friend of the built environment

So Winston-Salem has just decided to level a neighborhood close to downtown to make way for a ballpark with adjacent upscale shopping, restaurants and bars. Chalk another victory for style over substance, wealthly shoppers and sports fans and alcoholics over working class families.Is it still the 60s? I thought the idea of kicking people out of [...]

[Written on the birth of my iWeb Site.]This is my latest attempt at a weblog. I write this knowing that I don’t intend to make it publicly linked yet, but I will know the URL and be able to refer to it and post to it as I see fit, and will feel more inclined [...]

Well, I overestimated how much being a homeowner would help my tax bill, underestimated my travel expenses for work last year, and thus underestimated the estimated taxes I should have paid over the past year. I also failed completely to pay my NC estimated payments, which was just a stupid oversight for me and I [...]

Well, not really, at least not yet. But there is this.
I think I posted a few years ago that taxing cigarettes so heavily was a big mistake for the states that were doing settlements with the tobacco companies. Sin taxes always work that way: You are ostensibly trying to discourage the sinfulness by making it [...]

This was a post I just made to a thread at “Urban” Planet - you know, that site which is mostly about the latest trends in high-rise downtown condo development and where Ikea will locate in Charlotte?
This post was pulled and I was banned, which I totally expected, because that’s what the faggy board owner does with [...]

I think the majority of my friends are from Charlotte these days, and I was really gung-ho about my move there a couple years ago. So it may seem strange to those of you still reading these days that my recent banter has been decidedly jaded about this booming town.
The fact is, I really like [...]

Letter to the Editor of Foreign Affairs:
In response to Benn Steil’s well-written and admirably ‘open-worlded’ essay “The End of National Currency” (May/June 2007), I would like to strenuously object to the opinion that national or small-econcomy currencies are detrimental to robust economies in the era of globalization.

In fact, despite their best efforts, European states are not [...]

Ikea is going to start charging for plastic bags and San Francisco has been trying for years to tax the use of bags or otherwise control their use in the city.
The goal is ostensibly to ‘help the environment’ but that’s utter and complete bull. Aldi and Costco and Sam’s Club have had a no-bags-provided policy [...]

My mother in-law is a Pack Rat. She goes to yard sales, swap meets, closeouts and random stores and just buys stuff - everything: dishes, books, gadgets, containers, furniture, doo-dads, whatever - everything.
Sometimes she convinces herself that she needs it for her home or life, sometimes she convinces herself she will give it as a [...]

…And the President told reporters that, while he is against killing people, he’s scared to say anything bad about guns for fear that Charlton Heston will shoot his ass up. Back to you, Kevin.

…On the ‘Revelations’ coming out of Blacksburg…
What is it with these people having so many friends in college? I don’t think I made a single ‘friend’ in college - it’s not like high school where you get classes with people in your neighborhood and have scheduled class breaks and lunches where you’re forced to socialize. [...]

I am seriously considering switching over to all-Windows products. Why?
Because this never-ending, annoying marketing campaign by Apple has convinced me that if I keep using Apple products I’ll turn into a gross metrosexual hipster who doesn’t know how to use a spreadsheet.
How do these hipsters afford their expensive Mac do-dads when they can’t even stomach [...]

Thank you New Order, for showing us, in “The Perfect Kiss”, that electro-pop-rock can be done live, no matter how bored you might have looked.
Thank you, Nine Inch Nails, for showing us, in “The Hand that Feeds”, that “live” electro-pop-rock can be just as convincing when done in synch rather than actually “live”.
Thank you both [...]

I hate flying. It’s a pity I have to do so friggin’ much of it if I want to keep my job. The past couple years have led me to have serious reservations about my ambition to travel to such places as London, Eastern Europe, and the Far North.

But I hate flying. Well, not so [...]

Near Drowning At Bolton Pool
Local lifeguards saved a toddler’s life ad authorities said that he child’s gradmother was no where to be foud. Pool officials are appealing to parents to never leave children tha young at a pool withouth adult supervision. Margaret Johnson has the story.
…Maybe faulty keyboard? I hope?

I watched it again on the train ride to my sister’s today. It is a truly heart-warming movie. I first saw it many years ago and it’s remained one of my favorites ever since. I’m thoroughly convinced that it has played a larger part in my longing to live in Toronto than even my trip [...]

Great, another ranty “In Your Face” album from The Cure. And to think they are screwing up an entire tour for the sake of it… Ugh…

After which Album did The Cure/Robert Smith start universally sucking on record?
Don’t get me wrong: I love The Cure. They were my first really big favorite band and I still [...]

A quote from Alan Berube, an expert in urban demographics with the Brookings Institution:
“If the impression is that only young techies live there, then it will be hard to attract anyone that doesn’t fit that stereotype, and that won’t do much to create critical mass.”
He was quoted in an article about how dead downtown Fresno [...]

I’m not going to really complain about a bank that wants to gauge non-members with ATM fees. If one finds one needs to often use a certain bank’s ATMs, or finds that one’s own bank has insufficient ATMs in one’s area, one needs to switch banks. Being someone who travels often, I also don’t see [...]

For the record, I’d like to state that I hate anything which has ever been referred to as “The Arts”.
“Art” is something you buy. A museum is the showroom for the gift shop at the end of the tour. “Art” is not something with intrinsic value to be lauded and subsidized and revered beyond its [...]

So I tried going to Quickly for the first time.
Needless to say it was not a good first impression. They had a very big, long menu of a variety of Asian-inspired fast foods. But…
…They were OUT OF RICE. Yes, go ahead and make your dramatic double-take on that. This massively expanding new ASIAN FAST FOOD joint was [...]

OMG! The Charlotte Observer has a feature on the Charlotte skyline on the front page and a feature about how its many penises have grown over the years.
Strange, most cities that repeatedly talk about their skyscrapers are cities that have lots of decline and stagnation and insecurity to deal with. I could see Winston getting in [...]

I have often tried to do a comprehensive essay about my opinions on universal, single-payer health care proposals. Unfortunately, when addressing a general audience, I am likely to come off as a right-wing kook screaming about the downfall of American society. The fact is, like any welfare option, I simply dislike the idea of helping [...]

Muni, why does your tech have to suck so bad after 20 years in the heart of the tech industry?
Muni is trying to pretend that it’s becoming more customer-centric and friendly (and “cutting edge”).
So I try to buy my pass online (actually, I’ve been doing it for the past 3 months). I can do this, [...]

As I continue to hear about my government’s ongoing fight for its right to unwarranted surveillance, waterboarding of untried suspects, and itchy trigger fingers pointed at Persia, Russia, China and who knows where else, I keep remembering a quote I read several months ago:
Human rights are part of what it means to be civilised. Locking up [...]