I’m not sure I accept the need for actual “slums”, but I definitely agree with the general proposal that cities need to “age in place”, both the people and the buildings. Gentrification has it’s place, but only when nothing else … Continue reading Cities Need Slums?
This Forbes article came up again recently. My hometown, Louisville CO, is still struggling with how to incentivise redevelopment downtown, following the “collapse” of their parking garage initiative run for the city by the Louisville Revitalization Commission (LRC). I even applied for a vacant seat on the LRC, which I didn’t get. Better that than being one of those people who just complain at every opportunity. I’ve encouraged the Mayor and Councillors to do more to make it easy for people that could get downtown without using private cars, to do so. Disappointingly, nothing has happened in the 3-years I’ve … Continue reading Cyclists and Pedestrians generate more income for a town
Back in July, @_anthonyhahn wrote an article which appeared in both the Daily Camera and the Colorado Hometown Weekly about a potential new Kohl’s store in Lafayette CO, and what that meant for the Louisville CO store. Kohl’s to open in #LafayetteCO, leaving future of department store’s #LouisvilleCO site in question https://t.co/aImC6qPMKF via @_anthonyhahn — Daily Camera (@dailycamera) July 9, 2018 While pitting the two adjacent cities against each other in a battle for sales tax is valid, it totally misses the point about all the new development around the 287 Corridor, north of Lafayette. At the time, I wrote … Continue reading Kohl’s and Car Oriented Development
I’ve been frustrated that my blog has been withering but I just didn’t want to be an endless stream of rants about the #potus45 administration. So this isn’t about them, at all. While I have in mind a summery I’ll steer clear for now. So, meanwhile back in beautiful Colorado, the natives are getting worked up over a plan to install “quiet zones” for all the railroad crossings in town. As much as I can’t envisage enjoying the horn blowing, and we can barely hear them in the night, apparently many can and do like them and have a nostalgia … Continue reading Trains, horns and taxes
This is one of the best blogs of many on the Strong Towns blog. American suburbia is only viable with heavy government subsidy and planning — It would be unaffordable otherwise. As we see the Growth Ponzi Scheme unwinding and the first decades of what journalist Alan Ehrenhalt has called The Great Inversion, Americans are experiencing a return to normal living conditions. In many ways, it’s a traumatic transition; who-moved-my-cheese on a continental economic scale. Source: The Greatest Social Challenge of our Generation — Strong Towns Continue reading The Greatest Social Challenge of our Generation — Strong Towns
*The inspiration for this post and the words and comments came from the excellent Strongtowns blog, and a post written by Gracen Johnson. One of the more interesting challenges of living somewhere that is a high development area, is not the density, construction, or traffic, it is trying to ensure that in the rush to build, there is more than a hat-tip to quality of life. Boulder and surrounds are synonymous with open space, and trails. All the developments adjacent to my neighborhood has trails and reasonably close access to open space, usually via trails. However, in a development with … Continue reading I don’t want to sit here
Next week I’m speaking up at Texas A&M University on professional development, career management et al. I’ve finished the revision of my slides and if you’d like to preview them, or even better give me some feedback, you can find them it here: Technical and Professional career (3/27 Update: Final version.) A couple of related things came through my email today, they both have some interesting material some of which I cover, and that I don’t. 10 Mistakes that Could Doom Your Career as an IT Pro. How to get paid more (on theregister.com) Continue reading Careers and Professions in IT