As I prepare for some upcoming significant changes to my blog, I provide a sort of “placeholder” article as make the final modifications, which I will soon publicize. The placeholder motif extends to the content of this blog entry, where a window sign serves much the same purpose within its respective storefront. It’s simply announcing
In a city as replete with illicitly painted buildings as Detroit, it isn’t hard to find graffiti in which the subject matter both polarizes and fully illustrates the ongoing debate between two parties. In some parts of the country, these polemics rarely stray outside of the stalls of men’s restrooms. They’re low-key and almost private.
Cities large and small have borne the brunt of criticism from economic development experts for investing heavily in sports venues, in an effort to bring people back—and thus to help revitalize—their old downtowns. I’ll admit it: I’ve been one of these critics in the past as well, heaping three successive blog articles of scorn to
Pop-up retail can live up to its hyphenated name just about anywhere. It’s almost like a whack-a-mole (to use another hyphenate). More often than not, it comes in the form of a good or service that meets a demand over a truncated time frame, such as Christmas tree sales, fireworks stands around the Fourth of
With this article I venture into what may prove one of my most overtly political topics ever, possibly against better judgment. Yet I wade into these waters as a deliberate challenge to myself, since I strive to separate the intensive political controversy that this tourist attraction elicits from what I think is more interesting and
When negotiating the introduction of typically suburban corporate chains in an otherwise urban neighborhood, it typically takes an inordinate amount of fancy footwork. Most American cities have a “Midtown”—either explicitly or implicitly named—that suffered colossal disinvestment from the 1950s onward, or perhaps even as early as the Depression. Now, thanks to their proximity to revitalizing
It’s a topic I can rarely avoid for long: the ups and downs of the American retail landscape. Originally, I had planned to combine this essay with the previous one, on the aged Venture department store in a tired community not far from East Saint Louis. Then I realized that, while not a meaty topic
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
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
I’ve observed in the past how, almost instinctively, we come to expect a certain degree of monumentality in major seats of government, usually the prominent display of a central building that hosts those administrative offices. In the typical Midwestern county seat, the courthouse provides that landmark—an elaborate masonry building resting in the center of a park-like
As I prepare for some upcoming significant changes to my blog, I provide a sort of “placeholder” article as make the final modifications, which I will soon publicize. The placeholder motif extends to
In a city as replete with illicitly painted buildings as Detroit, it isn’t hard to find graffiti in which the subject matter both polarizes and fully illustrates the ongoing debate between two parties.
Cities large and small have borne the brunt of criticism from economic development experts for investing heavily in sports venues, in an effort to bring people back—and thus to help revitalize—their old downtowns.
Pop-up retail can live up to its hyphenated name just about anywhere. It’s almost like a whack-a-mole (to use another hyphenate). More often than not, it comes in the form of a good
With this article I venture into what may prove one of my most overtly political topics ever, possibly against better judgment. Yet I wade into these waters as a deliberate challenge to myself,
When negotiating the introduction of typically suburban corporate chains in an otherwise urban neighborhood, it typically takes an inordinate amount of fancy footwork. Most American cities have a “Midtown”—either explicitly or implicitly named—that
It’s a topic I can rarely avoid for long: the ups and downs of the American retail landscape. Originally, I had planned to combine this essay with the previous one, on the aged
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
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
I’ve observed in the past how, almost instinctively, we come to expect a certain degree of monumentality in major seats of government, usually the prominent display of a central building that hosts those administrative