The death spiral of an American family

This Washington Post article by Eli Saslow is both compelling reading and in equal measures depressing and a call to arms. This really isn’t about poor people who don’t try hard enough, don’t work hard enough, it’s about a failing system, everything from hours of work, to transport, and support systems. In many respects it resembles a self eating virus, where the only way forward for many is to eat their future. Meanwhile instead of meaningful change and addressing the issues, Republican States are wasting time banning books and trying any way they can to stop women getting abortions. Some … Continue reading The death spiral of an American family

People not Parking – What Next for Louisville?

I wrote an in Op-Ed in the Colorado Hometown weekly back in December 2018. On August 21st, CHW printed a follow-up. The website for the Hometown Weekly seems to have stopped updating back in April, so I’ve reproduced it here. It is, I think, very germain to the November Louisville CO election. There are 3x councillors and a new mayor up for election. I attended the City consultation on the Transportation Master Plan, and there are little to no improvements under discussion for Main St. Louisville can change and still be historic If things don’t change, they’ll stay the same, … Continue reading People not Parking – What Next for Louisville?

Residential Parking Permit Programs

This is bound to come up here in #louisvilleCO sometime, given the city wants to expand downtown, and doesn’t have a parking solution. Back in my old town, Austin Texas, it’s still a thing. I read this excellent blog post by Meghan Skornia. I’d like to have commented on her blog directly, sadly it requires a facebook ID, which regular readers will know, I don’t have anymore. I tried to reply via twitter but it was typo-ridden and out of sequence. So, here it is with corrections. I lived on the 600-block of W Johanna St for 10-years. The block … Continue reading Residential Parking Permit Programs

Cyclists and Pedestrians generate more income for a town

This Forbes article came up again recently. My hometown, Louisville CO, is still struggling with how to incentivise redevelopment downtown, following the “collapse” of their parking garage initiative run for the city by the Louisville Revitalization Commission (LRC). I even applied for a vacant seat on the LRC, which I didn’t get. Better that than being one of those people who just complain at every opportunity. I’ve encouraged the Mayor and Councillors to do more to make it easy for people that could get downtown without using private cars, to do so. Disappointingly, nothing has happened in the 3-years I’ve … Continue reading Cyclists and Pedestrians generate more income for a town

Kohl’s and Car Oriented Development

Back in July, @_anthonyhahn wrote an article which appeared in both the Daily Camera and the Colorado Hometown Weekly about a potential new Kohl’s store in Lafayette CO, and what that meant for the Louisville CO store. Kohl’s to open in #LafayetteCO, leaving future of department store’s #LouisvilleCO site in question https://t.co/aImC6qPMKF via @_anthonyhahn — Daily Camera (@dailycamera) July 9, 2018 While pitting the two adjacent cities against each other in a battle for sales tax is valid, it totally misses the point about all the new development around the 287 Corridor, north of Lafayette. At the time, I wrote … Continue reading Kohl’s and Car Oriented Development

I don’t want to sit here

*The inspiration for this post and the words and comments came from the excellent Strongtowns blog, and a post written by Gracen Johnson. One of the more interesting challenges of living somewhere that is a high development area, is not the density, construction, or traffic, it is trying to ensure that in the rush to build, there is more than a hat-tip to quality of life. Boulder and surrounds are synonymous with open space, and trails. All the developments adjacent to my neighborhood has trails and reasonably close access to open space, usually via trails. However, in a development with … Continue reading I don’t want to sit here