Jake's blog
Let's talk about how homelessness, poverty, and mental health funding aren't the same problem.
I've gone quiet for a while, since I'm finalizing my manuscript and the artwork for my book, "The Lost Subways of North America", which, God willing, will come out next year. TL;DR: I've been traveling the country doing research for my book, and the low levels of homelessness in poor places with badly-funded mental health systems is shocking. One of the things that's hit me most about traveling the country for my research is just how little of a connection there is between poverty and homelessness. Places like Detroit and West Virginia are dirt poor. If you drive around the...
Let's talk about suburban decay.
One really interesting phenomenon I've seen as I've gone through the Rust Belt is that the blighted city neighborhoods are now extending into the first ring of suburbs, the types of places which were built and laid out during the wealthy years of the 1950s and 1960s. We talk a lot about urban decay as a people and as a country, but not a whole lot about suburban decay.This shouldn't come as a surprise, in some ways. Most cities have name recognition, branding power, as marketers say. New York = banks. Los Angeles = movies. Detroit = cars. And when...
Let's talk about how the State of California is bringing the hammer down on bad local governments who won't allow more housing.
BOTTOM-LINE, UP FRONT: The State of California has issued an ultimatum to LA's local governments: reform your land use laws to allow more housing, or else we nuke your land use law this October and anything goes. THE BACKGROUND We're in a housing crisis because it's not legal to build enough housing in LA to meet the demand. The epicenter of the problem isn't in the encampments under the 101 - it's in leafy suburbs like South Pasadena, Manhattan Beach, and Beverly Hills, where it's been new housing has been almost totally banned in the last 50 years. Because of...
Please place all Christmas orders by December 15th at 5pm.
For orders to arrive by Christmas, please order before 5pm Eastern, December 15th. If you order after that, it may arrive on time, but I can't guarantee it.
Let's talk about why North America's old streetcar systems disappeared.
Bottom line, up front: North American streetcar companies, including LA's famed Red Cars, failed due to economics, not because of an automaker conspiracy.A lot of posting on here is to discuss just how much mass transit used to exist before the Second World War. But what I really want to clarify is *why* the great American streetcar networks disappeared. In general, there are three reasons: (a) the automobile's increasing popularity made many streetcar lines simply uneconomical to operate; (b) most streetcar companies like the famed Los Angeles Red Cars operated their streetcar systems to promote their real estate developments, and...