Embedded walkway messaging: the prickly prospect of private promos on public property?
I don’t really think of myself as a slouch, but I’m sure there are times when I walk where my eyes tend to lurk more toward my feet than straight ahead. The photo below captures one of those moments: What are these weird rectangles in the unusually sandy ground? They look almost like cemetery plots,
Elmira after the flood: sewing together the tatters of a downtown.
A city the size of Elmira, New York isn’t necessarily going to have much in the way of a robust old downtown. Its population according to the 2020 Decennial Census is a mere 26,523—nothing huge. Virtually any major metro has at least a few surrounding suburbs of similar size that lack any true organized, historic
Temporary outdoor seating: bringing pep to parking lots when indoor dining was too risky.
I think the majority of Americans would at this point would agree that, in most respects, day-to-day urban life has deteriorated since COVD-19: higher costs to everything, escalating crime, visible vandalism, irregular cleaning and maintenance, and—perhaps this is just me (but probably not)—a general malaise that is either a cause or the effect of those
Corner commercial lots: are they worth more? You can bank on it.
As recently as my last blog article, I alluded to an unusual dichotomy in the value of corner parcels: for the most part, residences on street corners are less valuable than homes on the rest of the block. People don’t the reduced privacy one expects when a property fronts two streets, when they can easily
Reserved parking: staking claim on the public ROW from a private flower bed.
It’s uncommon that I feature an article where I strive to keep the location mostly or completely anonymous. After all, that “sense of place” is often a critical feature, and it’s one of the primary ways I organize/classify them: by major city, by state, and (in rare instances) by country. Only one example comes to
Flagging the falls, geotagging the jokes: another meme for the First State.
It’s not nice. But it probably was inevitable. Earlier this summer, during a photo shoot on a weekend getaway to his beachside vacation home, a certain head of state stopped his bike but was unable to disengage his feet from the toe clamps in time. Having nothing to stabilize himself, he fell over. No serious
Dolphin Mansion: the country’s ugliest house hits a fascinating planning snag.
The Dolphin Mansion is up for sale again! Indianapolis’s most notorious home has struggled to find an occupant for the last seventeen years, but it’s not for lack of trying. Actually more of a campus with six structures on a mega-lot, surrounded by mid-century middle-class housing that’s a lot humbler (and I mean that in
How to stymie shoplifting? Simply suggest some soup-to-nuts security strategies.
With this article I’m presenting my second feature on crime prevention strategies in less than a month. This isn’t typical. But then, the sort of criminality urban America has countenanced these last few years hasn’t been typical either, though it’s rapidly becoming so. Given the double-digit year-to-year increases in violent and property crime, let alone
Whitestone apartments: when low-lying land is for the dogs…and that’s a good thing.
As evidence mounts that the prime child-raising generations at the moment seem to prefer raising pets over children, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of residential developments host dog parks as a predictable amenity. I’ve covered the topic numerous times before: from a forest clearing in a tucked away corner of
Georgetown Circle: cutting the corners out from the old courthouse square.
Where I grew up in the Midwest, most county seats enjoy an almost overbearingly consistent urban form at their historic core. With few exceptions, they feature the archetypal courthouse square. The four blocks fronting this courthouse—the four sides of the square—serve as the commercial core, with a variety of different sizes of 19th century buildings:
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Embedded walkway messaging: the prickly prospect of private promos on public property?
I don’t really think of myself as a slouch, but I’m sure there are times when I walk where my eyes tend to lurk more toward my feet than straight ahead. The photo
Elmira after the flood: sewing together the tatters of a downtown.
A city the size of Elmira, New York isn’t necessarily going to have much in the way of a robust old downtown. Its population according to the 2020 Decennial Census is a mere
Temporary outdoor seating: bringing pep to parking lots when indoor dining was too risky.
I think the majority of Americans would at this point would agree that, in most respects, day-to-day urban life has deteriorated since COVD-19: higher costs to everything, escalating crime, visible vandalism, irregular cleaning
Corner commercial lots: are they worth more? You can bank on it.
As recently as my last blog article, I alluded to an unusual dichotomy in the value of corner parcels: for the most part, residences on street corners are less valuable than homes on
Reserved parking: staking claim on the public ROW from a private flower bed.
It’s uncommon that I feature an article where I strive to keep the location mostly or completely anonymous. After all, that “sense of place” is often a critical feature, and it’s one of
Flagging the falls, geotagging the jokes: another meme for the First State.
It’s not nice. But it probably was inevitable. Earlier this summer, during a photo shoot on a weekend getaway to his beachside vacation home, a certain head of state stopped his bike but
Dolphin Mansion: the country’s ugliest house hits a fascinating planning snag.
The Dolphin Mansion is up for sale again! Indianapolis’s most notorious home has struggled to find an occupant for the last seventeen years, but it’s not for lack of trying. Actually more of
How to stymie shoplifting? Simply suggest some soup-to-nuts security strategies.
With this article I’m presenting my second feature on crime prevention strategies in less than a month. This isn’t typical. But then, the sort of criminality urban America has countenanced these last few
Whitestone apartments: when low-lying land is for the dogs…and that’s a good thing.
As evidence mounts that the prime child-raising generations at the moment seem to prefer raising pets over children, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of residential developments host dog
Georgetown Circle: cutting the corners out from the old courthouse square.
Where I grew up in the Midwest, most county seats enjoy an almost overbearingly consistent urban form at their historic core. With few exceptions, they feature the archetypal courthouse square. The four blocks
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- on Billboard blight for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd: there’s nothing to promote when the commuters stay at home.: “These empty signs pre-date COVID. These billboards are within a certain distance of the interstate which makes the state govt…” Oct 4, 11:37
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- on Elmira after the flood: sewing together the tatters of a downtown.: “Great photo. To the left of the “road” (now river) in the background, is the mid-century modern Chemung Canal Trust…” Oct 3, 09:28
- on Elmira after the flood: sewing together the tatters of a downtown.: “This photo gives an idea of how much more substantial Elmira’s downtown was at one time. Taken from the railroad…” Sep 30, 23:40
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