Few people truly appreciated it until it was (nearly) gone. And now it celebrates its centennial. Across nearly 2,450 miles, Route 66 linked two of the nation’s largest cities, allowing uninterrupted automobile travel across the nation’s sparsely populated western interior for the first time ever. Prior to April 30, 1926, the date the American Association
The influence of pop-culture sociology has helped to impart an almost malicious intent onto most ethnic enclaves in the United States. After all, many academics presume, if a district of profound cultural difference exists in hyper concentration while surrounded by a much larger district reflective of the homogenous cultural majority, the only reasonable explanation for
Unlike most cities in the eastern half of the US, the major metros of the West routinely offer suburbs that exceed 100,000 people—sometimes double or triple that amount. (A few of the suburbs of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas, and even Denver are bigger than the core cities of Cincinnati, Buffalo, St. Louis, or
Most chain restaurants focus their branding on a few key visual elements: logo, font, colors. Take Starbucks, for example. It started in old-school, urban commercial storefronts like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, expanded to other big-city milieus, then went suburban into freestanding structures with parking lots and drive-thru windows. It adapted the interior model to shopping
As we approach the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse, food halls are everywhere. The largest metropolises, college towns, tourist traps, the repurposed warehouse in that shady part of town, office parks, strip malls. Originally primarily the domain of large, old, horizontally-oriented buildings in urban districts, they seem adaptable to almost every building shell and
I usually visit the south-side suburb of Greenwood annually, upon returning to my hometown of Indianapolis over the holidays. It’s the next town over. Unsurprisingly, I cover it every year or two through an article, devoting considerable attention to the small but mostly intact Old Town neighborhood, where West Main Street intersects Madison Avenue. I’ve
As I strive to meet my January quota of five articles (having only achieved two so far for the month), I hesitate to focus on this subject—artifacts along the PA Turnpike—mostly because these contemplations seem to drip with condescension toward smaller towns. Anyone who has read a half-dozen of my articles knows that is not
Yes, this article is a filler; I fully confess. The demands of a November where I was out of the country for one-third, sick for another third, then in full Thanksgiving prep mode for the final third has made it hard for me to reach my quota. So I’m cramming this one at the end
I can’t claim I relish gruesome subjects, but when they’re as salacious as last month’s Exorcist steps, it was hard to resist. (And, I’ll admit, I needed an easy topic right before Halloween as I scrambled to meet my quota of articles before an extended trip overseas.) Most of the time, though, when I approach
It’s been less than a year since my article on the The Block, a small food hall in Annandale, Virginia (part of the affluent Fairfax County suburbs of Washington DC) generated a fair amount of buzz—at least by my blog’s modest standards. At that time I pointed out that The Block had bucked the trends
Few people truly appreciated it until it was (nearly) gone. And now it celebrates its centennial. Across nearly 2,450 miles, Route 66 linked two of the nation’s largest cities, allowing uninterrupted automobile travel
The influence of pop-culture sociology has helped to impart an almost malicious intent onto most ethnic enclaves in the United States. After all, many academics presume, if a district of profound cultural difference
Unlike most cities in the eastern half of the US, the major metros of the West routinely offer suburbs that exceed 100,000 people—sometimes double or triple that amount. (A few of the suburbs
Most chain restaurants focus their branding on a few key visual elements: logo, font, colors. Take Starbucks, for example. It started in old-school, urban commercial storefronts like Seattle’s Pike Place Market, expanded to
As we approach the Chinese Year of the Fire Horse, food halls are everywhere. The largest metropolises, college towns, tourist traps, the repurposed warehouse in that shady part of town, office parks, strip
I usually visit the south-side suburb of Greenwood annually, upon returning to my hometown of Indianapolis over the holidays. It’s the next town over. Unsurprisingly, I cover it every year or two through
As I strive to meet my January quota of five articles (having only achieved two so far for the month), I hesitate to focus on this subject—artifacts along the PA Turnpike—mostly because these
Yes, this article is a filler; I fully confess. The demands of a November where I was out of the country for one-third, sick for another third, then in full Thanksgiving prep mode
I can’t claim I relish gruesome subjects, but when they’re as salacious as last month’s Exorcist steps, it was hard to resist. (And, I’ll admit, I needed an easy topic right before Halloween
It’s been less than a year since my article on the The Block, a small food hall in Annandale, Virginia (part of the affluent Fairfax County suburbs of Washington DC) generated a fair