Graham Sheridan, masters candidate in public administration at Brown University, takes my civic-infereiorty complex to task and demands that a city can and should have it all. Let’s not fall into the trap that mixed-use is only a building code or type. Shiny new places are great, but I want us to maintain the places […]
Share Recently, a friend on Facebook asked this somewhat quintessential question: Why don’t black folks own businesses in their own neighborhoods? One commenter to this status mentioned that it may be because we (as in black folks) have forgotten to help our own as we have achieved higher and higher financial goals and wealth. I […]
Sorry Alexandria, you’re really a city, but I think we all knew that deep down(Photo Shot by me in August of 2008) What makes a suburb a suburb? It’s one of the major questions that is at the center of the battle for how governments or independent communities of people should regulate and create public […]
Share So your clothes are dirty. The hamper is overflowing. No big deal right? The washer and dryer are in the closet. Or maybe you have to lug them downstairs, but nevertheless, laundry machines are never too far away. Unless you are me and living in Downtown Greensboro, without the rental machines that cost way […]
So your clothes are dirty. The hamper is overflowing. No big deal right? The washer and dryer are in the closet. Or maybe you have to lug them downstairs, but nevertheless, laundry machines are never too far away. Unless you are me and living in Downtown Greensboro, without the rental machines that cost way too […]
Share Last year, I wrote a list of wishes for 2011. Looking back, a number of those wishes have come true. The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, a beloved start-up incubator, is set to get remodeled and become bigger and better.We have the promise of HondaJet expanding in Greensboro. I witnessed the Greensboro City Council get […]
I think a major layer of community building is the inferiority complex. I’m seeing it again as we are preparing to welcome Trader Joes into our community. We spend too much time thinking we need to spend money on expensive stadiums and art centers to be more urbane. If we are over that demon, we […]
I spent my New Years weekend in my adopted hometown of Raleigh. I watched as they dropped an acorn to ring in the New Year, a nod to the city’s designation of the “City of Oaks”. I hung around for a couple of extra days as well to chill out. As part of my vacation, […]
The news picked up on the latest Pew Research Center study stating how income inequality has increased tensions here in America.Nowhere has this inequality grown greater than in my hometown of Greensboro. Yes Weekly has a great spread on how our poverty zone has extended far beyond it’s original barriers and how old money neighborhoods […]
L ast night (January 18) in Greensboro, Richmond, Charlotte, Raleigh, and yesterday afternoon in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, it snowed. That’s kind of a big deal for us. Chicagoians, New Yorkers, Canadians, and any and all others who see snow once a week from September to March can go ahead and laugh. Why does the […]
Schools may not be the urbanist anchors we want, but the community can serve as a school, as well as push for transit that connects other educational needs. On Sunday I read an article in the News and Observer that illustrates the true effect of the modern neighborhood school. In this article, schools in wealthy […]
Like this luggage, sometimes I linger in the sunset at the crossroads of whether or not it’s worth picking up the baggage and moving on. (Credit: Flickr user: C.M. Keiner) Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my post graduate school place of residence. There are days that I would like to spend that time […]
ShareYou either pay exorbitant amounts of money to it or you have moved to a community on purpose to get away from it. You probably want to get rid of it, especially if you want to tear out your front yard or save for retirement without watching that $300 a month go down the drain. […]
We must be careful that the Southside neighborhood and others like it, not fall back into the darkness at the expense of other vibrant neighborhoods, such as our traditional downtown (Image Credit: Unknown Flickr user via CityBoi at Skyscraper City Forums) Recently the national-award winning, Duany Plater-Zyberk designed community of Southside in Greensboro lost a […]
