This is Riga, Latvia. The Baltic Republics had a particularly difficult time during the twentieth century with Nazi Germany invading in 1941 and Soviet Russia occupying them until 1991. What had been a prosperous group of small Scandinavian style countries became relatively impoverished and isolated. This is nothing new. The Baltic has been repeatedly dominated by larger … Continue reading Commie Skin Jobs
Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s a good idea to remind ourselves of this every once in a while. I can’t see myself voting for either of the presidential candidates on offer come November, but it may not matter who wins. All the sturm and drang we see these days is largely … Continue reading The Road Ahead
I returned to the suburbs fifty miles south of San Francisco yesterday to visit a friend at her home. That’s twice in one week. Each time I go I’m confronted with two discordant sets of emotions. On the one hand her home is spacious, clean, attractive, and very comfortable. She has a lovely back … Continue reading Love Notes
After years of moving around my family ultimately settled in Toms River, New Jersey. Toms River is consistently ranked among the “best places to live,” “best places to raise a family,” “best places to retire” and so on. For most of its history it remained a quiet agricultural town that served as the county seat. … Continue reading The Great Hollowing Out
I spent the afternoon down in Silicon Valley visiting friends. We hired a driver and made the rounds to local wineries to sample their wares. Evidently a lot of tech money has found its way up into the hills where large fortunes are turned into slightly smaller ones by way of the grape. When we … Continue reading A Delicate Balance
In the 1950’s and 60’s plans were drawn up to build an extensive rail network that would create a ring around San Francisco Bay connecting all the towns and cities in the region. It was an ambitious plan fitting an optimistic era of large projects.Jake Coolidge Below is a rendering of what that system would … Continue reading Chariots
On the one hand I don’t like Godfrey Bloom’s political or personal temperament at all. His views on many topics are unfortunate as far as I’m concerned. On the other hand, he is rather good at articulating the nature of our current banking conundrum. It saddens me that only marginalized personalities are expressing these underlaying … Continue reading Modern Banking…
Here’s a familiar situation in many towns. This happens to be Georgia, but it could be almost anywhere. Entire neighborhoods of small older homes have been passed over as the population migrated to newer suburban developments. . . . . These homes are so inexpensive that no bank will write a mortgage even if a … Continue reading Shotgun!
As part of a thought experiment I examined one specific neighborhood in a typical small city in Georgia. I’m using this town not because it’s unique, but because it’s absolutely normative. I could do the same analysis on the town where my mom, sisters, and brother live in southern New Jersey and it would be … Continue reading A Different Approach
Here’s a familiar streetscape. You see this all over the country. This road is congested during peak morning and afternoon commutes, but pretty lifeless the rest of the time. Drivers don’t like stopping here, yet it’s an unpleasant environment to be a pedestrian. It’s too thick to be jam and too thin to be jelly. … Continue reading The Nature of the Problem
Granola Shotgun 