Cape Cod’s Fish Pier Is Tourist Bait
Last year I wrote on Rooflines about a personal connection I had to the time when Cape Cod, that little peninsula in Massachusetts, was better known as a place to […]
Have CDCs Created a Dependent Poor Population?
Michael McQuarrie’s article, “What Mumbai’s Slums Do Right, And Why We Should Emulate Them,“ in the new issue of Shelterforce makes an intriguing suggestion that the citizens of slum neighborhoods […]
Show Up and Be Heard for Rural America
As I was reading recently about China's effort to herd around 250 million farmers and their families from the countryside into cities, I was surprised to learn that the farmers […]
CDCs Adapt to the New Normal
CDCs and their support organizations consider what it takes to weather the recession—from business model changes to different funding streams to mergers.
Rural Transit: A Matter of Life or Death, and in Danger
In the city, many working people and senior citizens rely on public transit to get to the office, doctor appointments, or shopping. No one questions the value of this service […]
Building Community Note by Note
As I listened to a fine bluegrass band play in Courthouse Square in Virginia the other night, I was thinking about how important music is to our community. We may […]
The Potential for Affordability
The other day a genteel old six-bedroom house at the end of my street went up for auction. It sold for $90,000. In good condition this house might have gone […]
To Move Forward, Richmond Must Confront Its Racist Roots
Successful cities adapt. They do not achieve success by remaining static. Adapting might be thought of in terms of building a new economic base or welcoming changes in the city’s demographic […]
Life Without Fossil Fuels
Last fall, I wrote on Rooflines about people in intentional communities who engage with the market economy, even as they live a communal lifestyle that contrasts with the mainstream. When I […]
Questioning the Core of Charlottesville’s Economy
What makes a local economy thrive, not just on the surface, but deep down? I found myself pondering this question as I listened last week to a panel of speakers […]
Recovery from the Grassroots
An interesting new planning document by the Sandy Regional Assembly was just released by a cross-section of grassroots groups, most based in New York City, on how to prevent the […]
Is Your Town a Parasite?
What would you do if someone told you your town, the place you'd grown up in and where you had connections, a place that had meaning to you, ought to […]