We'll get to that in a second. First, stuff:

ART Sometimes it's just sufficient to say: mid-century British library posters. That works for you or it doesn't.

URBANISM New Apartment, according to this story; here's the site.


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Meanwhile, this Smithsonian story makes you wonder if we've reached peak peak. The term "peak X" usually means when we start to run out of something, or the high point of attainability and abundance. So it's ridiculous to ask if we've reached "peak suburb" - except that it suggests there's some iron law governing the process. I mean, peak oil means you start to run out of oil because there isn't any more. We haven't run out of suburbs. It usually means someone has come up with data that shows not that the range of choices is expanding, huzzah, but some people are deciding to live in a way that validates the author's preferences.

Growing. Suggests. May. Case closed! Also, it's a false distinction: just because "walkable" urban areas are increasing doesn't mean that sprawling suburbs will disappear. I mean, when the "era of dinosaurs is ending" they die out. When the "era of whale blubber used as a source of illumination is ending" it means people no longer use any whale blubber for lamps.

Good! If more people want to live in the city, let the market build what they need. If more people want to live in the suburbs for whatever reason they have, let them live in the suburbs. This would seem to be a point upon which all can agree, no? No. It's a contentious fault line, because some people want to shape things to encourage the proper choice. The article ends:

If people want to surrender the things they like voluntarily, make a trade-off to enjoy the benefits of walkable cities - which, in this part of the country, means "slippable" half the year, then let them. But the article suggests that the "giving up" part must be required.

As for building dense neighborhoods, let's see how that's working out on the Superior Plating site:

Well, then, buy the site and build it yourself. Honestly. The block's been a vacant eyesore for a long time, and who knows what hellish metals lurked beneath it. Someone comes along to put something up on the site and it's not big enough. I agree: bigger would be better. I agree: another building that looks like all the other apartments going up is an opportunity lost. But:

Which is a new definition of "Walkable cities," perhaps.