Florida is preparing for Hurricane Milton, the second significant storm in two weeks to impact the southern US. Hurricane Helene killed at least 220 people and caused horrific damage in North Carolina, many miles from the coast, where massive rainfalls triggered widespread flooding.

These storms are likely part of a new normal, in which warm waters ( Read more... )

Heading into Decatur on Illinois Route 48, you quickly begin to sense a pattern. You pass a field of corn followed by a field of soybeans. Soybeans, then corn, corn, then soybeans. The highway follows the railroad track and every five to ten miles, there’s a small town, little more than a grain elevator, some sort of general store, and occasionally ( Read more... )

The first thing I do when I come to an unfamiliar city is look for where I want to eat. This is in part because I am a large man and eating is one of my primary pleasures in life. But looking for exciting food is one of the best ways to understand the past and future of a town.

If you come to visit Pittsfield, Massachusetts, you’ll find the usual ( Read more... )

Cities change over time. Communities that were organized around production of steel or auto parts or glass are now organized around finance and healthcare, tourism and universities. There’s a tendency - understandable perhaps, but pretty offensive if you ask me - to conclude that some of these old industrial cities just don’t need to exist anymore ( Read more... )

I tried to write this post from the last leg of my trip, between Utica, NY and Pittsfield, MA. I’ve been dictating posts as I go, recording on my iPhone and transcribing using MacWhisper, a Mac port of the OpenAI large language model used to transcribe YouTube videos. Weirdly, Whisper has been getting worse as I’ve used it - perhaps Amy’s car is ( Read more... )

Sunday morning in Youngstown Ohio, I almost put my road trip to an abrupt halt. I had just visited a surplus store near downtown which featured in its parking lot an “urban assault vehicle”, a camouflage painted car with a giant slingshot on the back. I’ve been led to the car in question by Roadside America, one of my favorite resources for ( Read more... )

Every place is a palimpsest with layer upon layer of history written atop one another. Every so often you have the opportunity to scratch below the surface and see the strata of history.

One of those places where the layers become visible is across the street from Woodlawn Cemetery on the outskirts of Elmira, New York. A tidy white farmhouse with a ( Read more... )

Binghamton, NY, seat of Broome County, NY
Population 48,000
Peak population 81,000 in 1950
Former home to Endicott Johnson (shoes), major IBM plant
Now home of Binghamton University
Housing/Income ratio: 2.4 (10 of 384)
+0.46% net international migration, -1.37% population growth 2020-2023
78% white, 11% black, 6% hispanic
Severe flood, Moderate fire, ( Read more... )

What can you tell about a city from the numbers?

I’m about to spend two weeks engaging in one of my favorite passtimes - driving to unfamiliar cities and attempting to “figure them out”. Why is this city where it is? Is it growing or shrinking? Where do people work? What do they do for fun? And most importantly, where should I eat?

I’ve gotten into ( Read more... )

The road trip is a cultural rite of passage in the US, and there’s countless ways to organize your path across the country. You can follow a famous road, Route 66 through the west, the Pacific Coast Highway, or Route 20 across the north. You can chase a theme, following the Blues highway, or just blue highways, the minor roads that criss-cross the ( Read more... )