Taoism for buildings: Penn Center vs. South Broad Street

The same distance from City Hall (seen in the distance).  Similar massing and overall proportions.  Both were consciously created as frontages for important buildings.  Yet one is a bustling and successful public space, and the other has been reduced to a cigarette smoking and bicycle storage pit... with a couple planters hoping, in vain, to reduce its devastating harshness.

Moving pt. 2: The appealing informality of the city

Despite yesterday's semi-grumbling about the challenges of moving apartments in the city, it exemplifies something about the urban environment that you just don't get out in the sprawling hinterland. Unlike that highly programmed and structured way of life (yes, some of those stereotypes of the fifties do seem to ring true), in the city, you get much greater spontaneity, informal economy, and fluidity.  In other words, cities offer a pleasant escape from the restrictive rules and norms of the suburbs.

"M" is for "Monday;" it's also for "moving"

So it turns out that the Center City residential market is really hot these days. The Philadelphia Business Journal reported recently that 2,500 soon-to-be-developed residential units will cause the vacancy rate to "shoot up" from 1.6% to a whopping (yes, heavy on the sarcasm) 3.4%.  So naturally, we this is where/when we had to be looking for an apartment.  

Center City Cycling - The Culture is Strong in this One

To the naked eye, it sure looks like Center City Philly is undergoing a real bicyclization... and no matter what Stu Bykofsky @ the Daily News will tell you, that's a good thing.  I'll get further into why that's a good thing in more detail at some other time, but today, I'd like to just share some observations about the indisputable bicycle culture the city now has.

ThirdPlace WorkSpace Thursdays - OCF Cafe, Federal Street

Third places in a city or town are those that are neither home, work, nor shopping… they are the informal places in between, the public living rooms where we gather or go to be alone in a crowd… and there’s good argument that a culture of solid third places (Parisian café culture is so good as to become cliché) is a driver and indicator of community vitality. They can also be great workspaces for those of us not wanting to work from home, not yet being ready to pay for “real” commercial space, looking to get out of the office, or have a more informal meeting.  There’s etiquette (called buying things and not being a slob with your belongings) to working in a café, but doing so can be good for you and the proprietor alike.  In this blog, I’ll take you on a reviewed tour of some of Philadelphia’s ThirdPlace WorkSpace (trademark pending) opportunities.  I hope you join me.

Enter the Ether

Cities = innovation, right?  Back in March, the guys at Deft Collective in Hartford asked me to join them for for their inaugural podcast.  The subject was urbanism, and we got into great discussion about history, resilience, what it means to be innovative, and why cities do or do not spur innovation.