I was driving through rural Ohio last fall and periodically pulled over to the side of the road to photograph the picturesque farms and pastures along the way. It’s a beautiful part of the country and I was indulging in some “kitchen calendar” snapshots. I was also thinking of future blog posts on the topic … Continue reading Lots of Little Brothers
Many years ago I got to know an old Russian man. He was born to a wealthy family that owned factories and large tracts of good land. His parents sensed the coming Bolshevik Revolution and sold all their Russian property and assets and moved to the land of opportunity and freedom. Shanghai. They did very … Continue reading Finding Your Way In The World
Economist Dr. Philippa Malmgren articulates my views in a far more accessible manner than I ever could. The short version goes something like this. There’s entirely too much debt in the world today and most of it will never be repaid. The consequences of those massive defaults will involve destabilizing levels of economic pain for … Continue reading Pippa Malmgren’s “Signals”
A recent trip to the tax attorney’s office (it’s that time of year again) put me in close proximity to a fellow client as we waited. This guy was one of the lead developers of autonomous vehicles so I picked his brain for a while. He said his company is on track to have products … Continue reading Autonomous Vehicles, Expect the Unexpected
I learned about race relations in America at the kitchen table when I was little. I lived on and off with my Sicilian grandmother when I was a kid in a dinky little stucco apartment in a mediocre part of Los Angeles. She was a nurse. Her two best friends were a fellow nurse named … Continue reading The Kitchen Table
Sometimes I look at a place and wonder how it continues to limp along. Expert VCR repair? Hmmmm. VHS or Betamax? Clearly this sleepy 1950’s suburb has managed to drag itself all the way into the 1980’s without ruffling the feathers of its long time residents. Unfortunately, change has come and gone without them. Sony … Continue reading Expert VCR Repair
What do you do with an aging suburb that can’t compete with either the trendy urban core or newer upscale suburbs? This is the challenge confronting many lackluster communities all across the country. One approach is to reinvent the place with soft infrastructure – otherwise known as… people. An unadorned anonymous 1970’s concrete box turns … Continue reading Soft Infrastructure
What do you do with an aging 1950’s suburb that can’t compete with newer McMansion communities or vibrant downtown neighborhoods? Many of these places are declining along with the bifurcating and contracting American middle class. But these towns could be reinvented as the ultimate sweet spot for a new generation on a limited budget. The … Continue reading Hard Infrastructure
Over the years I’ve belonged to a variety of different organizations that had the ostensible goal of accomplishing X or Y. At a certain point I would realize that all anyone was doing was exercising their fears and frustrations. Most of all they were trying to stop other people from doing things they didn’t like. … Continue reading DIY Urbanism
Granola Shotgun 