I’ve documented evolving retail trends with a keen eye over the past few years. Regardless of the size of the community, certain similar features have emerged that very well may augur a monumental shift in typology, akin to what transpired in the 1950s and 60s when pedestrian-scaled downtowns lost all their commerce to suburban strip
My latest post–a short one (for me at least)–is now up at Urban Indy. It focuses on the Mozzo, a newly completed multifamily residential development in the Sacred Heart neighborhood, fronting the increasingly active Virginia Avenue commercial corridor. By and large it’s a satisfactory building, with a massing that befits the old neighborhood just a
My latest is a first for me as a blogger: a book review. The full-length review is now available at Urbanophile and should be accessible soon via other online outlets; I will update this blog post accordingly. The book, Michael Tolle’s Who Killed Downtown? Norristown, Pennsylvania from Main Street to the Malls distinguishes itself through its
If the free market could ever assume a bodily form, it would have to be a contortionist. One of the wonders of our federalist system is how deftly and shrewdly private businesses navigate around ordinances and statutes. While this is obvious when articulated in print, the real-word incarnations are often subtle. These maneuverings manifest themselves
At a superficial level, American suburbs have reached a point of inflection in terms of their dependency on automobiles. The past decade has introduced mandatory sidewalk ordinances within many (if not most) metropolitan jurisdictions, as well as an expansion of mass transit into many of the newer, fast-growing exurbs. But these initiatives are just a
After a decade of persistent turbulence within the airline industry, it is no surprise that scarcely a year goes by that one of the big carriers merges with a second, or a third files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Among industries that the American Customer Satisfaction Index evaluates, airlines elicit some of the lowest scores—if
Late last year I featured an article on the unusual Oxford Valley Mall in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a mostly upper-middle income suburban region of Philadelphia. It’s a distinctive mall because it’s simultaneously both low-rent and affluent: it has such high-end tenants as Williams Sonoma or Swarovski, but it also has Five Below, Dollar Hut, and
In an essay from the past, I shamelessly stretched the definition of the term “land banking” to suit my own purposes. How? By showing two examples of the deliberate assembly of contiguous parcels with the purpose of building something new, but the problem is, neither attempt at parcel assembly consisted of vacant land, as is
It seems like I can hardly go more than two months without drumming up a blog article coming from a mall. Even as enclosed malls have plunged from the popularity peak in the 1970s and early 1980s (a point in time when American downtowns were lifeless almost across the map), they still remain a formidable
Over the past century, the word “blight” has undergone a curious expansion in its denotations. It was originally a botanical term referring to a disease characterized by discoloration, wilting, and eventual death of plant tissues. In contemporary parlance, however, I suspect a far greater number of people use the term in combination with “urban”—a metaphoric
I’ve documented evolving retail trends with a keen eye over the past few years. Regardless of the size of the community, certain similar features have emerged that very well may augur a monumental
My latest post–a short one (for me at least)–is now up at Urban Indy. It focuses on the Mozzo, a newly completed multifamily residential development in the Sacred Heart neighborhood, fronting the increasingly
My latest is a first for me as a blogger: a book review. The full-length review is now available at Urbanophile and should be accessible soon via other online outlets; I will update this
If the free market could ever assume a bodily form, it would have to be a contortionist. One of the wonders of our federalist system is how deftly and shrewdly private businesses navigate
At a superficial level, American suburbs have reached a point of inflection in terms of their dependency on automobiles. The past decade has introduced mandatory sidewalk ordinances within many (if not most) metropolitan
After a decade of persistent turbulence within the airline industry, it is no surprise that scarcely a year goes by that one of the big carriers merges with a second, or a third
Late last year I featured an article on the unusual Oxford Valley Mall in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a mostly upper-middle income suburban region of Philadelphia. It’s a distinctive mall because it’s simultaneously both
In an essay from the past, I shamelessly stretched the definition of the term “land banking” to suit my own purposes. How? By showing two examples of the deliberate assembly of contiguous parcels
It seems like I can hardly go more than two months without drumming up a blog article coming from a mall. Even as enclosed malls have plunged from the popularity peak in the
Over the past century, the word “blight” has undergone a curious expansion in its denotations. It was originally a botanical term referring to a disease characterized by discoloration, wilting, and eventual death of