No, I don’t mean in the Orwellian sense; I mean, more prosaically, down the stairs and out the door. My point of view here is less existential (although not entirely…
Category:
CITIES & URBAN LIFE
For the past couple of years my local public radio station has adopted a new fundraising mantra—asking me to donate my car to the station in return for a “possible…
Daughter Laura sent me a bunch of photos she found of the aqua alta in Venice these days—the highest in over 30 years. It is a preview of what global warming will…
In 1992, my dear friend, Sue, and I flew into then Bombay (now Mumbai) from London on December 6, for a few days before taking ship to other Indian ports…
“Succor us out of the city.” (2 Samuel 18:3) I my new novel (to be unabashedly promotional) the protagonist muses that “You can love a city, but don’t expect it to love…
Many years ago I was in Hall 15, The Leonardo Room of the renowned Uffizi Gallery in Florence. At one end of this particular room was, on an easel and…
One of the more endearing images I have of a recent visit to Beijing is of a university student peddling down a street on a dilapidated Mao-era Tianjin “Silver Pigeon.”…
I used to half-seriously tell my urban planning grad students that, if they were the type of people who kept there socks neatly in their sock drawer and their underwear…
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you – just one word. Ben: Yes sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Ben: Yes I am. Mr. McGuire: ‘Plastics.’…
Everyone knows the story of Marco Polo, the Venetian who went to China, befriended the great Khan, and brought back marvelous tales of the exotic Cathay. Polo himself dictated…