I Don’t Hate You 2021



November 16, 2023

Civic Therapy

I was warned it was going to be a strange question. I braced myself. “Do you ever see yourself as some sort of civic therapist?” she asked. Most likely the
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November 3, 2023

Sprawlnomics

I recall the argument in each and every town. Some older gentleman exhaustedly explaining to me how I just didn’t get it—frustratedly laying out the argument that Walmart was going
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October 12, 2023

Beauty is Timeless

For years I was under the wrong impression. As we so often do in our work and I suppose in our personal lives as well, we take what people tell
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October 5, 2023

The Battle for Better

A reader recently reached out to me to ask if I had ever written anything about a community’s struggle to improve in the face of negativity. I had not, but
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September 29, 2023

Revitalization Reads

This is a bit of a different direction for me as I typically just rant about cars being awful or why maintenance is the unsexy secret to saving our cities.
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September 12, 2023

The Intentional Place

Anything of worth is done with intention. For every successful venture, big or small, someone had the foresight to consider the ‘why’- why we are doing this thing, and the
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July 7, 2023

Tell Me What You Want

The reason community engagement surveys tend to feel meaningless is because everyone ignores the results. Last week in Marshalltown, Iowa, I had a chance to sit in as the results
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June 21, 2023

Effort Over Time

We know that when it comes to every facet of our lives, there are no shortcuts and no silver bullets. The simple truth is that real improvement takes effort over
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June 7, 2023

Gardening vs. Mining

I got my garden started this year back in February. Inside the house. I got some seed packets, used a little potting soil, and set the small planters by the
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June 1, 2023

On Quality

I have been thinking a great deal about the concept of quality since I joined John Marsh on his Redemptifcation podcast last week. We were discussing some recent travels and
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May 25, 2023

Local Preference

I don’t want to insult anyone. I mean it. I have been careless with my words before and later regretted it. I don’t mind saying what needs to be said
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May 11, 2023

Travels

The nearly full moon had just launched from behind the massive San Petronio Basilica as we sat in Piazza Maggiori sipping the last dregs of our Negronis and toasting the
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April 20, 2023

Downtown Playbook

In looking back at my recent blog posts, I realize I have been building up to this. I have identified and written about a number of issues that plague communities.
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April 13, 2023

Your City is Not Special

I have some good news and bad news for you, but I sincerely believe the good news far outweighs the bad. The bad news may sting for a moment, but
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April 6, 2023

How, Not What

It's always a lot more fun to discuss the what, but it's the how we really should consider. Maybe that's why most places never make any progress. Because everyone is
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March 29, 2023

Treat the Town Part 4 – Fiscal Health

Suburban sprawl isn’t satisfied with wrecking your mental, physical and social health, but likes to kick you in the wallet as well. Repeatedly. Our fascination with suburbia has been a
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March 23, 2023

Treat the Town Part 3 – Mental Health

Ann Sussman’s brain works really, really well and I am quite envious. On a call we had last fall she told me about her research in a field she calls
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March 16, 2023

Treat the Town Part 2 – Social Health

Social health isn’t a topic we talk about enough. Seen as somehow frivolous compared to the more noble endeavors of boosting the economy by shopping or attracting tourists, but a
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March 2, 2023

Treat the Town pt. 1

These days, if you see a high-rise crane, you can make a very educated guess as to what’s being constructed. Chances are, it's a medical facility. The US Healthcare industry
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February 23, 2023

Clean-Up!™️

I am here to tell you about a revolutionary new product! It's the latest from the Revitalize, or Die.’s labs in the South Hills of Pittsburgh and it promises to
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February 16, 2023

Setting The Stage

When we moved into our home, there was a room in the basement given over to spiders and those and thousand-leggers. We did our best to make the space work
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February 9, 2023

Trajectories

Most American cities have been in decline for at least 40 years, some as long as 70. To think things will get fixed in the short run is some real
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February 2, 2023

Sell Local

Live it, like it, don’t leave… I think.  No, eat pray live, that’s it… nope- that's not it.  Love. Laugh. Lactate… augh! I can’t remember what the motto was, but
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January 26, 2023

Apply Effort

“Well now, what do I do?” The all-so-common refrain of those recently installed in a position to help their community. I speak with dedicated and passionate people every week who
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January 19, 2023

Welcome Back

To have good neighbors, you have to be a good neighbor. And who doesn’t want good neighbors? Maybe Philadelphia Eagles fans, but every else does. So, whatever happened to the
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January 12, 2023

Today Decisions

Except for those that comment on how long my posts are, the rest reading this blog are people. And as people, we are constantly faced with the conundrum of what
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January 5, 2023

Get Going

This stuff isn’t complicated, but enough people are out there selling complicated solutions, which has led buyers to believe it’s complicated. The sad fact of the matter is, and this
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December 21, 2022

2022 In Review

As we approach the final days of 2022, I thought it would be useful to put out one final blog post summarizing the year.  I find it beneficial to take
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December 15, 2022

And At Christmas Time You Tell The Truth

According to the cue cards held up by that guy from The Walking Dead, who is completely and creepily in love with his best friend's wife in the movie Love
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December 8, 2022

Holiday Logic

We stumbled upon a Holiday parade Friday evening. I was back in Ohio visiting my mom over the weekend to give her a hand with some holiday decorating and household
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December 1, 2022

Lit Up

Cooking, college football, groggy mornings and switching out fall decorations for winter, such are the traditions of Thanksgiving weekend and I, for one, fully indulged. The golden light of October
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November 23, 2022

Thankful for the Flaws

I find no value in telling a community what they want to hear. There are plenty of people in this line of business who are happy to fill that role-
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November 16, 2022

Density is not the Devil

You want to get people fired up? Feel like picking a fight? Want to enrage an entire community? Mention the word density or god forbid, urbanism. Out come the pitchforks.
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November 9, 2022

Ten Random Thoughts on Local Politics 

This week, far too few of us will go and and cast our votes for politicians far and wide. So naturally, politics are on my mind right now. I am
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November 3, 2022

Parking Ruins Everything

I’ve gotten away from posting about parking. I thought I beat that dead horse back to life and back to death again. I thought the people that follow me had
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October 26, 2022

Room For Community

What does it take to bring a family closer together? The amount of time a family spends together is the central factor. I can speak from experience, the more meals
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October 20, 2022

Deferred Affection

Place has a power over us that we are rarely recognize. Our surroundings never stop adjusting our behavior and shaping our actions. We quiet down when we inhabit certain spaces,
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October 13, 2022

Modern Milestone

10,000 followers might not mean much to Scott Baio or Rick Astley, but it means a lot to me. It probably wouldn’t have made much sense to my departed grandparents
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October 6, 2022

Scarred Landscapes

At the northern terminus of Sky Line Drive in the Shenandoah Valley sits the town of Front Royal, Virginia; a town of around 15,000 situated in one of most spectacular
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September 29, 2022

Build A Better Block

It didn’t take much. I completed an online application in August- I filled in my name, my address, the date requested and the block I wanted to close down. A
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September 23, 2022

How to Care

The question “how do I get people in my town to care” was posed to our panel of three last week in North Little Rock. I was on stage at
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September 15, 2022

It’s The Cages

"It’s the cages” This is the epiphany British journalist Johann Hari had when studying addiction and the most salient point he makes in his mind-blowing TED Talk titled “Everything You
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September 8, 2022

RFP = Recipe For Problems

I received a bit of a surprise via email late last week. An RFP for a downtown master plan was addressed specifically to me. This was a surprise because I
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September 1, 2022

The Cars are Winning

Four times. My wife and I rode in Pedal PGH this weekend with some close friends and on four separate occasions we had an incident with a driver. Four people,
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August 25, 2022

Kids These Days

“Kids these days.” Of all the tropes I loathe, and there are plenty- this one takes the cake. I have to assume that dating back to the time of neanderthals,
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August 18, 2022

Locals Are People Too

Recently, I was sitting down for coffee with a couple of colleagues/friends at a neighborhood cafe. We were discussing the concept of complete streets as we sat outside and watched
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August 11, 2022

Sharing is Caring

This past Saturday evening, as we were finishing up dinner with the kids and Amber and I shared a bottle of wine, I was thinking to myself how much I
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August 4, 2022

Hidden Gems

Whimsy. Delight. Maybe it’s called charm. There is a facet to great places that I find it hard to put my  finger on, but it’s one of those things that
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July 28, 2022

Take Back the Streets

Last week, my sister and I were sipping a glass of wine with my some family when her 14-year-old son and my 14-year-old son walked up to us on the
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June 29, 2022

Embracing Urbanism

Last week, while in Sterling Illinois, the City Manager asked for my first impressions of their town. I spoke candidly and bluntly (shocking, right?). Told him that Sterling had done
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June 23, 2022

Defiance

I grew up attending swim meets in Defiance. I took my drivers license test in Defiance. I even got my ass kicked on an annual basis by the Defiance High
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June 17, 2022

Buildings Before Businesses

A building is a business. I repeat, a building is a business. If you manage your own life, you can understand this principle. You have to spend less than you
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June 9, 2022

The New Economic Development

Times aren’t a-changing, they already have. I hope your city didn’t miss it. If you still have a chamber, tourism bureau and economic development department- it’s time for a glow-up.
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June 2, 2022

The Price of Neglect

Doing nothing would seemingly be cheap. It should certainly be easy. It should be a total breeze, like a Corona commercial, hanging seaside with Snoop getting high all day, sipping
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May 25, 2022

Civic Self-Esteem

“Why would you move here?” “Why would you want to start a business here?” “Why would you renovate a building here?”  All questions I have heard people ask of their
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May 19, 2022

Machine Town

My mouth is dry, like licking construction paper. The sun is doing her show in the sky with reckless abandon- it’s to the point of being gaudy. I try to
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May 12, 2022

Simple, Not Easy

Last week over beers in Panama City, friend and colleague, Allan Branch, put it to me this way, “Whenever I’m traveling, I always wonder, why are some towns doing better
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May 5, 2022

Love Locals

Whether you like it or not and whether you realize it or not, you are in a relationship with your city. Everyone has a relationship with the place they live.
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April 28, 2022

The Product Not The Process

I don’t know if this phenomena occurs in other arenas, because I have never really worked in other arenas. I’m, what you would call, a one arena sorta guy. And
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April 13, 2022

Civic Relationships

Our lives are defined by relationships. Our happiness and well-being are largely determined by those relationships we carry throughout our lives. Some are good, some are bad, some change us
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April 7, 2022

Beer Helps

“Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy”. Founding Father, writer, inventor, scientist, diplomat, printer, and statesman, Benjamin Franklin, fully understood that water, hops and
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March 24, 2022

Kill The Committee

Do people cross to the other side of the street when they see you? Have you noticed no one invites you out to TGI Fridays? Do your acquaintances avoid making
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March 18, 2022

A Vision, Not a Process

Every Tuesday morning, I hop on a Zoom call with my friend and colleague, Chet Clem. Chet runs a real estate development firm in New Hampshire. Along with majestic beards,
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March 10, 2022

A Show of Hands

“Raise your hand if you think cars should be prioritized over pedestrians downtown” I asked the crowd of 70. One person raised their hand. “Raise your hand if you think
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March 1, 2022

Who Cares?

Who really cares anyway? Well, everyone in fact. We all care. At least we all strive to care. Every one of us tries to fill our lives with more things
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February 24, 2022

Bad Streets. Good Cities.

It’s startling at first. Motorcycles and scooters outnumber cars. People outnumber motorcycles and scooters. Throw in a handful of bikes and some roadside stands. There isn't much room left for
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February 10, 2022

As You Like It

It’s really not that hard. We are waaaay overthinking all of this. In fact, it’s pretty simple. Cities are full of people, so we should prioritize people. Cars don’t even
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February 3, 2022

Help Not Wanted

My self-esteem can handle quite a lot, but getting ghosted by my township might be more than I can take.  What’s wrong with me? Am I not good enough? Am
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January 26, 2022

Lessons From a Minivan

Let’s say you have a bike you love. You had your eye on it for a long time before you finally made the purchase. You researched all the other bikes
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January 20, 2022

Instant Gratification

I’m counting 2022 as a phenomenal success. I completed all of my new years resolutions and its still January. Get in shape - ✅ Learn French - ✅ Read more
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January 12, 2022

Pretty Matters

Does beauty truly lie in the eye of the beholder? Can’t we all agree what sort of photo should go on a postcard? Aren’t Ryan Gosling and my mother universally
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January 6, 2022

The Road to Apathy

Apathy is not something, but the lack of something. It is not a negative concern, but no concern at all. Apathy isn’t an emotion, but the absence of one. An
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December 22, 2021

I Don’t Hate You 2021

This coming Saturday not only denotes the birth of Santa and Jesus, but yours truly as well. This will be my 45th Christmas skulking round these parts. The first was
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December 16, 2021

If I Had Ten Million Dollars

Those funky flannel loving Canadiens known as the Bare Naked Ladies had plenty of thoughts on what they would do with a million dollars, but never once does the song
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December 9, 2021

Risky Business

Well, it’s happened- I got my first request, and I feel like a real-life cover band now. A kind young woman from Alabama called me last week and asked if
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December 2, 2021

Falling Tides

What’s that old phrase… a falling tide lowers all ships?  Am I getting that right? I believe it was Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone that said something similar, “When we all
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November 29, 2021

UnThankful

I understand it’s good to be thankful. I am well aware of how practicing gratitude can make our lives fuller and boost our happiness. These are reasonable things. I like
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November 18, 2021

Shaping Places

I can’t concentrate when things around me are a mess. I can’t even settle in to watch sports ball until I've straightened up the den first. I find it difficult
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November 11, 2021

Cut the Fat. Repair the Heart.

Cut the fat, repair the heart. That was the advice that came to mind. Last week, a colleague of mine was elected mayor of his town in central Pennsylvania. He
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November 9, 2021

Sorry About Your E.D.

I know it is a touchy subject, but something must be said. We can’t keep tik-toking around the subject. Pretending it isn’t affecting you, won’t make it go away. I
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November 4, 2021

Les Toilettes

It’s been a little over a month since my wife and I returned from a trip to France and I’ve come to realize the experience has altered me. I suppose
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October 28, 2021

This Is Urban

When you hear the term urban, do you grow terrified? Do you think of Gotham City? Do you picture yourself in a Charles Bronson movie? Is the urban in your
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October 21, 2021

Candyland

I want to live in Candyland, and with next Sunday being trick-or-treat… I am about to find out if I do. There must a science behind this, someone out there
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October 14, 2021

Hating the New Neighbors

Cities are weird and they make weird decisions. There is some sort of common sense amnesia that takes hold when a group of three or more city leaders come together
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October 8, 2021

What We Are Fighting For

There is no place for sprawl in our cities, simply no need, no advantage. Spreading out and building sprawl so national chains could haul away all the money was a
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October 1, 2021

Pissed About Paris

Elation, excitement, joy, amazement, wonder. The emotions I experienced on our trip to France all tended towards one end of the spectrum. Amber and I had long planned a trip
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September 15, 2021

Bedrooms are for Sleeping

A colleague reached out this morning and asked if I had ever written anything about permitted first floor uses in a downtown. I responded that I had not, but hey,
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September 9, 2021

It’s Not Me, It’s You

I knew we had to break up. I don’t know when it became clear to me. Like driving in a heavy fog, objects ahead don’t become visible all at once,
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August 31, 2021

At the Heart (& Soul) of Revitalization

I certainly did not picture myself working with an organization called Community Heart & Soul. I named my business Revitalize, or Die. after all, so I tend towards the surly
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August 19, 2021

How To Give A Damn

“If I had all the money to pay every consultant to come and work in my town, I still don’t think they could fix what’s broken” This was Chet’s mic-drop
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August 11, 2021

Welcome to Shit Town

Let me be honest here, this place makes me feel like shit. But in my defense, it was designed to. Other than selling me some absolute garbage that I 100%
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July 29, 2021

Florida Man Teaches Me A Lesson

Jarring. Unsettling. Depressing. As we pulled out of the Tampa airport rental garage and onto the baking, chaotic, 8 lane Sprawlandia thoroughfare, those were the feelings churning in my stomach.
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July 9, 2021

The House That Clyde Built

Our new house found us, we didn’t find it. Which came as quite a surprise, as typically inanimate objects, much like my sons, struggle to locate ANYTHING.  Amber and I moved
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June 11, 2021

My Best Place

The best place I know, is fortunately, right in front of my house. I am writing this blog from that place, or should I say, from this place, considering it
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May 20, 2021

The Urge to Serve

This week, my feeds were filled with both good news and bad, stemming from Tuesday’s elections. I was ecstatic to see some colleagues, friends, and supporters, win hard-fought victories. They
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May 5, 2021

Bringin’ Fancy Back

I am asking you for a favor- a big one- but it’s not too much and it’s not too hard. You might even enjoy it. But don’t do it for
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April 30, 2021

Hometown Here or Main Street Martyr

When you hang your apathy fighting cape in the closet at the end of the night, do you feel like you are in this battle all alone? Do you fee
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April 22, 2021

Damn it, Do it!

Idle hands are the devils play things, so the saying goes. We know what this means for a person- nothing good comes from boredom, and like I regularly rant about-
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April 15, 2021

It’s Okay to Hate Cars

“Why can’t we have this at home?” Amber asked me as we criss-crossed Royal Street in the French Quarter. Royal isn’t closed to cars, but traffic is slow enough and
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April 8, 2021

Let’s Get Civic

Erica picks up litter as she walks her dog around the neighborhood. She lives in a duplex a couple of blocks off of Main Street and she always keeps her
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March 16, 2021

There is a Hole in My Neighborhood

There is a hole in my neighborhood.  Where once there was something, now there is something missing.  The place we used to go is still there, but we no longer
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March 10, 2021

It’s Not a Parking Problem, or a Walking Problem

The Main Street world has its mantras. These are the cliches we fall back on, to explain away the way things are. Easy go-to phrases that allow us to make
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March 4, 2021

Pulled Apart

“This Rural Liberal Sets Out to Talk to His Pro-Trump Neighbors” was the title of the article my mother passed along. In the piece, the author attempted to connect with
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February 24, 2021

Vacancy Busting: A Step by Step Guide

I can sometimes get bogged down in the policies of vacancy. I get pretty excited about design standards, code enforcement and vacant property registries. I love reading about new methods
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Gentle Density, Sprawl Enemy

As I was walking Leon this weekend, I recalled a chapter in the book Happy City by Charles Montgomery about density. He writes about a density sweet spot that fosters
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Why We Must Maintain

Here is what you have to remember, everything in life requires maintenance. Everything must be tended to. The car in our driveway has to have an oil change and new
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Peoria On My Mind

At a workshop in Peoria last March, an attendee told me that the city has more than doubled in land area since 1930, yet the number of people living there
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My Father’s House

I followed the trail my fathers finger made as he pointed through the windshield towards an old blue house. This is what we had come to see, the next stop
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Every Little Bit

We avoided the project long enough. No good reason for it either. Just something that wasn’t a priority, or easy enough to ignore. On the other hand, every time I
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Pride in Action

“This is great, but how does it really work” is a pretty common refrain I hear during workshops and presentations. “Hey pal, your ideas are nice and all, but it’s
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The George Bailey Effect

Like a lot of you, I watched It's a Wonderful Life over the holiday break. I probably watch it every year and each time I am amazed at how relevant
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Shutdown Politics

Last night my wife played me a clip of a local business owner of Fox News being interviewed about his reaction to the most recent restaurant shutdown here in Pennsylvania.
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February 23, 2021

What’s the Matter with Jamestown?

On August 1st, 2018, Jamestown, New York celebrated a monumental event. The Rustbelt City south of Buffalo did the unthinkable. Despite all odds, they were able to open the National
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January 4, 2021

Planning for Places

As we kick off the New Year, I have been thinking a lot about how we can better plan for things to come. As a planner, I don’t really love
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November 30, 2020

Choose Civic Pride

We are all subject to the effects of apathy. Every one of us is tempted to do less, give less or accept less. While this might be our nature, to
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October 27, 2020

This is How it Started… This is How it’s Going.

It’s hard to watch the “how it started/how it’s going” meme go around and not immediately think of our cities and towns. They started so well, with integrity, hard work,
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October 8, 2020

More Meaning, Less Meeting

NOTHING is more important than the work of community revitalization organizations. Your community will live or die, based on your success. In meeting your organization's mission, you can improve people’s
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September 29, 2020

Stop Catering to the Deadbeats

Vacant property kills communities. Vacant and deteriorating property increases crime, depresses property values, diminishes the tax base, lowers community self-esteem, repels potential tenants, investors and tourists and breeds rampant apathy.
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September 23, 2020

The Road to Recovery – Part 3 (5 Points of Pride)

This is the final post in a series explaining how communities can utilize the Road to Recovery process to help them navigate a path back to good health. In the
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September 17, 2020

The Road to Recovery – Part 2

I like to get these things out on a weekly basis, but last week had me managing my own recovery. I was laid up from a shoulder and bicep surgery,
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September 1, 2020

The Road to Recovery – part 1

We don’t typically talk about cities like we do people. We avoid language that personalizes a place, instead favoring the language of corporate America. I talked about this a bit
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August 25, 2020

How to Mend a Broken City

When talking about a topic, our thinking is confined by the language we use. The words provide the framework for how we view an issue. When we talk about communities,
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August 17, 2020

Beyond Shit-Talk

I have been kicking around a problem for quite awhile here at the RorD headquarters (my office that doesn’t have a door and is usually covered in children Tik-Toking). When
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August 10, 2020

Find A Friend, Save Your City.

Neighborhoods first. If I just had one piece of advice to give to city leaders it would be that. Put the neighborhoods first. Prioritize the people. Do your absolute best
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July 23, 2020

Why Good Neighborhoods went Extinct

I followed my dad’s finger, pointing through the windshield towards the second house in from the corner. “There it is, that’s the one I grew up in” he said as
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July 15, 2020

Emotional Economics

There are two sides to economic revitalization and they must work in tandem to create change in a community. The first is the economic side. This is about training people
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July 8, 2020

Over-Planning

I rarely know what to call myself, professionally that is. I have a degree in urban planning, which would make me a planner, but I have never spent even one
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July 1, 2020

The Real Parking Problem

For anyone that has worked in economic development, community development and especially, downtown revitalization, you have become all too familiar with the parking problem trope. It might be the single
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May 5, 2020

A Crisis of Class (The Curse of Softpants)

I love looking at historic photos and seeing how our places have changed over time. Something that always stands out, is how nice everyone dressed in the past. No matter
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March 26, 2020

What If…

Like most, I have had some extra time on my hands this week. Work has slowed down and I am thankful for some additional time with the family and to
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February 26, 2020

Communityness

A city or a town cannot be successful, or only to a marginal degree, if it is not also a community. A city aims to serve its residents, but this
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February 18, 2020

Help Isn’t On The Way

Help Isn’t On The Way HGTV was in my feed quite a lot last week, which I can promise you is unusual. I generally avoid HGTV, not because I am
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November 21, 2019

Fast Food For Thought

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we are all probably giving more thought to food than normal…at least that’s the theory. I would assume most people give food plenty of thought year-round.
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November 15, 2019

Fuck Apathy

Apathy is the cancer of community and rarely does it stop until it has effectively destroyed its host. Apathy sneaks in at night and parades on in when everyone is
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October 17, 2019

The Case for Standards

At some point, we have to draw a line. We have to make a choice. We have to decide that something is unacceptable, lest everything become acceptable and we acclimate
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October 9, 2019

The Shape of Place

The way I best describe how place affects me is an oft repeated phrase that has most likely grown annoying to those that know me, “I am no more neighborly
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September 24, 2019

Badass Your Board

It’s a familiar scene, we’ve all been there before…the monotonous monthly board meeting. Dress it up if you like, change the time, try a more relaxed setting, maybe even lure
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September 21, 2019

In defense of community

This week we focused on predatory businesses, and by ‘focused’, I mean, talked shit. Most of the response was positive and most people understand that these sorts of businesses are
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August 29, 2019

Old School

I always find the first day of school to be bittersweet. I am happy for the kids to get back to their friends, for everyone to get back into a
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August 9, 2019

Shirt Happens.

I didn’t grow up with any understanding of what a sense of community really meant. A sense of community is an abstract thing, a feeling, that is hard to relay
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August 1, 2019

All Politics is Local

Earlier this week, I posted a story about Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s announcement of a proposed plan to deal with vacancy, if he were to be elected president. I sometimes forget
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July 24, 2019

Wise Council

I enjoy meeting with elected officials. I enjoy talking with anyone that cares about their town. Most council members I speak with are well-intentioned and became involved because they are
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July 16, 2019

Overeducated – The Higher Cost of Higher Ed

For the fifth time in as many weeks, over a phone call with a colleague last Friday, we ended up discussing the merits of higher education. This conversation followed a
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July 9, 2019

A Return to Old Urbanism

My vacation took an unexpected turn last week and ended up lasting a few more days than expected. Does a vacation stop being a vacation when you no longer want
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June 30, 2019

The Fabric of Community

This week’s blog post is the first to be composed by the sea. This is not a habit I plan to get used to. While the sea may inspire some
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June 18, 2019

Setting the Standards

As is becoming a welcome routine, I joined my neighbor for beers on his front porch last Friday, for what he calls “porch pirating.” We cover a range of topics
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June 4, 2019

Own Your Issues

Sometimes I really struggle to figure out how people come to their conclusions. Some of the widely accepted solutions to combat community decline are fascinating. Often they have little to
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May 28, 2019

The (Bike) Path Forward

Like most, I really didn’t have any appreciation for one of the world’s greatest inventions. I assumed bikes were only for children, drunk drivers and men with a lycra fetish.
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May 21, 2019

Something’s Missing

The historical society, convention and visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce, Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions Club, Masons, The United Way, local foundations, economic development organizations… you know them well, their emblems populate
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May 14, 2019

It’s Not the Red Tape, Stupid

Another town and another enlightening conversation with an elected official. Over a cup of coffee, this particular mayor was filling me in on his city's strategy to rebuild their economy.
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May 7, 2019

Save Our Buildings, Save Ourselves

A few years back, while hosting an event for the governor’s State of the State address in Marietta, Ohio, I had a chance to speak with a local councilwoman during
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April 23, 2019

Lessons Learned on Main Street

Revitalization never crossed my mind as any sort of career aspiration as a child, city planner didn’t quite have the same appeal as being the next Bo Jackson. The concept
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April 16, 2019

A Reason to Stay

A few years back, I was touring the downtown of a community in northeast, Ohio, and had a bit of an epiphany regarding the true importance of downtown. City leaders
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April 9, 2019

Pick Up Your Place

We don't often give credit to how much appearances affect us and shape our opinions. We judge nearly everything based on looks. We see the way people dress and groom
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April 2, 2019

Tourists Won’t Save Your Town

Tourism has long been touted as an economic panacea. A sound tourism strategy, in theory, will bring people far and wide to your community to leave you all of their
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March 19, 2019

Home Away from Home

I knew growing up that I wasn’t meant for where I lived. It wasn’t a feeling of arrogance, but of self-preservation, a feeling that was instilled into me- through nature
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March 11, 2019

This Pub Matters

Prior to moving to my neighborhood in 2016, I started doing some research on local bars. I wanted to figure out which bar would be my local when I got
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March 4, 2019

Abandonment Issues

Vacancy is in essence, city rot. If allowed to take hold, it spreads, and in time, will destroy the whole if not treated. Criminologist William Spelman found that, in Austin,
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February 25, 2019

What Economic Development Gets Wrong

This past week brought news of Amazon making the decision not to locate a second headquarters in New York. As to be expected, some saw this as a victory for
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February 18, 2019

Your Town is Not Your Team

Your town is not your team. It’s not your pro-baseball team, it’s not your college girls basketball team, and it’s certainly not your high school football team. Your school district
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January 5, 2019

Does This Place Matter?

Realtors have an old saying, the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, location. Those goofy bastards with their pictures on every flat surface nailed it with
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