Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?
My latest article is on Urban Indy. It represents a sort of sequel to an article I wrote about 18 months earlier, where I followed a single Kroger supermarket on the south side of Indianapolis as it kept changing locations–four separate places in about twenty years, all new construction. And none of those locations were
Pizzeria conversion: with one city’s Italian loss is another’s gain.
It’s a busy time of year and I need to meet my monthly blogging goals, so I’m going to cheat a little bit and piggyback on my previous article. To be frank, it’s a double-cheat, since I usually try to avoid featuring the same state for two blog articles in a row. But here I
Church conversion, from pizza pie to piety. And garlic knots for the communion host?
Social critics have asserted for decades that American religiosity is in a state of decline. In recent years, they have grown more confident. And they certainly have evidence: churches are closing left and right across the country, a condition that accelerated during the peak of COVID-19 lockdowns. Additionally, polls show a reduced percentage of American
Anthony Santaniello: a eulogy for a lover of subways.
In what is a first for American Dirt—and what I hope not to become a regular occurrence—I offer a tribute to a fellow urbanist and friend. Longtime employee of Philadelphia City Planning Commission and then Philadelphia Streets Department, Anthony Santaniello passed away on October 21st. Anthony wasn’t just a casual follower of the work on
Color choice: a gladiator match between brand green and brand red, in a strip mall coliseum.
The infamous book How to Lie with Maps initially offered a light-hearted attempt to explore how maps can entice, mislead, inflame, and generally propagandize, often without necessarily depicting anything geographically untruthfully. Juxtapositions (not always to scale), labels, color choice, and infographics can all endow an editorial skew on what seems like objective spatial representation. And
Custom racks: a stylish place to park your Cannondale. Or canine.
Bicycles may never become a primary means of getting around in the United States, at least not to the degree that they are in, say, Denmark or Netherlands. Our cities are too spread out, cars have (at least until recently) been comparatively cheap and easy to own, and—perhaps most important of all—a majority of Americans
XL Center: from a time when concrete was king; sidewalks be danged. (But aren’t they concrete too?)
Hindsight really is always 20/20. It’s easy to inveigh against anything that retroactively appears to be poor decision making by asking, “What on earth were they thinking?” And that’s precisely what disability and accessibility activists are likely to do if they ever roam the perimeter of the downtown Hartford’s XL Center, a massive events complex
DC food desert: South Anacostia has a single holdout supermarket. Will it survive?
The term itself doesn’t usually require much explanation, even if most people have never used the it in everyday conversation. They automatically know what a food desert is. For those who don’t, it takes very little to conceptualize: if a person lives in an urbanized area—and most Americans do—odds are good that he or she
Asian imagery in a public restroom: an evocation of culture or just a signal for a place to pee?
So sue me: I’ve covered more than my fair share of public restrooms on this blog. To the best of my recollection, I’ve only featured the restrooms themselves; not the patrons. If there were ever a hint of another person lurking within the frame captured by my camera’s lens, I’d be a total creeper. But
Fort Worth Convention Center: does it fit in its location? Best just to look at the footprint.
On the south end of Fort Worth’s tidy, finely-wrought latticework of a downtown, the mammoth Fort Worth Convention Center Building helps ensure a steady array of visitors whenever a major event is in town. Why shouldn’t it? That’s precisely what convention centers do. This convention center seems to benefit from a slightly greater-than-average effort to
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Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?
My latest article is on Urban Indy. It represents a sort of sequel to an article I wrote about 18 months earlier, where I followed a single Kroger supermarket on the south side
Pizzeria conversion: with one city’s Italian loss is another’s gain.
It’s a busy time of year and I need to meet my monthly blogging goals, so I’m going to cheat a little bit and piggyback on my previous article. To be frank, it’s
Church conversion, from pizza pie to piety. And garlic knots for the communion host?
Social critics have asserted for decades that American religiosity is in a state of decline. In recent years, they have grown more confident. And they certainly have evidence: churches are closing left and
Anthony Santaniello: a eulogy for a lover of subways.
In what is a first for American Dirt—and what I hope not to become a regular occurrence—I offer a tribute to a fellow urbanist and friend. Longtime employee of Philadelphia City Planning Commission
Color choice: a gladiator match between brand green and brand red, in a strip mall coliseum.
The infamous book How to Lie with Maps initially offered a light-hearted attempt to explore how maps can entice, mislead, inflame, and generally propagandize, often without necessarily depicting anything geographically untruthfully. Juxtapositions (not
Custom racks: a stylish place to park your Cannondale. Or canine.
Bicycles may never become a primary means of getting around in the United States, at least not to the degree that they are in, say, Denmark or Netherlands. Our cities are too spread
XL Center: from a time when concrete was king; sidewalks be danged. (But aren’t they concrete too?)
Hindsight really is always 20/20. It’s easy to inveigh against anything that retroactively appears to be poor decision making by asking, “What on earth were they thinking?” And that’s precisely what disability and
DC food desert: South Anacostia has a single holdout supermarket. Will it survive?
The term itself doesn’t usually require much explanation, even if most people have never used the it in everyday conversation. They automatically know what a food desert is. For those who don’t, it
Asian imagery in a public restroom: an evocation of culture or just a signal for a place to pee?
So sue me: I’ve covered more than my fair share of public restrooms on this blog. To the best of my recollection, I’ve only featured the restrooms themselves; not the patrons. If there
Fort Worth Convention Center: does it fit in its location? Best just to look at the footprint.
On the south end of Fort Worth’s tidy, finely-wrought latticework of a downtown, the mammoth Fort Worth Convention Center Building helps ensure a steady array of visitors whenever a major event is in
Recent Comments
Recent Comments
- on Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?: “Good point. Self-storage is kind of the bottom-of-the-barrel for old boxy buildings. Usually has to be in either a) non-viable…” Dec 1, 15:10
- on Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?: “Yeah, I was surprised they closed the one in Glendale because it always seemed busy and in a decent location.…” Dec 1, 11:17
- on Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?: “The only one they communicated to me was that it couldn’t compete with the new VASA Fitness on Thompson Road.…” Dec 1, 09:32
- on Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?: “Is that the same as the Glendale location? If so, you betcha.” Dec 1, 09:31
- on Hopscotching: supermarkets locate and re-locate. Why can’t gyms?: “The Southport location had a multitude of issues” Dec 1, 09:13
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