Feb 28Small towns and hopeSmall towns and hope Do you check the real estate listings in towns you visit? I can’t help myself. I’ve always done it, since the days when the only way to check was to look in a local newspaper or stand in front of a real estate office and look…3 min read
Jan 16How We Became a Nation of RealtorsWe tend to think that things that exist now always did. Was there a world before mobile phones and the internet? Sure but it seems so distant. What fascinates me sometimes is how some social mores persist while some fade away. I used to think a lot about this when…3 min read
Jan 9The Missed Opportunity of Opportunity ZonesI’ve had an interest in opportunity zones ever since the program began. Maybe it was the combination of bipartisan work plus telegenic billionaires and an orgin story lauded in glossy magazines although I like to think that maybe I saw the potential for something big. After all a program that…3 min read
Jan 3The Gordian Knot of HousingMy last book of 2021 was The Color of Law. It took me a long time to read this one, partly because this isn’t a book to devour but one to digest and understand. There’s no small embarrassment in realizing that much of what you were taught about how the…2 min read
Dec 31, 2021Back on my bullshitA shout out to Amy Vernon for that title. I haven’t been writing lately and it’s weird. I’m somewhere between missing it desperately and thinking I may never do it again. …2 min read
May 26, 2019Weights and MeasuresYou are never supposed to talk politics or religion and you are never supposed to reveal your weight, age, or bank balance. These are the rules of polite society. There’s a sense in this, that we don’t want to upset anyone else with odious comparisons but also that we don’t…Life3 min read
May 12, 2019The house on the cornerShe’s being peeled like an onion, this house. Months ago, she was a home, now she’s what remains when people leave. For decades a family lived here, the father the sort of voluble rabble-rouser who’s always first out in the street when an accident occurs, the amiable know-it-all who would…Home3 min read
Oct 6, 2018In the middleThis is the part of trying to lose weight that they don’t tell you about. They show you the sad frumpy, slumped over ‘before’ shot and the happy and proud ‘after’ shot. In between, there are months of the slog. The same food, the same exercise plan, eking out loss…Weight Loss2 min read
Jul 15, 2018HeardUnpacking the deep stuff in life often feels like unraveling yarn, you just keep following this thread as it leads you through muck and misery and dead ends. When did I learn it was unsafe to speak up? I’ve told myself most of my life that I was shy. What…Depression2 min read
Jul 7, 2018Ownership and civilizationIf the downside of traveling alone is loneliness, the upside is the lightness of having only what one requires for the journey. …Life3 min read
