The reason why over 90% of new homes are built as sprawl is simply because it’s much easier for developers to do so - they can mass produce them.  It’s no coincidence the neighborhoods end up resembling an assembly line.  Soon enough, its residents start behaving like products on an assembly line - talking the same language, doing the same things, driving the same cars to the same places…  Keep an eye out for the movie The Stepford Wives, coming out in July.

Here’s the vicious circle though…

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75% of home buyers want the option of walking or biking to work or to shops, according to a survey by American Lives, an innovative market research firm.

A Belden, Russonello and Stewart national focus group study suggests renters with no children and empty nesters are more likely to choose a smaller lot in a livable community area where they can walk to stores, etc.

A Fannie Mae survey found that people believe a great neighborhood is more important than a great house.

Finally, in the SF

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Third places are easy to remember and return to, but very difficult to find.  So, when my good friend and devout New Urbanist, John Massengale began collecting a list of such places (specifically, coffee/tea hangouts), it was my duty to let you all know!

Keep up with his ongoing list here.

Just so you know, John’s a single boomer and renowned urban designer/author living in Manhattan, and has a good eye for the “this place is so cool I’m coming back… with my friends” …

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What time shall I wake up for work tomorrow?  Shall I walk or drive to work today - should I go into the main or satellite office?  Which route do I feel like taking - the one with the grocery store on the way to pick up some orange juice, or the one through the park?  Do I even want to go to work today and just finish up this evening instead?

Do I go to the corner market to buy a few things, or drive to the supermarket to load up for a couple weeks?  Watch an independent film down the block,

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The most innovative charter schools study the principles of informal learning to teach their kids.  Lucky them.  It sure beats the daily grind of structured learning I hated so much as a youngster.

Since lack of good schools are the main reason why people with children are repelled by the city, here’s a quick look at how to reverse that trend - the 10 Characteristics of Successful Charter Schools, by Sarah B. Cunningham, Director, Education Assessment and Charter School Accreditation, The

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As highlighted in yesterday’s blog, informal learning is crucial for productivity and job creation, not to mention quality of life.  However, how does one foster informal learning, since there is no formal structure?

Third places.  That is, venues where people tend to spontaneously gather, converse and hang out.  My place of work is a great third place, with examples this page, which is also a continuously updated link on the home

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Formal learning learning as defined by a Dept. of Labor study, is planned in advance and has a structured format and defined curriculum. Informal learning is unstructured, unplanned and easily adapted to situations and individuals, or alternately, “any learning in which the learning process isn’t determined or designed by the organization.“

How do you suppose business partners first meet?  Company founders come across the idea for their companies?  Products are invented?  A song is written? 

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BOBOs (bourgeois bohemian boomers) and Nexers (empty nester boomers) are as keen on CoolTowns as Xers and Yers.  Why?  The National Association of Home Builders and market researchers have concluded:

Nexers will keep working to stay mentally active or stay solvent.  In other words, no retirement communities.  In fact, ‘active adult communities’ turn nexers off.  “They wouldn’t want their friends or children to know they were living in this type of community”, says Myrl Axelrod, president of

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Many of us shop at large supermarkets, whether it’s Whole Foods, Safeway or Piggly Wiggly.  However, just about all of them are ugly one-story flat boxes.  Thanks to technology, the times they are a changin’.

Structural, energy-efficiency and venting advancements are making it increasingly commonplace to allow people to live above such large, open plan buildings.  That basically means more housing where there typically wasn’t any, and that’s good for affordability and pedestrian

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