Many years ago—before I even had conceived of this blog—I was an intern for a university semester at WalkBoston, which was (and remains) the signature pedestrian advocacy organization for Bean Town. Founded in 1990, it was the first of its kind in the country. Since then (and since my internship), WalkBoston’s scope and ambitions have
The principle of Occam’s Razor likely applies in design just as often as it would in philosophy, physics, criminology, or military strategy. But that doesn’t mean designers will necessarily abide by it: that is, designers do not always elect for the simplest solution. Popular architectural movements such as Baroque and Art Nouveau deliberately eschewed the
In 2024, a rail-trail conversion is hardly a novel concept. The likelihood that most Americans have never walked or jogged on one says more about our sedentary lifestyles than the trails’ scarcity. In fact, rail-trail conversions exist in all 50 states and continue to grow in both quantity and total mileage. Initially a tactic for
A new day, another update from a very, very recent post. I don’t normally do this, but it’s been a very busy month, so it’s tougher for me to devote the time to five entirely new topics. Barely a week has passed since I covered the travails of old Stumpy, the Yoshino cherry tree at
I didn’t approach the year 2024 with the expectation that I would devote multiple articles to the sorry state of urban public land, but here it is: the second feature already on the topic for January, and it most certainly isn’t going to be the last. Incidentally, that previous article was a bit of 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
Throughout the life of this blog, I’ve come down hard on malls. And I’ve done this, not because I fundamentally dislike them—they’re a paradigm for consumerism in the automobile era, whether we wanted it or not—but because malls in general have shown a diminishing ability to adapt to the shopping patterns of the last twenty
The Roaring Fork River in central Colorado offers a bicycle and pedestrian-friendly riverfront greenway on one side of its banks…exactly as one might hope from a waterway with such an roaringly evocative name. Or, rather, that City of Glenwood Springs has provided this greenway, which is, again, exactly what one might expect from a pristine
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” This line from Wizard of Oz (the 1939 movie, not the Frank E. Baum book) has ascended to such currency that’s it’s essentially a catchphrase. And those who use it, from age five to eighty-five, often forget the full connotation to its original function. Sure, it
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
Many years ago—before I even had conceived of this blog—I was an intern for a university semester at WalkBoston, which was (and remains) the signature pedestrian advocacy organization for Bean Town. Founded in
The principle of Occam’s Razor likely applies in design just as often as it would in philosophy, physics, criminology, or military strategy. But that doesn’t mean designers will necessarily abide by it: that
In 2024, a rail-trail conversion is hardly a novel concept. The likelihood that most Americans have never walked or jogged on one says more about our sedentary lifestyles than the trails’ scarcity. In
A new day, another update from a very, very recent post. I don’t normally do this, but it’s been a very busy month, so it’s tougher for me to devote the time to
I didn’t approach the year 2024 with the expectation that I would devote multiple articles to the sorry state of urban public land, but here it is: the second feature already on the
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
Throughout the life of this blog, I’ve come down hard on malls. And I’ve done this, not because I fundamentally dislike them—they’re a paradigm for consumerism in the automobile era, whether we wanted
The Roaring Fork River in central Colorado offers a bicycle and pedestrian-friendly riverfront greenway on one side of its banks…exactly as one might hope from a waterway with such an roaringly evocative name.
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” This line from Wizard of Oz (the 1939 movie, not the Frank E. Baum book) has ascended to such currency that’s it’s essentially a
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