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151 articles

Health clubs after-COVID: spatial limitations may prevent people from paring the pandemic poundage.

June 14, 2020 No Comments

Among the business enterprises that faced the most stringent of restrictions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic were health clubs and sports/recreational facilities.  Viewed through the prism of contagion, this injunction on gyms during the lockdown generally made sense: they routinely bring people together in close proximity (whether locker rooms or aerobics classes); they allow patrons to

Holiday season supermarket displays: colors, curios, and comestibles.

February 29, 2020 No Comments

When most Americans hear the phrase “holiday season” they tend to think of the end of the year—generally the time frame from Thanksgiving to Christmas (or Hanukkah), then to New Year’s Day  But our appetite for celebratory gestures—and the marketplace’s zeal to respond to it through commodification—has essentially expanded the holiday season to Halloween, given

Wegmans: the grocer whose Valentine’s offering has got some real meat on it.

February 9, 2020 10 Comments

I generally shy away from seasonal postings, but sometimes it’s hard to resist.  And since I’ve got several irons in the fire right now regarding bigger, weightier, more robust posts, I feel compelled to send out some Valentine’s Day wishes…in the form of some choice cuts of meat. While rib-eye steak isn’t everyone’s top pick

Right-turn spurs get the axe in Alexandria: is it safer at any speed?

December 26, 2019 12 Comments

The vehicularly inclined among us have probably noticed how, in recent years, various cities have adopted new stripes, bollards, stanchions, and sometimes modified curbs that make it highly inconvenient to make right turns.  Yes, this is deliberate. No, it’s not happening to give motorists a hard time, though it definitely doesn’t make things easier, which

Our fathers’ founding food court.

November 10, 2019 3 Comments

A recent visit to a popular attraction in northern Virginia revealed an unexpected little food court.Though it looks pretty lifeless from the photo, I don’t think it was struggling; I caught it right before the end of the business day, so things were winding down. Needless to say, this food court boasts plenty of sunlight

The pocket park: does a mega city need a mini playground?

August 26, 2019 10 Comments

The caliber of playground amenities in our urban parks has improved and diversified considerably in recent years. I can remember when I was a child: it was typical for each piece of equipment to sit in isolation, almost forcing the kids to decide between playing with one another or engaging with the equipment and making

Baptism by asphalt: how Emmanuel Episcopal handles its parking predicament.

July 31, 2019 8 Comments

I’ve blogged in the past—by this point, the distant past—about church parking lots, and what they indicate about religious life and the shift in denominational trends that took place during the twentieth century…trends that continue unabated in the twenty-first. I have no idea about the state of things at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in northern Virginia,

Crystal City surprises: a 1970s-era Edge City engulfs a streetcar suburb.

July 30, 2019 10 Comments

By this point, it is all but common knowledge that metro Washington, DC will greet the second headquarters for Amazon.com, the world’s largest soup-to-nuts Internet-based company. Less familiar, though, is its exact location, in an area called Crystal City, a mixed-use enclave directly across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, in Arlington County, Virginia.

Our fathers’ founding food court.

November 10, 2019 3 Comments

A recent visit to a popular attraction in northern Virginia revealed an unexpected little food court.Though it looks pretty lifeless from the photo, I don’t think it was struggling; I caught it right