Urbanophile.com Growing up I remember the adults talking about the old neighborhood in Brooklyn where my grandparents lived during the Great Depression and World War II. In spite of the hardships of the era it was described as a great place full of life and colorful characters and extended family all on the same block. … Continue reading Voting With Your Feet: Aaron Renn’s New Donut
“San Francisco is expensive so I’ll live in Oakland.” I hear this all the time from bright young people who are offered a job in the Bay Area and are looking for more affordable accommodations. Yes and no… First, Oakland is a big place in terms of both population and physical territory so there are … Continue reading Oakland: Rockridge
I recently read a great post by Nathaniel Hood on the Strong Towns blog here describing the plight of many aging second ring suburbs. He was concerned that auto-dependent low-density communities were running into structural problems as they entered their fourth or fifth or sixth decade. Declining municipal revenue is combining with increasing costs for everything … Continue reading Density Without Urbanism
North America is populated with endless examples of previously great neighborhoods that have fallen on hard times. How do we reactivate these places on a super tight budget without resorting to the usual Silver Bullet build-it-and-they-will-come model of the heavily subsidized casino, stadium, outlet mall, aquarium, or convention center which are all proving increasingly ineffective … Continue reading Shoestring Pre-vitalization: Walnut Hills
This week I’m helping a friend move house after watching her grapple with some unappealing options for the last couple of years. In the end she’s leaving San Francisco and moving to the suburbs forty-seven miles to the south. She absolutely hates the suburbs, but given all the possibilities it really is the right … Continue reading The Reluctant Suburbanite, Or Why San Francisco Doesn’t Always Work
I tend to fixate on certain places – sometimes because I love them, other times because I can’t help but stare at twisted wreckage. Lancaster, California has always been 30/70 leaning toward wreckage, although it does show signs of ongoing reinvention so I keep going back. Lancaster is highly representative of most places in … Continue reading The Other Side of the Tracks
I’m a big fan of James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Geography or Nowhere” among many other publications here. But we do occasionally disagree. Specifically, I cringe when Kunstler rolls his eyes and becomes impatient (even belligerent) with what he calls the “Diversity Cheerleaders”. Let’s just say he’s not a big fan of the whole touchy feely Kumbaya … Continue reading “Diversity Cheerleaders”
Granola Shotgun 