By 2026, it has achieved a cult following, receiving more attention from dead mall aficionados than most of its peers. In fact, most of the vloggers who make a career out of documenting liminal spaces feel compelled at some point to visit this one. It’s hard to say why this particular dead mall is so
At this point in the winter, most property owners have either taken down all their Christmas decorations, or, at the very least, they downplay them by keeping the lights off or the inflatable blowers powered down. The liturgical among us can certainly make a case for retaining the Christmas spirit through the Feast of the
As a person who loves bicycling, I am hardly one to cavil when a municipality installs new bike-friendly infrastructure. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a general rule, most places in the US are still less bike-friendly than they could be. And while we have witnessed visible improvement over the last two decades, and I
On a recent impromptu trip, I stumbled across a mild technological innovation I had not seen before in the United States: a green glow, right at the edge of a sidewalk where I was about to cross a street—basically a feature within illuminated crosswalks. Apparently illuminated crosswalks are nothing new; the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
I’m not an entomologist—not even of the armchair variety. Nor am I a conservationist, or a meteorologist. My schooling in ecology does not extend beyond a single graduate-level course that dealt with how urban development disrupts various animals’ habitat and migration patterns. And it is that course content that I can apply against a backdrop
It’s been almost two years exactly since I featured various metal rods, rings, and ridges carefully positioned at select locations in various parks and civic plazas in Oakland and San Francisco. Aside from alliteration, these rods, rings, and ridges shared one ambition: to prevent people from engaging in certain undesirable activities at these public gathering
Far be it from me to turn into a crotchety old killjoy who lambastes every pocket park I find, but I already did it once a few years ago, for a tidy but neglected little mini-playground in Alexandria, Virginia. Since a bigger, higher-profile, and splashier (literally) play area stands just a few blocks away, my
Many, many years ago I featured some heritage infrastructure in the quasi-autonomous Indianapolis enclave of Homecroft. If the most appropriate descriptor for a place like Homecroft is “quasi-autonomous enclave”, it goes without saying that it’s an unusual place. The community (which functions largely as a neighborhood) sits about seven miles south of downtown Indianapolis as
Glenwood Springs, Colorado is a fun town. That’s its brand. It aspires to be one of America’s most recreationally-minded small municipalities—really more of a tiny city—and it routinely makes the top 10 lists among various outdoor-centric periodicals, as I covered once before. Sometimes it reaches a bit further, placing on lists of all-around best and
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
By 2026, it has achieved a cult following, receiving more attention from dead mall aficionados than most of its peers. In fact, most of the vloggers who make a career out of documenting
At this point in the winter, most property owners have either taken down all their Christmas decorations, or, at the very least, they downplay them by keeping the lights off or the inflatable
As a person who loves bicycling, I am hardly one to cavil when a municipality installs new bike-friendly infrastructure. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a general rule, most places in the US
On a recent impromptu trip, I stumbled across a mild technological innovation I had not seen before in the United States: a green glow, right at the edge of a sidewalk where I
I’m not an entomologist—not even of the armchair variety. Nor am I a conservationist, or a meteorologist. My schooling in ecology does not extend beyond a single graduate-level course that dealt with how
It’s been almost two years exactly since I featured various metal rods, rings, and ridges carefully positioned at select locations in various parks and civic plazas in Oakland and San Francisco. Aside from
Far be it from me to turn into a crotchety old killjoy who lambastes every pocket park I find, but I already did it once a few years ago, for a tidy but
Many, many years ago I featured some heritage infrastructure in the quasi-autonomous Indianapolis enclave of Homecroft. If the most appropriate descriptor for a place like Homecroft is “quasi-autonomous enclave”, it goes without saying
Glenwood Springs, Colorado is a fun town. That’s its brand. It aspires to be one of America’s most recreationally-minded small municipalities—really more of a tiny city—and it routinely makes the top 10 lists
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