Low Velocity

Falling in Love with Pittsburgh

A friend and I took a long weekend and visited one of America's great cities.

Weekend in Packwood, Washington

We spent a weekend in Packwood, Washington, meeting one of my wife’s longtime friends from Asheville and finally bringing our families together after years of living across the country from each other…

John Day Fossil Beds, Painted Hills

We took advantage of the long weekend and did something we’ve been wanting to do since moving to Oregon over a decade ago: visit the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument .  First, a little bit of b…

Learning to Ski on Mt. Hood

I finally went skiing on Mt. Hood after living in Oregon for over a decade! In the worst year for snow in a generation! I switched from snowboarding to skiing to same if I'd enjoy it more and I'm glad…

The Fiftieth State: Alaska

A short but memorable trip to Alaska. This has been a bucket list item I’ve been picking off for 25+ years of road trips and other domestic travel. Following this, I’ve officially visited all 50 state…

A Long Weekend at Wallowa Lake

My Great-Grandmother’s House in San Francisco

The Future of Portland Transit

The Oregonian podcast Beat Check recently shared an episode titled "A Perilous Moment for Portland Mass Transit" in which it highlighted the growing crisis facing TriMet, Portland's regional transit a…

Portland Auditor Releases Progress Report for Residential Infill Project

In 2017, after about a decade in the affordable housing and community development industry, my career took a turn and I landed in a position as a long range planner in the Portland region. One of the …

The Myth of the Walkable Corner Store

For decades, planners have envisioned small, pedestrian-friendly commercial hubs within residential neighborhoods. A local café, a small grocery store, or a retail shop embedded in a walkable area whe…

Unraveling Urbanism: Housing, Advocacy, and the Battle for Better Cities

Land use planning has always faced scrutiny, but in recent years, the conversation has grown louder and more polarized. Social media and digital activism have brought more voices into the debate, lead…

Death and Life: Rereading Jane Jacobs and the Legacy of Good Intentions

I recently finished rereading Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities. It wasn’t my first encounter with the book. I first read it in graduate school over 15 years ago. At the time, i…

Despite Our Best Intentions with Street Frontages

Automobiles are undeniably a significant part of American life. Consequently, accommodating them with roadways and parking lots has come to dominate much of the American built environment, often prior…

Returning to the Dolomites

This is a retrospective and one of a series of journal entries recapping our trip to Italy in 2024. We continued our journey from Venice to the Cadore region where my great grandparents emigrated from…

Seeing Venice as an Italian Citizen

In 2020, I was officially recognized as an Italian citizen, a moment that felt like unlocking a part of myself I had only known through stories and photographs. Four years later, I set out to see it f…

The Coming War on Impact Fees

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that developers and home builders in California may challenge the fees commonly imposed by cities and counties to pay for new roads, schools, sewers and other public imp…

Spring at Shasta Lake

Overpromised and Underdelivered: the False Pretenses of Missing Middle Housing Developers

ADUs, or Accessory Dwelling Units, are usually small housing units people build in their basements, backyards, or above their garages to accommodate family or to rent out for supplemental income. So-c…

What Planners Know vs. What Planners Do

Why talk about what urban planners know instead of what they actually do? Because more often than not, those two things do not align. To understand that gap, it helps to look first at the system plann…

A Day at Frederik Meijer Gardens

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park

Images from Lake Tahoe