Just a little over a mile from downtown Boise and a whole lot less than a mile from the city’s flagship public university campus, a micro-subdivision sits wedged between two busy arterial roads. It’s barely noticeable, and I would have driven right past it if it weren’t for the unusual aesthetic: something between tiny homes
Crossing the Occoquan River from Prince William County to southern Fairfax County in Northern Virginia doesn’t yield a lot of surprises. Regardless of the county, it’s all suburbia, albeit a lot less dense and urbanized than Arlington County or other parts of Fairfax that are closer to Alexandria and, of course, Washington DC. But, while
For being a licensed city planner, I’ve avoided using one particular term in this blog common within my profession’s jargon: urban sprawl. Applying the search tool, it has only appeared as content within 72 articles—pretty rare considering that at this point in September 2025, I have produced 956 blog posts. Keep in mind, many of
This is a slight subject—or, rather, two subjects—which I am somewhat forcibly conflating. But it’s not an unfamiliar topic for this blog, and I keep coming back to it because it’s so rich with semantic potential: specifically, it’s the organization and branding of public restrooms. The only major reason this cluster of photos gets bunched
I had visited this little shopping center just south of Alexandria, Virginia more than a few times before I ever noticed this bizarre little sign about flying projectiles. It didn’t occur to me during any previous visit, since I normally sat indoors to avoid the scorching summer sun, but apparently some people opt to eat
The historic, eponymous main street of Columbia, South Carolina offers an abundance of smartly preserved three-story buildings, some of which no doubt reflect an effort to preserve the character and details from their post-Civil War time of construction. Most of them look great, and vacancy rates, while far from perfect, are certainly better than a
Midway through The Year of our Lord 2025, conventional retail continues its unrelenting retreat from the array of preferred American leisure activities. Simply put, fewer and fewer Americans “go shopping” for fun, at least when it comes to the time-tested paradigm of bricks-and-mortar malls and big boxes. The proof is in the pudding: more and
My previous visit to the Peace Garden State lasted no more than five hours, yet it yielded two separate blog articles, both in Bowman (the only town of any size where I stepped out of my car). I didn’t visit Bowman this time around, but I lingered in a different region, gathering some interesting finds
Several months ago, I did something I rarely do and took a hard line on a polarizing topic: allowing dogs (or other pets) into private businesses. I believed, and continue to believe, that dogs should not be permitted in coffee shops, gyms, hardware stores, grocery stores, or (God forbid) restaurants, unless they are a licensed
The vehicular turn radius might seem like a simple feature, but its impact on the urban environment is akin to a pebble plunked into a pond. And that simile carries extra weight because the pebble-in-a-pond’s impact is a series of concentric rings outward—basically another incarnation of the radii of varying sizes. Traffic engineers have long
Just a little over a mile from downtown Boise and a whole lot less than a mile from the city’s flagship public university campus, a micro-subdivision sits wedged between two busy arterial roads.
Crossing the Occoquan River from Prince William County to southern Fairfax County in Northern Virginia doesn’t yield a lot of surprises. Regardless of the county, it’s all suburbia, albeit a lot less dense
For being a licensed city planner, I’ve avoided using one particular term in this blog common within my profession’s jargon: urban sprawl. Applying the search tool, it has only appeared as content within
This is a slight subject—or, rather, two subjects—which I am somewhat forcibly conflating. But it’s not an unfamiliar topic for this blog, and I keep coming back to it because it’s so rich
I had visited this little shopping center just south of Alexandria, Virginia more than a few times before I ever noticed this bizarre little sign about flying projectiles. It didn’t occur to me
The historic, eponymous main street of Columbia, South Carolina offers an abundance of smartly preserved three-story buildings, some of which no doubt reflect an effort to preserve the character and details from their
Midway through The Year of our Lord 2025, conventional retail continues its unrelenting retreat from the array of preferred American leisure activities. Simply put, fewer and fewer Americans “go shopping” for fun, at
My previous visit to the Peace Garden State lasted no more than five hours, yet it yielded two separate blog articles, both in Bowman (the only town of any size where I stepped
Several months ago, I did something I rarely do and took a hard line on a polarizing topic: allowing dogs (or other pets) into private businesses. I believed, and continue to believe, that
The vehicular turn radius might seem like a simple feature, but its impact on the urban environment is akin to a pebble plunked into a pond. And that simile carries extra weight because