Posts Tagged ‘Ben Brown’
Livin’ Large in Small Spaces: It Takes a Town
I’m big on small. Ever since the 2005 Misissippi Renewal Forum in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I’ve been beating the drum for Katrina Cottages and cottage neighborhoods. Most recently here and, in 2009, here. I haven’t exactly been a voice in the wilderness. In fact, I wasn’t even among the early wave of advocates.
Read MoreSeason’s Greetings from Alabama: Where Stars Aligned
Here’s a story of hope for the holidays. And like most good stories, it begins with bad news. On April 20, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing 11 of its 126 rig workers. That was the first tragedy. Then, came the second, as oil from the uncapped well began…
Read MoreDhiru’s Encyclopedia of City-Shaping: Reassurance in Uncertain Times
Just about anybody remotely interested in how the world’s most admired places earned their adulation is going to love Dhiru Thadani’s new book: The Language of Towns and Cities. In it, Dhiru subtitles the book “A Visual Dictionary,” but as L.J. Aurbach points out in his blog review, it’s really an encyclopedia. And it couldn’t…
Read MoreKatrina’s Fifth Anniversary: Getting Real in Mississippi
Every year since Hurricane Katrina mauled the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf coasts, I’ve returned to Mississippi around the storm’s August 29 anniversary to renew friendships and refine my capacity for humility. The friendships have turned out to be the most rewarding outcomes of the 2005 Mississippi Renewal Forum, the historic charrette in Biloxi six weeks…
Read MoreSustainability’s Triple Bottom Line: Tool for Commit-a-Phobes?
As a recovering journalist, I’m working hard to suppress old impulses. But habits of a couple decades are hard to shake. Which is why I’m struggling with familiar twitches of cynicism when it comes to “sustainability.” We’ve reached a point where just about everybody is laying claim to a sustainability strategy, whether we’re talking mining…
Read MoreBack to the Farm (And to the Bunker)
Just when reporters were beginning to buy into the hopefulness of “sprawl repair” and “ag is the new golf,” Andres Duany trips them up with visions of the dark side. Or at least the really hard side, as in the hard work ahead if we’re to reverse the direction of 20th century excesses. “Our wealth…
Read MorePlanning & Zoning: The Musical
When was the last time you heard someone make the case for the “soulfulness” of zoning? Or capture the essence of “third place” theory in a song? Unless you’ve been listening to singer/songwriter Melanie Hammet, you probably haven’t experienced the connection, at least not quite in this way and certainly not at this level of…
Read More18th New Urbanist Congress: Best Ever?
What’s constitutes “best ever” depends on the takeaways, right? And when it comes to conferences, we could be talking takeaways that aren’t products of the event itself. Like maybe you got a job or connected with a soul mate. Let’s call that the upside of unintended consequences.
Read MoreZoning: No Longer Just for Nerds
Remember when you could empty a room by trying to work zoning philosophy into a conversation? Okay, you can still do that in most places. But the coolness quotient is on the rise, we swear. Consider the adoption late last year of a form-based code in Miami, surely one of the most exotic political environments…
Read More