chose white because it reflects sunlight rather than absorbs it.

Between residential buildings, there are courtyards with grills, tables, hammocks, and firepits.

More than half of the entire property is open, landscaped space.

Culdesac has apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom floor plans.

Culdesac currently has 172 units. More will open in the fall, and the neighborhood will eventually have 760 units.

Studios start at $1,300 a month, one-bedrooms are $1,400, two-bedrooms are $2,100, and three-bedrooms are $2,900 a month.

On the outer rim of Culdesac, there's a bike shop with tune-up services.

Archer's Bike Shop sells manual and electric bikes. And Culdesac residents get complementary services and product discounts.

Culdesac seems like a place where people can not only live car-free but also get to know their neighbors.

After my visit to Culdesac, I chatted with Brad Biehl, a 24-year-old resident from Colombus, Ohio. Biehl has lived in the neighborhood for six months. He said one of the best parts of living there is the sense of community.

"We're usually in environments where we walk from our door to our car and from the car into the place," Biehl said. "But here, to go anywhere, I usually pass at least two or three of my neighbors, even when I'm just walking to the light rail right around the corner."

Biehl added that he's optimistic about the future of Culdesac when more residents and retailers come in.

"While there are still not a ton of people here yet, there's way more going on than I would've expected there to be," he told BI. "The number of serendipitous interactions that have taken place with the limited number of residents makes me super excited for what people will experience here."

• Disneyland performers voted over the weekend to unionize with the Actors' Equity Association.
• Mai Vo, a performer at the theme park, was part of the union push.
• She told BI that in the past her eye was stained by a costume, and her colleagues struggle with low pay.

Mai Vo began her career as a lookalike performer at Disneyland in 2004. She returned to the role in 2021.

In September 2022, she became involved in Magic United, culminating in an overwhelming vote by the Anaheim-based performers last week in favor of unionizing.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I realized that people felt unhappy at the happiest place on earth, which didn't make sense to me.

Initially, I was just seeing things that affected my colleagues: costume pieces that hurt them and being told that they needed to go out and perform anyway.

I'm doing partner work with another performer, a female who may weigh less than 100 pounds. Her costume includes a four-pound weight strapped to her back near her tailbone.

I don't understand why it has to be so heavy or why it's attached with just a waist strap instead of a harness. This is something we need to monitor, as it could cause injury over time.

My costume stained my eyeball

I have my own injury from a costume, which involved wearing sclera black contact lenses.

If I lift my eyelid, you can still see a gray stain around my eyeball.

When I show this to others, it really shocks some people, and it certainly doesn't make me feel very pretty.

I feel fortunate that it was just cosmetic and didn't leave me with vision damage, but I could still be injured by something else.

I feel like I've been relatively unscathed, but people around me haven't been, and that hurts.

Disneyland performers often push through pain and work really, really hard.

'Financial independence would be nice'

I've seen colleagues work extra hard, doing overtime and working six-day weeks just to survive in Southern California.

If I had to live on my own, I don't know if I'd survive on that salary.

I live at home, about 15 minutes from Disneyland, which is very fortunate. But living with my family as an adult isn't always easy.

Financial independence would be nice.

For many Disneyland performers, this is their dream job. They often say, "This is my dream job. I'm here, but I'm struggling."

That's really sad.

'We get to create magic for guests'

However, there are great aspects of this job — we get to create magic for guests, which is unique.

As a lookalike performer, I aim to create change in the world one person at a time, whether a child or an adult.

I typically have 45 to 75 seconds with guests, and in these fleeting moments, I try to teach them something historical or something about culture or values.

That could make a difference in the world, so I might as well try.

The push for unionization was driven by several factors, including a shift in opinion on unions across the US.

I also think people in the Characters and Parades department began to see their peers speaking up, saying things they'd been too scared to say before because Disney can be scary.

I'm hoping that people maybe just got inspired to be brave, finally.

Since we voted to unionize, I've felt less unhappy because I've put my energy into doing something about it. I'm using every talent I can think of to steer this group toward a better working environment.

It makes me happy to support my colleagues and listen to them.

I'm also just happy to perform.

• European nations say they're planning a $4.3 billion joint air and missile defense system.
• Creating an Iron Dome similar to Israel's 'is necessary," Poland's PM Donald Tusk said.
• The European Sky Shield Initiative involves 21 countries and aims to enhance NATO's defenses.

European countries are preparing to reveal plans for a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style air and missile defense system, Poland's prime minister announced on Monday.

Donald Tusk told Polish broadcaster AVN that the proposal, which involves the cooperation of 21 nations, will be presented to the European Council in a matter of days, the Kyiv Post reported.

The European Sky Shield Initiative, or ESSI, is conceived as a means to jointly procure ground-based interoperable air defense systems.

"The recent attack on Israel showed how essential such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its missile defense shield," Tusk said, per The Telegraph.

"Creating an iron dome against missiles and drones is necessary," he added.

In a not-too-subtle reference to Russia, Tusk also said that it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where a potential attack on Europe might come from, the Telegraph reported.

Israel's Iron Dome has long been seen as one of the world's most advanced air defense systems, protecting the country's skies from rockets and other projectiles.

In April, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones against Israel, which Israel's air defenses almost completely shot down, with the assistance of US and UK forces.

While a direct hot-war attack by Russia on NATO Europe is not considered an immediate likelihood, many countries — particularly those that border Russia — are deeply alarmed. Many are also beefing up their defense spending in ways unimaginable before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

ESSI was first mooted by Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz in 2022, not long after Russia had begun pounding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure with rockets. It's been led by Germany ever since.

In July 2023, Austria and Switzerland — both traditionally neutral states — signed up to the initiative, and as of February this year the number of countries has grown to 21, with the participation of Turkey and Greece.

German think tank SWP outlined in a report last year some of the systems the German government is seeking to buy or replenish as part of ESSI. These included US-made Patriots, the IRIS-T SLM — a short-to-medium-range system capable of targeting drones, aircraft, and cruise missiles — and the long-range Arrow system currently in use in Israel.

SWP also noted that although it considers an attack on NATO countries from Russia to be unlikely in the immediate term, "improving air and missile defense in Europe could curb Russia's coercive power vis-à-vis NATO and thereby strengthen the cohesion of the alliance."

Despite Tusk's own championing of ESSI, it has faced challenges from Poland's own president Andrzej Duda, who has opposed joining it on the grounds that the country already has its own joint air defense agreements with the US and the UK.

• The US economy is headed for a recession and a wave of corporate failures, Jeffrey Gundlach said.
•  Several sectors are slowing and higher interest rates are squeezing people and businesses, he said.
• Higher prices and interest costs are spurring consumers to rack up credit card debt, Gundlach said.

Prepare for a recession to strike and companies to collapse as stubborn inflation and sticky interest rates take their toll, Jeffrey Gundlach warned.

The economy will suffer a prolonged downturn this year or next, the billionaire investor told Fox Business on Tuesday. Gundlach pointed to "quite concerning" data released in the past month showing the majority of economic sectors are declining and others are growing more slowly.

The DoubleLine Capital founder and CEO also underlined the pain caused by inflation — which soared to over 9% in 2022 and remains well above the Fed's 2% target — and interest rates, which have surged from virtually zero to over 5%.

Consumers have faced a double whammy of higher prices for basics such as food, gas, and housing, while also owing more interest each month on their car loans, credit cards, mortgages, and other debts.

"All of these things are up tremendously, the things you have to buy," Gundlach said, citing car insurance and homeowners' insurance as examples. "Those credit card bills are really starting to add up."

Persistently higher rates will drive some companies to ruin and tank the wider economy, he predicted.

"I think that higher for longer is going to lead to a recession," Gundlach said. "You're not going to take out Tesla necessarily — they might have other problems, but it's not going to be because of interest rates.

"What you take out is the people, small businesses, medium businesses," as they'll run out of cash borrowing at 10% instead of 4%, he said.

Gundlach did note that softening economic data has raised the probability of two Fed rate cuts this year, but he doesn't expect that to stave off disaster.

It's worth emphasizing that the veteran fund manager has been ringing the recession alarm for more than two years.

He predicted last fall that a downturn would occur in the first half of this year, which seems unlikely at this point. Yet Gundlach is one of several experts who see cracks forming in the economy.

• Cambridge University professor Thomas Roulet has hit back at the idea that Gen Z is lazy.
• He said younger people just have a different idea about what work means to them.
• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said people shouldn't "feel so bad" for Gen Z and millennials this week.

Gen Z is often called lazy — but a Cambridge University professor thinks younger people just have a different idea about what work means.

Thomas Roulet, who teaches organizational sociology and leadership at the Judge Business School, defended the generation's work ethic in a video posted on the university's YouTube channel.

"All generations have been saying that younger generations are lazier at work — allegedly, even Socrates said that," he said, referring to the Greek philosopher's belief that the children of his day were vain and lazy. "If we look at motivational drivers, research shows that across generations, motivational drivers are the same."

Roulet added: "The expectations toward work have changed. Younger generations want growth, purpose, and, at the same time, a work-life balance — and organizations have to rise to meet those demands."

"The third element is the economic context. While a job 30 or 20 years ago would have provided further security, this is not necessarily the case, and it doesn't, for example, help younger generations get on the property ladder."

Roulet's comments are in conflict to some degree with the views advanced by several top executives including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

The billionaire said at the bank's investor day this week that he had little sympathy for younger generations because they had better life expectancy and were likely to work fewer hours.

"I don't feel so bad for Gen Z and millennials," Dimon said, adding that his grandparents were Greek immigrants who arrived in the US with nothing but "a shirt on their back."

"Let's put things in perspective a little bit," the Wall Street titan added. "They're going to be working probably 3.5 days a week. They're going to live to 100. They're not going to have cancer. They're going to be in pretty good shape, provided the world doesn't destroy it all with nuclear weapons, which is the biggest risk in the world."

• Neom canceled a desalination project worth $1.5 billion, according to a report.
• It comes as Saudi Arabia reportedly plans on scaling back part of the project. 
• Enowa, a Neom subsidiary, told Meed it's water requirements had evolved. 

A project to build a $1.5 billion water desalination plant in the Saudi Arabian desert city of Neom appears to have been scrapped.

A consortium made up of Neom subsidiary Enowa, Japan's Itochu, and France's Veolia had agreed to develop the plant in December 2022. 

The plan was to create a desalination plant that ran on 100% renewable energy and delivered two million cubic meters of water a day to Neom, or about 30% of the city's projected needs.

The plant was to be based in Oxagon, Neom's industrial zone and the first phase was scheduled for completion next year.

However, sources familiar with the project told Middle East business-trade publication MEED that the joint development agreement for the project had expired and not been renewed.

Detailed reasons for the cancellation are unclear. BI contacted Enowa, Itochu and Veolia for comment.

In a statement sent to MEED, Enowa said Neom's water requirements have evolved over the last year, "leading us to adopt a stepwise approach to expanding capacity."

Under the plans, the desalination plant would have diverted brine, the main waste product in desalination, toward industrial projects instead of discharging it into the sea.

Brine is one of the main pollutants caused by desalination plants.

Earlier in May, Malcolm Aw, a UK energy entrepreneur, said he canceled a $100 million contract to develop renewable energy desalination plants in Neom over human rights concerns.

It's a blow for the desert city. Neom is being built in deserts in the northwest of Saudi Arabia, one of the dryest and hottest parts of the world, meaning that desalination is key to the success of the project.

Planners have said Neom will be an eco-city, running without cars or roads and powered with 100% sustainable energy. It's part of Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 plan to reorient the country's economy away from the fossil fuels that are the source of its wealth and toward innovation, technology, and tourism.

But In April Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia had been forced to scale back plans for the project, which could cost as much as $1.5 trillion. According to the report, The Line, a planned mirrored "vertical skyscraper," may be reduced in size from more than 100 miles to just over one mile.

In an apparent effort to refute the report, the Saudi economy minister, Faisal Al Ibrahim, told CNBC last month that all Neom projects were continuing at the planned scale.

"There is no change in scale. It is a long-term project that's modular in design," he said.

• Netflix's "Buying London" is a reality show about London's luxury real estate market and the agents behind it.
• The show is centered on the super-prime property agency DDRE Global.
• It follows the success of Netflix's other reality real-estate show, "Selling Sunset."

A new reality show, "Buying London," dropped on Netflix on Wednesday, and it's all about London's luxury real estate market.

The show is centered on Daniel Daggers and his team of real estate agents at the property company DDRE Global. Daggers says he's sold over £5 billion ($6.4 billion) of real estate over the course of his 25 years in the industry. This includes a £95 million ($120 million) mansion to hedge fund tycoon Ken Griffin in a previous role, per The Times of London.

He calls himself "Mr. Super Prime," referring to the multimillion-dollar properties sold to ultra-high-net-worth individuals. And London has no shortage of expensive properties or wealthy buyers.

The new Netflix series takes viewers around London's super-prime housing market, showcasing properties in some of the city's most expensive areas, including Mayfair and Holland Park.

Most of DDRE's current London listings cost over £10 million ($13 million), with some stretching over £20 million ($25 million), according to its website.

But it is a reality show — so much of the drama comes from the interpersonal relationships and rivalries between the other agents, who are competing for big commissions. Some agents are familiar with the industry, including DDRE's top agent, Lauren Christy, while others are new to the industry, such as 21-year-old Reme Nicole.

The reviews so far have been harsh. "I hate almost everything about 'Buying London,'" Rebecca Nicholson wrote in The Guardian, "I hate its reverence for billionaires and bad taste." 'It's tired, tone-deaf, and shamefully crass."

"I'm delighted to say it's every bit as ghastly as you would hope," wrote Carol Midgley in The Times. 'I'm delighted to say it's every bit as ghastly as you would hope."

The London version of 'Selling Sunset'

Netflix has had success with reality real-estate crossover shows in the past. "Selling Sunset" proved to be a big hit with viewers after it debuted in 2019, and has since run for seven seasons.

It gave viewers a look at Los Angeles' high-end real estate market — and the agents handling the multimillion-dollar deals. 

And it's also been a success for the real estate agents involved. Mary Fitzgerald, a real-estate agent on "Selling Sunset," previously told BI that she has got more clients since appearing on the show and now sells at higher prices than before. It has meant she now won't sell any house under $2 million, unless as a favor for a friend.

• A Ukrainian commander said his unit was forced to watch as Russia amassed troops across the border.
• He said they weren't allowed to attack them with US-supplied weaponry, per the Times of London.
• If the US had lifted its ban, they could've taken out the troops and stopped an attack, he said.

A Ukrainian commander operating near the Russian border described how his unit watched as Russia amassed a huge force but had to wait for the troops to cross the border to hit them.

"There were a lot of Russians gathering, and we could have destroyed them on the way in, but we don't have many ATACMS, and we have a ban on using them over there," he told The Times of London.

Drago, a special forces commander with Ukraine's Kraken detachment, was redeployed, along with his unit and other special forces troops, in April from the eastern Donbas region to Kharkiv to strengthen Ukraine's forces there, per the Times.

But instead of hitting the Russians, he and his unit were forced to watch as the troops gathered on their side of the border, according to the outlet.

"We had to wait for them to cross," he said, referring to a US policy that bans Ukrainian forces from using US-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

Since the start of the war, the US and other Western countries have supplied Ukraine with billions of dollars of weaponry, but have long drawn the line on it using them against Russia itself, fearful of escalating the conflict.

The Pentagon and US Army officials have repeatedly stated US opposition to Ukraine using the weapons it has supplied to strike targets on Russian soil.

But the rule cost Drago's unit "dearly," he told the Times, with Russian troops then encircling them and attacking them from the rear.

On May 10, Russian forces ambushed a nearby position occupied by another unit and ambushed Drago's group from behind, the outlet reported.

Drago's six-person crew found itself divided into two groups and quickly encircled, pinned down in a system of trenches with two dugouts, each holding three soldiers.

Drago ultimately called in artillery fire that left at least three Russian soldiers dead, and the Russians retreated, he told the outlet.

According to Drago, "none of this would have happened if we could use ATACMS."

Ukrainian officials have echoed Drago's remarks about fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.

Oleksandr Lytvynenko, Ukraine's Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told the Financial Times this week that the US should lift its "absolutely unfair" ban on Ukraine using its weapons to strike targets in Russia, so that it can stop its new offensive in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, told The New York Times that Ukraine's inability to fire US-supplied missiles or weaponry at military targets inside Russia gave the Kremlin a "huge advantage" in cross-border warfare.

Ukraine is negotiating with Western partners to lift such bans, but talks have yielded "nothing positive" so far, Zelenskyy told Reuters on Monday.

• Rebecca Cafiero felt that staying connected to her business meant being on her phone constantly. 
• After deleting Gmail, Slack, and Voxer from her phone, she noticed positive changes in her life. 
• Deleting the apps has helped her spend more time with her kids and improved her focus.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Rebecca Cafiero, 44, from Palo Alto, California, about deleting work-related communication apps from her phone. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Living in Silicon Valley, I see people who are crazily connected to their phones, especially people in startup mode who feel they need to be all-in with their businesses.

I'm a serial entrepreneur. My current focus is a business growth accelerator called "The Pitch Club," which I launched in September 2020. I coach female entrepreneurs on getting more visibility. At the moment, I have three part-time staff.

My team uses Slack to communicate. I use Voxer and text to message clients. Back in 2020, I noticed I would pick up my phone dozens of times during the day to check Slack or emails, feeling like I needed to stay connected to my business. Sometimes, I resented my business because I couldn't get away from it.

What really got me to change things was a moment from two years ago. I was on my phone, and my son, who was six then, wanted me to play a game with him. I kept telling him to wait a minute, and eventually he started crying. I felt terrible. My child needed connection, but I was showing him that my device was more important. I knew it was time to do better.

I started by setting screen limits and eventually deleted work-related communication apps from my phone. It's made me feel better about my parenting and more focused on my work.

I decided to delete work-related communication apps from my phone after experimenting with it at a retreat

I initially set screen time limits on my iPhone so that I couldn't use my communication apps during certain hours of the day. The issue was I could still pick up my phone and press "ignore limit," so it didn't bring significant change.

In October 2023, I attended a fully immersive retreat for entrepreneurs. I usually don't schedule calls during retreats and consider myself out of the office. However, I was in the middle of a situation where I needed to fire one of my clients.

I decided to email her about parting ways, but I knew that if I had Gmail on my phone, I'd be constantly refreshing it under the table, waiting for a response. I wanted to be present at the retreat, so I deleted the app and didn't check my emails until I was back in my hotel room that night.

I noticed I was really present throughout the day because I couldn't check my email. I kept the app off my phone for the rest of the retreat and felt more connected than usual.

When I got home, I deleted Slack and Voxer from my phone. I told my clients I'd be checking emails less frequently and to text me if anything was urgent.

I spend more quality time with my kids

Within the first few days, I felt I had more mental peace and thinking space. I hadn't realized how much space these apps were taking up, but now I had time to listen to podcasts and audiobooks in the time I would have spent scrolling; I got through two or three books in the first 10 days. This productivity has plateaued a bit since then, but I'm still listening to more audiobooks and podcasts than I was before.

I started to feel more present as a mom. Instead of checking my phone while making breakfast, I get stuff done faster, which has created a more enjoyable morning routine for us.

I'm getting my kids out the door earlier and can walk my daughter to school instead of driving her because we aren't rushing as much. The quality time has really strengthened our relationship.

My son and I play a board game almost every morning, and my husband and daughter join sometimes. I didn't think I had time for that previously because my time was getting sucked up with checking my phone.

I reply to work messages on my desktop and feel much more focused

I haven't really experienced any downsides to my decision. My team and clients all think it's been a great move for me, and several have been inspired to follow suit.

I used to wake up and check my emails immediately, but I no longer let communication apps control my day.

I've adjusted by setting dedicated time slots in my calendar for when I'm going to reply to people using my desktop. Usually, it's 30 minutes during the day and 30 minutes at the end of the day for responding to emails and planning the next day's priorities. I don't often check my apps outside those times. Instead of checking my emails multiple times an hour like I used to, I probably check it four or five times a day.

I used to think I was great at multitasking, but I've realized all I was doing was switching my focus between tasks, so I was always in a state of shallow focus. Now that I can have a set block solely for replying to emails, I feel more intentional about what I'm doing.

I used to reply to messages on my phone or computer during calls with my team members, which was rude — I'm much more present now.

As business owners, we often tell ourselves we need to be constantly available to solve things, but it's not helping our happiness, and it's disconnecting us from the reasons we work in the first place.

I've since deleted about a third of the apps I used to have on my phone, as I felt I wasn't even using them. I still have some apps I use for work purposes, like ChatGPT, Google Drive, and Calendly.

This is now how I run my business and I have no desire to go back to being on my phone 24/7.

• Cities remain at the forefront of economic growth. 
• Six US cities have been ranked as having world-leading economic vitality by the Oxford Economics Global Cities Index.
• But while they perform well on economic factors, the cities fall down on governance and quality of life. 

News of the housing crises, worker exoduses, and budget slashing tells a tale of the slow decline of US cities.

However, according to the latest Global Cities Index from research group Oxford Economics, six US cities are still the leading "engines of the global economy."

New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, San Francisco, and Dallas topped the index's economics category.

The index, produced annually by the economic advisory firm Oxford Economics, ranks the largest 1,000 cities by five categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment, and governance.

The prosperity of cities is often viewed through the lens of their busy financial centers, with New York, London, Singapore, and Hong Kong typically leading global rankings.

However, Oxford Economics' index purposefully assesses cities by a range of factors contributing to overall economic vitality and the potential for sustained growth and development.

GDP growth, employment growth, economic stability, GDP per person, and economic diversity were all measured in addition to overall GDP size.

"The cities topping the Economics category are the engines of the global economy. In this category, American cities dominate," the report states.

New York excelled in the economics category with a perfect score of 100, followed closely by Los Angeles. San Jose, the largest city in Silicon Valley, came in third place and was highlighted as having the highest GDP per person globally.

A less expected entrant in the top 10 was Dallas, which ranked sixth globally for economic vitality.

The Texan city has experienced the largest numerical population increase of any US metro area in recent years, and more than 175 companies have moved their headquarters there since 2010, setting it up as one of the economic powerhouses of the South.

London, Paris, and Tokyo are the only three non-American cities to crack the top 10. They trail the US cities due to lower levels of GDP per person, according to the report.

Chicago also made it onto the list for its economic vitality, coming in eighth after London.

However, while the six US cities may score high in economics, they barely appear in the top rankings across the other four categories: human capital, quality of life, governance, and environment. 

Cities in Europe, New Zealand, and Brazil bettered them on factors like income equality, life expectancy, air quality, civil liberties, and business environment.

Nonetheless, the report noted that "cities in North America are all clumped at the higher end of the rankings."

New York, San Jose, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco ranked in the top 10 of Oxford Economics' overall list of top global cities, with New York coming out on top.