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
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
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
Virtually every metropolitan area in America, both large and small, consists of more than one incorporated municipality, usually with a shared boundary. Typically the “core” city after which the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is named is the oldest, most industrialized, and the most populous city. The surrounding, contiguous cities—the suburbs—are the inverse: newer, lower population,
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
My latest post is up at Urban Indy. It focuses on a new proposal for revitalizing the main street of Greenwood, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. The town’s central business districts is essentially four blocks that project from an intersection–except that 1/4 of the original building stock was demolished decades ago for a parking lot.
With a constantly changing tenancy, it is no surprise that apartment complexes and renter-occupied housing age quickly—usually much faster than owner-occupied housing. The disparity between these two fundamental housing contracts (renting and owning) owes a great deal to basic human psychology: we are more impelled to take care of property if it belongs to us
While most evidence suggests that the future of the American metropolitan area will hinge upon further decentralization—after all, it has continued unabated for the last seventy years—most large metros have a few suburbs that buck the trend. A few years ago I featured Bexley, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, which largely matured in the middle
I hate to write on the same topic for two consecutive blog posts, and I have covered plenty of ground with retail in the past, including the often-maligned strip mall. But this photo opportunity was too good to pass up, and it the construction in progress probably won’t look like this for much longer. From
As much as I’d like to commend the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson, I have to confess: I love billboards. Maybe I’ve spent too much time living in parts of the country where the landscapes offer relatively little variety, and the billboards help compensate for monotony. But I also love the flattest, most treeless stretches
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
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
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
Virtually every metropolitan area in America, both large and small, consists of more than one incorporated municipality, usually with a shared boundary. Typically the “core” city after which the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
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
My latest post is up at Urban Indy. It focuses on a new proposal for revitalizing the main street of Greenwood, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. The town’s central business districts is essentially
With a constantly changing tenancy, it is no surprise that apartment complexes and renter-occupied housing age quickly—usually much faster than owner-occupied housing. The disparity between these two fundamental housing contracts (renting and owning)
While most evidence suggests that the future of the American metropolitan area will hinge upon further decentralization—after all, it has continued unabated for the last seventy years—most large metros have a few suburbs
I hate to write on the same topic for two consecutive blog posts, and I have covered plenty of ground with retail in the past, including the often-maligned strip mall. But this photo
As much as I’d like to commend the efforts of Lady Bird Johnson, I have to confess: I love billboards. Maybe I’ve spent too much time living in parts of the country where