By I know they are sites of capitalism, but when I go to the mall, I’m there to find things I need to make my own tools of system dismantlement and comforts through the storm. As we re-examine many of these spaces, they will thrive only if we see them as
Making It After All– On Social Media for Community Design and Minneapolis
I un-ironically wear a raspberry beret sometimes in the winter, and yes, I do throw it up in the air and tell the world that I’m going to make it after all. I was already cliche Minneapolis before I even set foot there the first time. Two of my favorite
Are You Mad About the Mall?– An Urbanist Holiday Tale
It’s the holiday season. You went to the mall or the mall-like replacement that’s available in your city or town. You left in one of two ways, both of which made you mad about the mall. The first way, you couldn’t get enough of the mall. You’re enamored with all
The Lost Corners of Suburbia
Belk at Four Seasons Mall IHOP on Hillsborough Street Two Guys Pizza on Hillsborough Street Wachovia at Spring Valley Plaza All these things used to be on the corner of something. All these places are places I made memories in. All of these places are gone or soon to be
Suburbs of Survival
What if you didn’t have a house to live in? What if the only house you could live in at the present moment, was not a shack, had running water and electricity and a loving parent to make sure you wake up every morning even though your routine is
Dispatches from Bookcation: As We Lay #Ferguson To Rest
I’ve been thinking about how I would respond to the recent events in Ferguson, MO. And then I realized, I’ve always been thinking about how I would respond to certain events. That this page responds to a lot of the ills that lead to what happened there and what has
The Department Store of the Amazon and New Urbanist Age
As of this writing, I’ve just learned that the Belk at the Four Seasons Mall, the last remaining enclosed mall in Greensboro, will close at the beginning of 2015. I fully expect two things at that mall. One, it will go the way of the Carolina Circle Mall, our other
What Happens When Nothing Is Done Structurally About Sprawl
Broken Down House. Derrick Hughes via Flickr. Despite my life hacks from this post, we have to do something on a structural and legal level about sprawl. Unchecked sprawl is the urban renewal of today. Instead of providing the services that are needed in the core of the city, there
The Internal Urban Sprawl Killer: DIY and Service Delivery
I have to always admit, that not all urban sprawl is the fault of the homeowner or apartment renter. Thanks to how our economy and our government is structured, there are a lot of people who would prefer a downtown condo or townhome, but are priced out of the privilege
#AudioThursday: Chilling in the Urbanism Speakeasy
Thursdays at The Black Urbanist are now audio days, where either I share great audio on placemaking topics, or I podcast. In lieu of me podcasting this week, I wanted to share my visit to Andy Boenau’s Urbanism Speakeasy, one of the fun podcasts in our neck of the woods. I
