friend of the built environment

Anonymous said…We are a post-industrial city with few decent links to the past. Charlotte never had an abundance of interesting architecture that often accompanied old buildings in places like Pittsburgh, Louisville and even Cleveland. Cotton mill owners weren’t that into city beautiful movements.That being said, the chain mentality has already won. Look at ANY new [...]

You all have much more entertaining lives than I, so be grateful that I’ve spared you mine until this recap:

July: worked a lot in SF. Visited niece in Fresno. Helped sister move to new house and childproof it. Spent 10 days at home the entire month, one day spent cleaning, two days spent doing yard-work, one [...]

I have renewed my contract with my San Fancisco client for another year. It has been mostly in my favor - I will be working a more regular schedule, and the travel will be reduced by a couple days per month. In return I cut my fee by a small amount and have to find [...]

Alameda is a really strange place, by Bay Area standards.It’s not outrageously expensive, considering its geography and the quality of housing on offer. It has a vast amount of undeveloped space and thus a healthy reserve for future growth, thanks to a dead naval air station on the northern half of the island. It is [...]

I honestly don’t understand people who like putting themselves into intentionally adverse conditions. I especially don’t understand people who intentionally put themselves into social conditions in adverse places. Thus, I’ve never understood camping and hiking, let alone Street Fairs or Burning Man.I have lots of friends who just love street fairs, camping, Burning Man, DragonCon, [...]