Find a city to live in

"One thing I have realized is that I do not want to live a life in the suburbs like I grew up in and my parents now live. I want a big back yard and grass and birds. Or else I wish to live on a quiet street in the city, a close walk to stores and entertainment. I came to this conclusion this summer after being home unexpectantly to recover from an operation.

"I looked at the suburbs with a fresh vision and judged it. I saw that the suburbs are asleep. During the day the only people outside are the hired hands of the homeowners- lawn and tree service people, roofer, painters and asphalt blacktoppers. The streets and sidewalks are vacant: no mothers walking slowly with their children, no dogwalkers.

"It is lonely. I decided I did not want to live in such a place where life is so far away. Nothing feels immediate in the suburbs; money has distanced the suburbanite from everything."
- written fall 1986 when I was only a year out of the suburb

If everybody went to bed at the same time, the whole world would die

... Sayeth Allen Toussaint (via Lee Dorsey). And I think Jane Jacobs would agree.

Her recommendations for multi-use neighborhoods were well known to me, but it was a revelation to read her advocacy for 18-24 hour districts. Her strict condemnation of civic single-use districts were also compelling.

But those districts are here (in the form of large governmen complexes, hospitals, schools, sports facilities and the like), so what to do with the edges which are barriers rather than zippers to connect two unmatched (land use) suitors?

Got my prescription filled

I went to caucus and the Mayor was at the door wearing an Obama sticker. I said, "You can't do that, Hillary's the establishment candidate. His response was to tag my chest with an Obama sticker.

I saw Zeb, whose yard contains the biggest black walnut tree on the block. Chemotherapy had shorn him of the beard he'd grown for 40 years.