Sustaining Place

The Recalibration Paradox: ‘Nevermore’?

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…” Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven,” 1845 Here, during London’s lockdown, we’ve seen many ravens.…

On LEARNing the City

In the latest issue of The Journal of Public Space, I had the fortunate opportunity to summarize Fulbright work in Australia almost two years ago…

Simple Pandemic Navigation: Now, With Ideas From Then

In March 2010, when urbanist bloggers were few and twitter was in its infancy, I wandered my then-neighborhood in Seattle and wrote about some easy…

Hiding in Plain Sight: More Emergence Observations

As quarantines relax, many urban residents show behavior that belongs to a stage of reopening not yet formally announced by government. In short, flouters adopt…

The Juxtapositions of Emergent Urban Life

In my initial post last week, I suggested five operational themes available for any photographer interested in documenting emergence from urban life in quarantine. The…

Now Playing: ‘Density with Distance,’ the Remake

As Greater London moves to solve the conundrum of a return to work with reduced public transport capacity, the acceleration of reclaimed space for pedestrians…

The Ironic Inequities of a Place Called Zoom

Let’s face it. Although lacking the physical realities of human proximity, Zoom interactions approximate those that otherwise occur in public streets and squares. Scholars of…

New Normal? Not Yet…

My efforts to document city change over the past several years can suggest this pandemic season does not look much different than what came before.…

Photographing Urban Life in Emergence, and Why

Since March, photographs have played a major role in illustrating the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: life in quarantine. Particularly in public places, emptiness…