First Anniversary

With one year of blogging under my belt, it's time for me to write a new introduction. I've missed just about every intention I had for this blog. I now have the advantage of describing what this blog is rather than what I want it to be.

City Hall. Reports on our city leaders, in particular, items that you might have missed.

Commentary and Observation. I'm immensely interested in how cities work. Much of my commentary attempts to apply what I read to what I see as I move around the city. I'm particularly interested in new urbanism, alternative transportation, local businesses, and how these all relate to economic development.

School Matters. So far, I've only done a few of these. Yet this is probably the most important feature of this blog. Our schools are in deplorable condition because of citizen apathy, and we use the condition of our schools as an excuse for not working to improve the matter. Whenever I can, I try to write about the goings-on of our schools.

Seen Around Town. If you've read this blog at all, you know I get around by foot, and bus, and bike. So I see many things that drivers may miss buzzing around at forty-plus miles per hour. I take pictures of these things and I post them.

Anything else that suits me. Links to articles about city issues from other parts of the country. Local events I want to draw attention to. General Assembly news that affects our city. The occasional rumor (clearly marked as such and updated when confirmed or repudiated.)

This blog is called 12 & Main because that intersection represents where we are as a city, halfway between suburban and urban. To the North lie City Center Square and the Town Pavilion, examples of attempts to revitalize downtown by recreating the suburban shopping mall in an urban setting. To the South are the retail shops of the Power and Light District. You may not like the Cordish company (I'm not their biggest fan either). Regardless, the style of these buildings is based on the experience of the last twenty-five years showing the the best way to build urban is to build the way urban has been built since the dawn of civilization. Dense. Pedestrian. Mixed. Buildings to the sidewalk. Apartments upstairs; shops downstairs. The Romans built cities that way. Most of the world still builds cities that way. These characteristics are such a common fact of urban life everywhere I suspect they're based in human psychology, even if I can't say exactly how. The existence of the automobile can't change our basic psychology. For 60 years, we've fooled ourselves into thinking it could.