Federal land as a national park. Technically not part of California so you can’t smoke recreational Marijuana here. I recommend the first ferry as it gets you there just as the prison opens. The main exhibit is on the evolution of the US correctional system, like at Eastern State Penitentiary Read more
It’s not usually open to the public, but the once-a-year Doors Open Toronto event invites everyone to take a peek inside a collection of heritage buildings and city infrastructure. The interwar water treatment plant still provides about a third of Toronto’s drinking water supply at nearly a billion liters a Read more
Walter Scott, the first premier of Saskatchewan, hosted a competition for the legislative building to be built in Regina in 1905. The design by the Maxwell Brothers from Montreal was chosen and the building was completed in 1912. It was initially designed to be constructed with red brick before Scott Read more
Built in 1891 for the Lieutenant Governor of the North West Territories, the man in charge only lived in Regina until the 1960s when it was turned into a school for two decades and then a veterans’ rehabilitation centre for another decade before being bought back by the province for Read more
The fortress-like prison in Philadelphia have 30-foot walls that go underground. Built in 1830, it was the world’s first purpose-built prison meant to deprive people of freedom as a form of punishment. Jails before this were just holding pens for people waiting for their sentences which might be flogging, hanging, Read more
For someone who used to work at UNOG, the tour is more of the same bullshit. Unfortunately, it’s the only way to get public access to a different UN office. The New York location is political with the General Assembly and Security Council as its most powerful organs. The Geneva Read more
Alberta used to be part of the Northwest Territories so paintings of NWT governors still hang on the walls of Alberta’s Legislature. Its main interior architectural oddity is a water fountain installed to celebrate the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Its sound echoes around the walls of the rotunda until Read more
Connecticut’s old state house was completed in 1796 and served its original purpose for 82 years. At the time, there was a second state house in New Haven because Connecticut alternated capitals until 1873. From 1878 to 1915, the building was converted into Hartford‘s city hall. I was told that Read more
Queen’s Park is officially known as the Legislative Assembly of Ontario – the province’s elected lawmaking body. Here, which parties sit on the left or the right depend on who is in power, the majority sits on the left and the minority on the right, so the two sides have Read more
Parliament Hill in Ottawa has been under renovation since 2019 and there’s about a decade of work left. While the Senate was moved to the old Union Station, the House of Commons stayed in the same building. It moved its chamber from inside the building to the courtyard and covered Read more