City Life

Urban Up Close Oakland Edition: Tent Communities, Hipster Haven, and Black Woman is God

Being back in the United States for a short amount of time has brought back many emotions, some very pleasant and others very painful. Dealing with the anger and frustration of…

Urban Up Close: Belgrade could be in Africa, and a few other things I have to say about the Balkans

Firstly, Some Quick Definitions:

The Balkans (countries): is a peninsula and a cultural area in Southeast Europe with different and…

Urban Up Close: Unwrapping European Cities

Who cares?

This is the question I’ve been asking myself for the last six months as I’ve been living in Europe. This September I became a graduate student and began to think about my thesis research on the exclusion of…

In Brussels: a locked down city

When I packed my giant suitcase to move back to Europe, my father told me that he thinks (even though he’d miss me) that I’d be safer in Brussels (Europe, more generally) than I would be in any city in America. I thought that was true as well. For the most part, I still…