The Deleted Scenes - New and Old #46
Urban planning can facilitate friendship — and the Catholic Church can help, America, Eve Tushnet, February 17, 2022 Eve Tushnet interviewed me for this piece months ago, and I had forgotten what I had even told her. Bur I’m not recommending this because I’m in it (and only in a short part of it), but because it brings together so many of the themes I write about here. It’s about the intersection of friendship and human relationships in general with the form of the built environment. E.g.:
And:
There’s a lot more in here. Read the whole, beautiful thing. The Pandemic Shows Us the Genius of Supermarkets, The Atlantic, Bianca Bosker, July 2020 Starting with the history of the supermarket—which, like many important innovations, evolved out a series of shifts in retail and economics rather than suddenly appearing fully formed—Bosker goes on to point out just how incredible supermarkets really are. There’s also a lot of really interesting early-pandemic reporting here. It’s also kind of the story of the long-running New York-area grocery chain Fairway. As you probably can guess, this is my kind of article, and it’s a pleasure to read. So, read it! It’s not all perfect:
But I’d like to point to this:
This is one of those things we Americans forget or sort of poke fun at, but it’s true, and not something to take for granted. And this:
De-Suburbanizing Suburbia: Is It Possible?, Strong Towns, Tim Wright, July 18, 2019 This piece, with before and after images of an outlet center in Texas, is a great illustration of how small details can do a lot to make car-oriented commercial environments more welcoming to people. It’s a very similar set of points to a piece I recently did for Strong Towns, on an aging strip mall turned Vietnamese cultural and commercial center in Northern Virginia. But it’s not just about design details, like benches, plantings, etc.—it’s also about a higher ratio of business activity to parking, and a broader range of businesses or services that can keep people lingering longer. Suburbia isn’t going anywhere, but much of it is going to change a lot, and you could do much, much worse than this. Courthouse Square Flemington - What's Coming, Dave Norton, February 16, 2022 A fellow who owns a store downtown in Flemington, where I grew up, put together a great synopsis here of the town’s major redevelopment project: a renovation of its historic Main Street hotel along with several new buildings forming a mixed-use development right in the middle of town. This project has taken over a decade to materialize, and is still disliked by a lot of folks in Flemington. But as such projects go, in my opinion, it’s very good. It’s an example of an existing town intensifying an underutilized piece of prime real estate. Check this out as a general example of the sorts of opportunities a lot of towns have, if they take them. (I wrote about Flemington at more length here, and about another upcoming big project there, as well.) Related Reading: Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekend subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive of nearly 300 posts and growing. And you’ll help ensure more material like this! You’re a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
Older messages
Forgotten But Not Gone
Thursday, February 24, 2022
More thoughts on dead blogs
Church Shopping?
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
What Do You Think You're Looking At? #46
I Floss My Teeth With a 8-Track Tape
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Thoughts on "design DNA"
Breaking the Fever
Monday, February 21, 2022
Getting to the heart of what's wrong with a certain strain of conservative pandemic commentary
What is NIMBYism?
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Looking not for descriptions, but for history
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