Writing in City Observatory, Joe Cortwright recently raised a good point regarding smart cities: so far, their solutions are neither very smart nor very useful. “Color us skeptical: It’s hard to see how we’ll make better decisions with even bigger…
As China cracked down progressively more on Hong Kong this summer, arresting more pro-democracy protestors and clamping down on the city’s autonomy, a number of commentators from the intersection of urbanism, policy and tech proposed establishing “New Hong Kong” or…
What to do when your paycheck bounces and 4 Steps to take when you can’t pay your rent are now up at the Hanscom Federal Credit Union Money Wisdom blog. While somewhat rare, thankfully, in “What to do when your…
I reviewed “New York’s Original Penn Station: The Rise and Fall of an American Landmark” by Paul Kaplan for The University Bookman. Spoiler alert: the book isn’t great and Penn Station got demolished.
My article “How to Retrofit Your Neighborhood to Save Urban Civilization” was published at The American Conservative on June 26. It’s about how American cities and towns can redevelop around walking, biking and “15 minute neighborhoods” that are more resilient…
In “The American Condservative, I addressed the fear mongering that dense urban living was responsible for the spread of the Coronavirus and concluded that it wasn’t. Many writers blamed not only density (which isn’t really a thing in this country),…
My latest article in The American Conservative, on the urbanism of films, was very popular. It had many comments, shares and retweets. I also got an email from a producer of the Dan Proft Show, a radio show based in…
My latest piece at The American Conservative, “Why Star Wars is better at urban planning than real planners“, was published February 28. It’s about how cities in movies are presented versus how they work in real life and that, frankly,…
Sooner or later, anyone who lives in Allston-Brighton has to spend a lot of time in Kenmore Square. Three branches of the Green Line and several bus routes, most importantly the 57 and its variant 57A, converge there. The train…