The content won't be new to many of you, but as part of the publicity for the big ole report I was working on forever, I've posted something on EquityBlog about what I like about living in a small city...
I also forgot to post my last column, in which I came back to the topic of gender assumptions about children, which I hadn't really written about ( Read more... )

Courtesy of a missing space in a news article about Buffalo, NY:

"Buffaloonly"

(In context: “Sadly, this is not a Buffaloonly problem”)

I'm thinking the definition ought have something to do with unproductive city-county feuds while everything goes to shit. (I'm not, by the way, hating on Buffalo. Some good work is being done there, and they're ( Read more... )

So, welcome to Rooflines, courtesy of the National Housing Institute.

My first post is entitled, grandiosely, Preparing for Peak Oil: Nutty Survivalism or Crucial Equity Issue?

I have committed to posting on Thursdays, and I might well post more often. (Though I probably shouldn't if I know what's good for my work life.)

If you're interested in ( Read more... )

like, in December, I was writing this article on Columbia University's expansion plans for the Manhattanville neighborhood, and how eminent domain figured in the fight over the plans.

Being that it was for a quarterly, which was then redesigning its website (and you know that always takes longer than planned), the article's only recently gone online ( Read more... )

A level playing field for cities (points for his ballsy comments about Thoreau, whom I love as much as the next nature-lover)
"Urban poverty does not reflect urban failure, but rather the enduring appeal of cities to the less fortunate. Poor people come to cities because urban areas offer economic opportunity, better social services, and the chance ( Read more... )

Given that I spend so much time paying attention to the ill effects on the residents of cities who have been left behind over the decades when (mostly white) people with choices headed off for the suburban fringe, I have trouble not being grimly satisfied to hear that all of us who said it wouldn't last weren't blowing smoke. In the Altantic...
In ( Read more... )

I went outside Thursday to shovel, not realizing how warm it was, and found that our sidewalk didn't need it. But I've been craving exercise, and so on a whim I went down to clear the annoying, slippery sidewalk in front of the empty house two doors down. It was compacted and heavy and so somewhat slow going, but satisfying ( Read more... )

From the Environmental Impact Statement for Columbia University's planned expansion into neighboring Manhattanville:
"Demolition of the former Sheffield Farms Stable at 3229 Broadway in the Academic Mixed-Use Area constitutes a significant adverse impact on this historic resource."

So I haven't written my car-free erranding story yet, but one of the replies I got did inspire this week's column, "I'm Too Busy to Go by Car." It's timely, since Take Back Your Time Day (Oct. 24) is rapidly approaching. (Not to mention that I've managed to overschedule myself with projects again. I think. Or maybe I've hit it just right. I won't ( Read more... )

For those with an interest in cities (especially Rust Belt cities) or planning or advocacy for low-income people or affordable housing I have an article in the summer issue of Shelterforce on the Shrinking Cities "movement":

"No community developer likes to be told that the housing she just built was "not doing anybody a favor." But ( Read more... )