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Seattle 2026While in Seattle, I am documenting the decline of a downtown area. A combination of factors has led the city to focus more of its efforts on the market area near Elliot Bay. Things have not changed much since last year. The astounding number of street-level vacancies shows a shrinking city. There are long strings of v...
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On May 15, I will begin my annual economic development survey of 70 cities. This is the fourth year, and I plan to make one more trip in 2027. I first took the trip in May 2021, when the Lockdown was winding down. I classified every storefront using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), a standard...
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I have been closely examining the issues surrounding housing affordability. It seems that conflicting interests and a lack of understanding dominate many of these issues. As with everything today, people become passionate about issues that intersect with others, creating a whirlwind of conflict. I have managed large h...
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The commonwealth has released a new plan for housing and housing affordability. The Housing Action Plan is comprehensive and offers scenarios under several headings. It creates a system to manage tangled titled properties. Clarifying ownership of inherited properties has always been difficult in neighborhood developme...
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While administering programs in the City of Philadelphia, I had access to many potential funding sources and did my best to secure all available funds so we were not reliant on a single source, and program delivery could proceed without interruption. A few months ago, I wrote about cost allocation and its effect on st...
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Semiquincentennial: A combination of “semi” (half), “quin” (five), and “centennial” (hundred), meaning half of 500 years, or 250 years. This plateau reminds me that 50 years ago, I produced one of the largest Bicentennial celebrations on the East Coast — the “ill-fated” Baltimore County Fair. In my early 20s, I contin...
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When developing downtown areas, the uses of the second floor vary from town to town. I remember when I arrived in DuBois, the second floors downtown were historically used as offices. In that case, minimal interior fit-out was replaced by a facilities strategy. Art studios and exercise spaces became popular and replac...
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