January 2009
2 posts
“The Recently Deflowered Girl” (1965) –... →
December 2008
9 posts
WatchHulu - Saturday Night Live: Really !?!: Gov. Blagojevich
November 2008
15 posts
WatchHulu - Saturday Night Live: Sloths!
reUsing the Economy →
Recently, I wrote a short spot on scrappers and trashers. It focused on 2 professions, the first belonging largely to illegal immigrants trying to make a living under the radar by picking up scrap…
An Era of Inspiration →
I just wanted to remind everybody, that yes, Obama has won the presidential nomination of the United States of America, but it is not over. Our problems are not solved. It is up to us to follow his…
Incredible →
Just got back from Barack’s massive victory rally in Grant Park, here in Chicago. America’s first black prez certainly knows how to throw a party; but the really amazing thing wasn’t…
A Tall Order for Poverty →
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the increasing density of our cities, especially in developing countries like India, Nigeria, and China. It’s a sort of conundrum because when we think…
October 2008
38 posts
Can Buildings Learn? →
How Buildings Learn, by Stewart Brand, is a perceptive study of how the built environment changes over time. Brand draws insight from a wide variety of historic and contemporary…
What could be new about “New Localism”? (and... →
In a recent Washington Post article Joel Kotkin uses the term “New Localism” to describe a series of current (escalating) shifts in the operative and moral landscape of U.S….
Cities Rising →
Yesterday’s Washington Post talks about the anti-urban bias of American politics:
Is Obama’s ascent a further sign…that our cities are back and that the country is making peace with…
Bringing Soil Back →
Hunters Point Shipyard is an unusually shaped peninsula hanging off the southeastern corner of San Francisco. Once an important Navy yard servicing the United States’ Pacific fleet, Hunters…
The Ads Are In the Air →
In case you were wondering, the answer is no; nothing is sacred anymore. At least not to advertisers. A Dutch company called Geotronics recently launched a re-branding campaign by staging a …
Harshing Body Art →
It’s too late now, but I think the question Dan should have asked Kunstler is why he hates artistic expression. (Photo from Flickr user Dean Terry. The original full-sized color…
The Valley Does Watts →
Pickle and Cake has this great video of a field trip of suburban LA residents to another suburb that happens to have this famous piece of outsider architecture. Of course, the trip is…
Housing in Wartime →
I’ve been reading this biography of Ove Arup (who was the hot-shit engineer, for what that’s worth), and while it contains all of what irritates me about the biography genre — who really…
Link →
Mention subway stations, and instantly images of a dark seedy platform spring to mind. A place where green neons flicker and where Neo battles Agent Smith in duel to the death. A place the…
“When you see prominent Republicans making the decision to support Obama in this...”
– The Bellows » Judgment
Wanted: Questions for Kunstler →
I’ll be going to a talk by James Howard Kunstler tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday, October 21). If I get the opportunity, I want to ask him a penetrating question or make an astute…
The Garden City, Revisited →
Sir Ebenezer Howard was a true visionary. In 1898 he wrote ‘To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform’ which outlined his vision of towns in the UK. He wanted to create towns that would…
Check Us Out: New Team, New Design →
What blog can go through a major structural overhaul without a major visual one as well? Certainly not this one! Today marks the first “official” day of the new Where, with the fully redesigned blog…
Sacred Figs →
There are many new ideas about how to deal with urban poverty, but one of my favorites in an old one. Plant trees. Consider, for example, the Sacred Fig trees found in the impoverished…
Section 8 Everywhere →
Mixed-income neighborhoods are part of the urban planning canon and will make any good urbanist’s list of prescriptions for an ailing city. The potential benefits are overwhelming: better…
Spain, what have you done? →
I could understand it in the Middle Ages. Back then, if a country had a city in its realm, it was a clear exhibition of wealth. That country had moved on from subsistence farming and could afford to…
Cooper-Hewitt features Tulou affordable housing... →
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is currently showing an exhibition on Tulou, an affordable-housing prototype designed by Chinese architecture firm Urbanus for the city of…
Gender and Economic Access →
Walking through my Chicago Loop-based office building, I am often struck by the simultaneous layers of experience that exist in one geographical space. There are executives who have never stepped…
Taking the "I" out of "AID" →
USAID headlines its Web page on Urbanization and Poverty with these words:
“In the next 30 years the world’s population will grow by 2.2 billion people. Of these, 2.1 billion will be…
Poor Little (Formerly) Rich Us →
Whether or not we’re actually on the brink of collapse, as newspaper headlines suggest, it’s pretty clear that—for our generation, at least—the days of dizzy abundance are done for. Even…
Is Urban Poverty An Acquired Taste? →
“The whole idea of de-concentrating poverty was supposed to be that you would pick up middle-class values. But all it’s doing is urbanizing the suburbs.” [Emphasis added.] That’s what a suburban…
Of Scrappers and Trashers →
Due to the awesome economic climate being experienced here in America, two industries are seeing a surge in popularity. One relatively dated, the scrapping industry, made up primarily of…
About The Team →
Ladies and gentlemen, Where is no longer one, but many: Danny Ahkiam is an engineer designing high-rises in Los Angeles, helping to create the city that all those suburbs have been searching for….