Underneath the Surface, a Community Fish Story
Sometimes I learn about the details of a community's development in the most random ways. My family gets together every summer on Cape Cod, as do thousands of families from […]
The American Dream of Nowhere
As I embarked on my journey the other day to a planning conference, I carried a dog-eared copy of James Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere in my bag. This book […]
Come for the Mortgage, Stay for the Repairs
The storm that swept through the mid Atlantic last Friday night brought me a reminder of a certain truth: We must keep paying a lot more than the mortgage for […]
Those Who Lived Here Before Us
One question most of us probably don’t ask when we’re thinking of renting or buying a home is, who were the people who lived here before us? I’ve lived in many […]
The Choo-Choo and the Bus
My son, who is approaching 2 years of age, is obsessed with trains. And it's no wonder: every day as many as 10 freight trains whistle and chug their way […]
The Raw Extraction Economy
By now most people in urban America who pay attention to the news have heard of fracking, the practice of drilling into rock deep beneath the Earth’s surface in search […]
Preserving History with Neighborhood Character
Driving through Virginia’s Hanover County the other day, I was struck by how much history has imprinted itself on the landscape. I drove by the Hanover Courthouse, where Patrick Henry […]
Take Me Home On (Sort Of) Country Roads
The other day at a meeting I heard some residents complaining that Virginia’s transportation department won’t pave their road. I had to feel for these folks, with their cars forever […]
Rural Food Deserts
I was introduced to the concept of the community garden on my street in Boston several years ago, on a site where a house had burned to the ground some […]
Neighbors: Faraway, So Close!
“Why does everyone in the country live out in the middle of nowhere? It’s so inefficient!” This was the reaction of a friend of ours, who hails from Europe, on […]
The End of the Rural “Suburb”?
I read a recent column that suggested getting rid of the word “suburb.” While there’s still a distinction between the central city and the outskirts, the author noted that many […]
Urban Over Here, Loss of Rural Freedom Over There
On the national level, the Tea Party has been viewed by some as a conservative movement concerned with rolling back changes over the past few decades for social and economic justice. On the […]