When I go home to Greensboro, this is what’s around the corner. My little edge city. (Image from a YouTube screenshot). My whole writing existence, at least at this blog and a little bit at my one just before that, has been making sense and defining the cities I’ve lived
By Kristen Jeffers
Cities/Cityreads/Commons/downtown/Family and Place/gentrification/Government/Housing/How-To/Issues and Ideas/Podcast/transit/urbanism
On the Second Presidential Debate of 2016 and Knowing Your Truth About Where You Live
I wanted to discuss a comment about cities that came up in the debate/ town hall last night. Note, this is not a post endorsing one or the other, although I’ll say that I’m with her. But the issue brought up is one that trips up a lot of people
By Kristen Jeffers
Cityreads/creative class/Family and Place/Homelessness/Housing/Money and the City
The Quest for a Forever Home in an Era of Mass Gentrification
I’m on the quest to purchase my dream house, my forever home. Right now, that house is in Washington, DC and it’s one of the many row houses. It’s on a bus line or a flat street on which I can bike easily. Metro proximity is a bonus, but I’m
Why Feelings Matter Most with Citizens and Their Cities
Design can’t be everything. Ask your kid who goes to Disney World and doesn’t like Mickey or Cinderella Castle. All they want to do is ride Space Mountain a bunch of times. That’s right. They’d rather go on a ride that strips away your sense of knowing where you are
By Kristen Jeffers
Cities/Cityreads/Essay/Family and Place/Greensboro/Kansas City/transit/Transportation/urbanism/walking
From an Ambassador to Kansas City (Excerpt from Triad City Beat Fresh Eyes Column)
Roughly six weeks ago, after loading almost all of my worldly possessions into a moving truck, relatives helped me pack the rest into two cars and we departed our southwest Greensboro home at about 5 a.m., navigating the freeways past my father’s gravesite at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, on
Cruising Down a Curved Road
For the holiday, I went to my grandmother’s house in rural Alamance County for dinner and family time. I’ve written about making the drive before, but this time I want to focus on the areas of curved roads that I encounter on the route. I’ve driven on mountainous curved roads
Are Historically-Black Towns History?
Recently, I came across two sets of articles about Historically Black towns in Oklahoma and in Missouri. Part as a means of segregation and part as a means of dignity, self-respect and control of the civic space, African-Americans established or had help establishing their own towns after slavery. Unfortunately, the promises of
The Greensboro I Know Now
After writing Friday’s post, I have a few bullets I want to add about the Greensboro I’ve come to know since my return just over five years ago. The Greensboro that I know now: –Has a real downtown. I can go dancing, hear jazz music on Friday nights, play pool,
Placebook: For Every Sunset, A Sunrise
What do we say when we are on the cusp of change, but not quite there yet? When we wonder if we’ve really messed our city or town up for good with a decision we made, either on the large-scale as an elected official or on the small-scale when that
Placebook: Places My Dad Loved Part 1-Power Lines
I think my dad would have been tickled to know that his birthday weekend this year had one of the largest ice storms we’ve had in years. As a licensed electrician for the Guilford County Schools and for lots of other regular folks on the weekends, He greatly admired the
