We expect fancy displays at Macy’s for Christmas sales events. But Kroger or Albertson’s on St. Patrick’s Day?
We all have our weird hobbies, or even just predilections. For many years, I’ve been interested in art brut or outsider art—that is, any artistic expression in which the creator is largely untrained, self-taught, or taught outside of an academic setting. Such an aesthetic position may seem synonymous with folk art or naïve art—the former
Bye-bye business casual: if the shoe no longer fits, move the business online & fly that flag elsewhere.
Exciting things are astir at the intersection of George Mason Boulevard and Lee Highway (U.S. 29) in Arlington County, Virginia. This should come as no surprise: it’s a prominent intersection, given that Lee Highway is a busy, heavily commercialized arterial, while George Mason Boulevard is a stately collector (much of it with a tree-lined median)
Mixed-use town center as the new “organic” downtown: how distinct can they be if they become as commonplace as malls?
The mixed-use town center is a novelty across much of the county. A metropolitan area of one million people is unlikely to have more than one or two of these newfangled nodes, which typically combine housing, retail, offices, hotels, garage parking, and maybe even an institutional use like a school, a library, or a municipal
Corvids or COVIDs? A brief meditation on a misinterpretation.
It’s rare—maybe even unprecedented—that I have created an article based almost completely on a social media conversation. This probably has something to do with the fact that I’m not a heavy social media user. But I’m relenting this one time because I want to churn out a quickie article as I prep for a longer
McConnellsburg, PA: population barely above the triple digits, and parking meters on the main street.
McConnellsburg, a borough in south-central Pennsylvania with a population noted as not much over 1,000, has managed to find a way to monetize parking in its downtown—that is, the three blocks that comprise its main street (Lincoln Way). Do you see them there in the distance, next to the sidewalk? The village hosts a tidy
Grants, New Mexico: where the ghosts of miners haunt a thriving prison industry.
Although the evidence of ghost towns proves that they exist (or have existed) throughout the country, most Americans invariably associate them with the frontier West: the High Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada; the Great Basin, Mojave, and Sonoran Deserts. We also customarily associate the emergence of ghost towns with mining, certainly more than
A slippery slope? How to build a suburban shopping mega-project on land with huge grade change.
Those of us who grew up in comparatively topographically unvaried regions are probably a bit more sensitive to changes in grade than those who hail from the hills. I grew up in Indianapolis, a city generally perceived as fairly flat. The fact that it has relatively few vantage points by which one can survey the
When green means stop: the impact of classic neon lighting in the wireless era, from West Virginia with love.
If a good sign is worth more than its weight in canvas, plastic, fiberglass, cardboard, or whatever material helped birth it, a good old sign earns even more accolades, as multiplied by the number of years it has done its job. (Weight of the material multiplied by its age?) The perseverance of a good sign
A new spin on the wheels of an old ghost bike, along Indy’s Madison Avenue.
My latest article just went up at Urban Indy. It’s a familiar subject to those who know this blog well: another ghost bike, this time in the largely suburban, automobile dependent streets of the south side of Indianapolis. Unlike my very recent article on a ghost bike in Albuquerque, this one almost certainly signifies a
Gateway Travel Plaza: keeping Breezewood, PA (America’s gas station town) from running on empty.
Breezewood. It sounds like it could be the name of a stereotypical suburb to a major Midwest city (Chicago definitely comes to mind); it also sounds sufficiently generic that one might expect a dozen towns scattered across the country with the name. Negative on both counts. There’s only one Breezewood, and it’s not a suburb
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We expect fancy displays at Macy’s for Christmas sales events. But Kroger or Albertson’s on St. Patrick’s Day?
We all have our weird hobbies, or even just predilections. For many years, I’ve been interested in art brut or outsider art—that is, any artistic expression in which the creator is largely untrained,
Bye-bye business casual: if the shoe no longer fits, move the business online & fly that flag elsewhere.
Exciting things are astir at the intersection of George Mason Boulevard and Lee Highway (U.S. 29) in Arlington County, Virginia. This should come as no surprise: it’s a prominent intersection, given that Lee
Mixed-use town center as the new “organic” downtown: how distinct can they be if they become as commonplace as malls?
The mixed-use town center is a novelty across much of the county. A metropolitan area of one million people is unlikely to have more than one or two of these newfangled nodes, which
Corvids or COVIDs? A brief meditation on a misinterpretation.
It’s rare—maybe even unprecedented—that I have created an article based almost completely on a social media conversation. This probably has something to do with the fact that I’m not a heavy social media
McConnellsburg, PA: population barely above the triple digits, and parking meters on the main street.
McConnellsburg, a borough in south-central Pennsylvania with a population noted as not much over 1,000, has managed to find a way to monetize parking in its downtown—that is, the three blocks that comprise
Grants, New Mexico: where the ghosts of miners haunt a thriving prison industry.
Although the evidence of ghost towns proves that they exist (or have existed) throughout the country, most Americans invariably associate them with the frontier West: the High Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra
A slippery slope? How to build a suburban shopping mega-project on land with huge grade change.
Those of us who grew up in comparatively topographically unvaried regions are probably a bit more sensitive to changes in grade than those who hail from the hills. I grew up in Indianapolis,
When green means stop: the impact of classic neon lighting in the wireless era, from West Virginia with love.
If a good sign is worth more than its weight in canvas, plastic, fiberglass, cardboard, or whatever material helped birth it, a good old sign earns even more accolades, as multiplied by the
A new spin on the wheels of an old ghost bike, along Indy’s Madison Avenue.
My latest article just went up at Urban Indy. It’s a familiar subject to those who know this blog well: another ghost bike, this time in the largely suburban, automobile dependent streets of
Gateway Travel Plaza: keeping Breezewood, PA (America’s gas station town) from running on empty.
Breezewood. It sounds like it could be the name of a stereotypical suburb to a major Midwest city (Chicago definitely comes to mind); it also sounds sufficiently generic that one might expect a
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Recent Comments
- on Breezewood revisited: a more graphic assessment of America’s first rest area town.: “I’m surprised any Radio Shack lasted so long, especially in a 2nd floor location. I wonder if they had some…” May 5, 13:39
- on A hydrant below sea level: raising the stakes for mitigating property loss.: “Interesting observations, David–I didn’t realize dimensions could be so widely varied in terms of how different municipalities seek to comply…” May 5, 00:48
- on Breezewood revisited: a more graphic assessment of America’s first rest area town.: “My wife and I are both “catch a quick bite” AND DDD types. Usually we save the DDD for breakfast…” May 4, 21:46
- on Breezewood revisited: a more graphic assessment of America’s first rest area town.: “Good point, though the one saving grace is that Gateway Travel Plaza has been there pretty much since Breezewood morphed…” May 4, 07:55
- on Breezewood revisited: a more graphic assessment of America’s first rest area town.: “Maybe! Does Best Buy have any of those “boutique” versions of its big-box locations? The shuttered Radio Shack was a…” May 4, 07:51
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