Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Name: Eric M. Email me.
This blog concerns itself with the foundation of American dirt, regardless of where I claim to “live” at that moment.
It is the playing field and landscape upon which all living participants tend to their own aspirations, leaving non-indigenous built forms which my aging digital camera hopes to capture.
Blogs I follow:
Circle and Squares Studios
French Twist DC
Travel Spot
Urban Indy
The Urbanophile
17 thoughts on “Bio”
Hi Eric,
Just reading your 2010 posting on Evansville which is interesting to me for a couple of reasons; 1) I’m interviewing for a job in Owensboro, KY and I think Evansville is the nearest “big city” and 2) I lived in Grand Junction Colorado for many years and as escaping Californians started pouring in the idea of an “Events Center” kept surfacing. We haven’t been there since 2009 and I don’t think something like that got built, however, it may have. An interesting counterpart to that was for years people kept saying that the town (about 50,000 when we first moved there in 1996) needed an ice rink. Finally in about 2006 or 2007 the rink got built and at first it seemed like it was going to be an enormous success; i.e. hockey teams and leagues sprung up out of nowhere as a youth and even collegiate club hockey culture was born, aging hockey jocks took up their cudgels again, and figure skating and recreational ice skating boomed. Then it all crashed I think because of mismanagement, declining interest after the novelty wore off maybe a bit like the roller rinks of old. The costs of upkeep had been radically underestimated and while I’m sure there was still a community of skaters around there weren’t enough to cover them. BTW, I think the rink was run as a non-profit by a foundation of sorts. I didn’t follow the entire story because it happened around 2010 and we had departed for Western New York (another set of urban tales!) and as far as I know it may’ve been resuscitated but somehow I don’t think so.
The idea of an events center in GJ just struck me as ludicrous. The city has done a very nice job with their downtown not unlike Boulder but still allowing cars albeit at a very slow pace and not so dedicated to upmarket trendiness. This may have changed also as there had been for a number of years increased development to the West of the town centered near around an older mall. At one point they had both a Barnes and Noble and a Borders which combined to run an old family owned downtown bookstore out of business. Borders, of course, went kaput, but the country library system was heavily used. Mesa State College re-branded itself as “Colorado Mesa University” under the leadership of a new president, a local boy who made his name as a state lobbyist (Tim Foster) and the campus radically grew and the athletic program expanded to include a DII soccer program along with a nice little stadium, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and a wrestling program. The town was altogether livable. Some lovely older neighborhoods and everything within easy access. A few hippies, a few yuppies, Californians, Texans, native Coloradans, skiers (Powderhorn, a semi-local ski venue is only 40 minutes away), snow boarders, river rats (the Colorado River practically flows through the town) mountain biking, fishing, camping and all the rest! An events center? This is the need for diversion gone mad!
Thanks for your comments, M Sharpe. Sorry I was slow to respond. For whatever reason, comments on this section of the blog don’t trigger an immediate notification. I’m not sure a new arena was needed at all in Evansville, but I hold my ground that there were better places it could have been located. Truth be told, I haven’t visited Evansville in many, many years, so it would be interesting to see if it’s had much visible impact on the downtown’s liveliness. From what I’ve heard, it has.
Good luck on the job interview.
Hi Eric,
I would like to compliment you on your thorough and informative research in the article you wrote regarding Upsala College. My dad attended Upsala College back in the 1950s. Correct me if I am wrong, but according to your article, Upsala was accredited until 1995, when they lost their accreditation due to a number of factors outlined in your article. For reasons I can’t mention here, my dad needs confirmation that his degree from Upsala is legit from an accredited college or university, since he has been told it isn’t by a particular school board in Florida, and they are using this incorrect information as the reason they cannot hire him to be a substitute teacher. They erroneously believe Upsala was never accredited. Wondering if you would allow us to cite your article as proof of the school’s history of accreditation until 1995 and, if needed, if you would write a letter to confirm same. Please contact me via email at dlewis5@mdc.edu so we can exchange more specific contact information. Thanks in advance.
South Port crossings Indianapolis IN new paint some old stuff teenager’s having sex in swimming pool doing drugs in dog park . trashed the place.thay are running out of control.and management don’t care.
Thank you for your thoughts. I’m going to leave your comments on the Southport Crossings blog post, where they are most relevant.
Your blog sucks and you should feel bad.
Sh*tty @$$ blog ran by some limp-dick loser who probably can’t satisfy his wife.
This loser should commit suicide.
Kill yourself, Eric.
limp-dick unlikeale loser
should probably kill himself
Eric should kill himself
Eric should kill himself
Eric should kill himself
Eric should kill himself
Eric should killhimself
eric should kill himself