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
I’ve never bothered to discern what Pierre Bourdieu would probably brand the “echelons of taste” that distinguish “folk” from “pop”. Their thematic intersection owes a great deal to the fact that they share a prosaic, anti-elitist undercurrent, but the commonalities probably don’t extend much further. While both folk and pop eschew the highbrow ethos that
I can’t exactly claim to belong to some sort of refined or elite contingent when I say I’m a big fan of small, old, and neglected cemeteries; lots of people think these relics are pretty cool. But I try my best to at least document them when I stumble across them, elevating my interest to
I usually wait more than a few weeks before I offer a follow-up from an earlier post. But if I learn something new almost immediately after posting—sometimes as a direct byproduct of the initial article—then I’m more than happy to revisit the subject, offering new insights or corrections as necessary. More often than not, the
I don’t really think that flag lot is part of common parlance anywhere outside of the domain of real estate and land development. But it’s such a common condition—and such a simple concept to understand—that it’s kind of surprising most people don’t really know about it. I certainly didn’t until I dipped my toe in
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to come out of nowhere, it bears a direct spatial resemblance to one I wrote just a few weeks ago: on a row
Municipal governance offers the closest most constituents will ever get to direct democracy. Yet it amazingly falls short of achieving what I believe most people would agree is its full potential: to offer a precise reflection of the regulatory environment that constituents seek from the government, and the public services that this government delivers within
By and large, what people refer to as Northwest DC—especially the area west of Rock Creek Park—has never faced the problems of disinvestment and depopulation that plagued much of the capital city in the 1970s and 80s. Even at that point when Washington DC was “the murder capital of America” (as it was for a
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
In 2024, it’s a rare moment when Washington DC is competently providing a municipal service we should all expect…and yet somehow, in this case, it’s disappointing. I recognize that this is really my problem: my intent with this article was to say, “Here what a road looks like without street sweeping for an entire year”.
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
I’ve never bothered to discern what Pierre Bourdieu would probably brand the “echelons of taste” that distinguish “folk” from “pop”. Their thematic intersection owes a great deal to the fact that they share
I can’t exactly claim to belong to some sort of refined or elite contingent when I say I’m a big fan of small, old, and neglected cemeteries; lots of people think these relics
I usually wait more than a few weeks before I offer a follow-up from an earlier post. But if I learn something new almost immediately after posting—sometimes as a direct byproduct of the
I don’t really think that flag lot is part of common parlance anywhere outside of the domain of real estate and land development. But it’s such a common condition—and such a simple concept
I will be overseas a fair part of this month, and I at least wanted to crank out one brief article before I leave. While this article might, at first blush, seem to
Municipal governance offers the closest most constituents will ever get to direct democracy. Yet it amazingly falls short of achieving what I believe most people would agree is its full potential: to offer
By and large, what people refer to as Northwest DC—especially the area west of Rock Creek Park—has never faced the problems of disinvestment and depopulation that plagued much of the capital city in
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
In 2024, it’s a rare moment when Washington DC is competently providing a municipal service we should all expect…and yet somehow, in this case, it’s disappointing. I recognize that this is really my