Authors
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problogic
- Place Name Hall of Fame: Distinctly recognizable town/small and mid-sized city names
- Twelve planning lessons from Taos and the Taos Pueblo
- Solar energy production in the USA on former surface mines
- Monikers/nicknames for film and movie-making hubs
- Albuquerque – A city at the convergence of unparalleled geophysical landforms
- Strict planning & zoning destroys eclectic, offbeat, and funky
- Madrid, NM – Coal mining ghost town to eclectic art colony
- The many moods of the Sandia Mountains in a single day
- The “unity of drought” must supersede myths and self interest
- Gnarly Native American art on skateboard decks
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Category Archives: poverty
Strict planning & zoning destroys eclectic, offbeat, and funky
After three decades in the planning profession and several more years since retirement, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want your community to maintain or build a funky, hip, offbeat, or eccentric vibe, it can not be done … Continue reading
Posted in adaptive reuse, advertising, Advocacy, archaeology, architecture, art, branding, business, cities, civics, commerce, consumerism, Cuisine, culture, demographics, deregulation, diversity, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, family, Food, fun, gentrification, health, historic preservation, history, homelessness, Housing, humanity, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, landscape architecture, marketing, Mining, opinion, pictures, placemaking, planning, poverty, product design, revitalization, shopping, signs, Small business, social equity, spatial design, third places, tourism, Travel, urban design, urban planning, visual pollution, zoning
Tagged art, artistic, blight, cities, culture, eclectic, flair, fun, funky, neighborhoods, offbeat, planning, signs, style, towns, whimsy, zoning
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The racist rot that has corroded St. Louis and America
“The imperium of St. Louis (and thus of the United States) is continually framed by the history of genocide, removal, and the expropriation and control of land — all justified in the name of white supremacy.” Page 6 The recently … Continue reading
Posted in art, book reviews, books, cities, civics, Civil Rights, commerce, culture, demographics, diversity, economic development, feminism, geography, government, health, Highway displacement, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, immigration, inclusiveness, injustice, land use, literature, Native Americans, planning, politics, poverty, racism, Railroads, rivers/watersheds, Sexism, social equity, spatial design, sprawl, Statistics, urban design, urban planning, Women, writing
Tagged gender bias, hate, history, Missouri, plunder, racism, sexism, St. Louis, Walter Johnson, war, white supremacy
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Soviet-era and Russian Monotowns
In Russia, cities and towns whose economy and existence are largely tied to a single, dominating industry are referred as “Monotowns,” which is short for Monofunctional Towns (or Cities). These are basically their equivalent to the Western terminology of “Company Towns.” Most … Continue reading
Posted in business, cities, civics, commerce, Economy, geography, health, history, humanity, industry, infrastructure, land use, Maps, Mining, pictures, place names, placemaking, planning, poverty, Russia, social equity, sustainability, Trade, transportation, urban planning
Tagged company towns, economy, factories, industry, Monotowns, Russia, Soviet Union
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Historical geography of the Blues in America
The list below identifies the historical geography of 17 different styles of “the Blues”. Given multitudes of music genres and sub-genres, it is likely that other forms could have been included. The locations are listed by the decade in which … Continue reading
Posted in art, cities, Civil Rights, commerce, Communications, culture, entertainment, geography, historic preservation, history, injustice, Maps, music, placemaking, planning, poverty, social equity, third places, tourism, Travel
Tagged blues, Boogie Woogie, Chicago Blues, Delta Blues, Detroit Blues, East Texas Blues, entertainment, Hill Country Blues, Jug Band Blues, Kansas City Blues, Lower Chattahoochee Valley Blues, Memphis Blues, music, New Orleans Blues, Piedmont Blues, St. Louis Blues, Swamp Blues, West Coast Blues, Zydeco
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“The Newspaper Boy” – a helpful remedy when losing hope
Spoiler Alert: While I try not to reveal too much about details contained within the book, there are undoubtedly some aspect of spoilers contained within this post. If you prefer to read the book first without knowing too much about … Continue reading
Posted in Advocacy, art, book reviews, books, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, Communications, culture, diversity, education, entertainment, health, history, human rights, humanity, immigration, inclusiveness, injustice, literature, politics, poverty, racism, Religion, social equity, writing
Tagged Alabama, bigotry, Birmingham, book reviews, books, Chervis Isom, Civil Rights, civility, equity, hate, injustice, Jim Crow, justice, literature, Norwood, racism, segregation, The Newspaper Boy
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Geography of America’s Historic Black Main Streets
Discriminatory Jim Crow Era segregation laws that were often brutally enforced throughout the South and the bigoted use of similar divisive tactics elsewhere in the United States led to the creation and development of African-American business districts and corridors … Continue reading
Posted in Advocacy, archaeology, architecture, business, cities, civics, Civil Rights, civility, commerce, culture, diversity, downtown, economic development, economic gardening, entertainment, entrepreneurship, gentrification, geography, historic preservation, history, Housing, human rights, humanity, inclusiveness, injustice, land use, pictures, placemaking, planning, politics, poverty, racism, revitalization, shopping, Small business, social equity, tourism, Trade, urban planning
Tagged bigotry, desegregation, Historic Black business districts, Historic Black Main Streets, Jim Crow Era, main street, racism, segregation, urban renewal
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American core cities that escaped freeway devastation
The following list identifies those core cities in the United States that have not been devastated by freeway construction (to date), and particularly during the interstate highway building-boom of the 1950s-1970s. While many of America’s “then largest” cities saw downtown … Continue reading
Posted in Cars, cities, culture, downtown, economic development, Economy, environment, geography, historic preservation, history, infrastructure, land use, Maps, planning, poverty, racism, spatial design, sprawl, topography, tourism, Trade, traffic, transportation, Travel, urban design, urban planning
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Ten Planning Lessons from Traverse City
Now that we have lived in Traverse City for almost four years, it is time to list the ten top planning lessons learned from our hometown. Sometimes, evaluation of the places closest to you are the toughest. Smaller cities and … Continue reading
Posted in Active transportation, adaptive reuse, Advocacy, air travel, branding, cities, civics, civility, commerce, Communications, culture, demographics, diversity, downtown, economic development, education, entertainment, environment, family, gay rights, geography, government, health, historic preservation, history, homelessness, Housing, human rights, humanity, immigration, inclusiveness, infrastructure, land use, placemaking, planning, politics, poverty, racism, Sexism, social equity, spatial design, sustainability, third places, tourism, transportation, Travel, urban planning, volunteerism, Welcome
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Panethos 
Up to 690,000 American’s died from our own nuke tests!
Yes, you read the post title correctly. According to a 2017 study by researchers from the University of Arizona, between 340,000 and 690,000 Americans are estimated to have died from fallout and radiation-linked diseases generated by the 100 atmospheric atomic … Continue reading →