Seen a flick at a single-screen theater lately? Ever seen a movie at a single-screen theater at all? Odds are strong—for any American over the age of 35 who grew up an urban cluster (basically any community over 5,000 people, per the Census’s revised definition—the answer is probably “no”. Some very remote small towns have
Durham, North Carolina: as is often the case, a railway bisects the downtown. It became a viral video feature long before it became a commodity. And, somewhere along the way, it achieved something akin to meme status—though I’ll admit that I am stretching the definition of meme pretty generously to get there. Oh well. I’ve
It’s not a rhetorical question, but it’s one that I would have struggled to answer until recently. After all, I’ve spent years exploring some of the dreariest corners of underperforming American retail: one or two dead malls in my hometown of Indianapolis (which has resisted mall decay more than most cities, almost entirely due to
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
This article represents an interesting first. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long—15 years of blogging!—for someone to approach me about this while I was out snapping pics for my blog. Given that I have over 20,000 photos consisting primarily of mailboxes, parking meters, cracked curbs, lonely utility poles, labelscars, and miscellany that would only
I don’t really think that flag lot is part of common parlance anywhere outside of the domain of real estate and land development. But it’s such a common condition—and such a simple concept to understand—that it’s kind of surprising most people don’t really know about it. I certainly didn’t until I dipped my toe in
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to come out of nowhere, it bears a direct spatial resemblance to one I wrote just a few weeks ago: on a row
By and large, what people refer to as Northwest DC—especially the area west of Rock Creek Park—has never faced the problems of disinvestment and depopulation that plagued much of the capital city in the 1970s and 80s. Even at that point when Washington DC was “the murder capital of America” (as it was for a
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
Seen a flick at a single-screen theater lately? Ever seen a movie at a single-screen theater at all? Odds are strong—for any American over the age of 35 who grew up an urban
Durham, North Carolina: as is often the case, a railway bisects the downtown. It became a viral video feature long before it became a commodity. And, somewhere along the way, it achieved something
It’s not a rhetorical question, but it’s one that I would have struggled to answer until recently. After all, I’ve spent years exploring some of the dreariest corners of underperforming American retail: one
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
This article represents an interesting first. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s taken this long—15 years of blogging!—for someone to approach me about this while I was out snapping pics for my blog. Given that
I don’t really think that flag lot is part of common parlance anywhere outside of the domain of real estate and land development. But it’s such a common condition—and such a simple concept
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to
By and large, what people refer to as Northwest DC—especially the area west of Rock Creek Park—has never faced the problems of disinvestment and depopulation that plagued much of the capital city in
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