Have you ever tried immersive photography to show how urban landscapes, with their ever-evolving stories, are changing post-pandemic? A three-time author of books about understanding the innate identities of urban places updates his perspective. — While topographical features, climate, and location often dictate urban development, the lived experiences within cities and towns tell a richer story. The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, reshaped our urban narratives in profound ways. In the pandemic’s aftermath, platforms like podcasts have spotlighted our urban spaces’ evolving stories, histories, and aspirations.

Asking ‘Is That All There Is…’ — Our spontaneous interactions with urban places spur moods and memories. Taking in places with our multiple senses, viewing the good and the bad — makes some proposed solutions and rejuvenation efforts seem prescriptive, and just a little too squeaky-clean. …

Why San Francisco Still Inspires — I am not an architectural critic on this road trip south, just a provocateur and reflector with images and some words. My series of photo-based posts about change in cities has been full of incompletely developed thoughts, only skimming the surface of subjects I have written about before using different…

A Resurgent Everyday Landscape — A book that I wrote seven years ago, Seeing the Better City, emphasized the role of juxtapositions in understanding the urban built environment. …

A Revised ‘Sidewalk Ballet’ — In San Francisco today I noticed something key about a particular part of the commercial core in this city’s post-COVID downtown. It was a calmed place, a de facto City in Remission. In these three blocks, Nordstrom’s recent closure is symbolized by a revised “sidewalk ballet.” The revered Jane Jacobs…

The Mission to the Mission — Any road trip along the California coast owes credit to Father Junipero Serra and the string of Mission towns located along El Camino Real.

And Other Regeneration Stories — In Old Town Eureka this morning, the day began with buskers, dogs, a market and coffee. Just another day in the America that urbanists crave. But soon, in Mendocino County, the redwoods receded and the fog rolled out in Fort Bragg, revealing a beach full of remnants that have become…

The Trees Have It — A woman reached for the sky yesterday morning in Bandon, suggesting the growth of a tree. The theater in Brookings said Redwoods, and Highway 101 became the Redwood Highway. The, on an interpretive trail in Prairie Creek State Park, a reforested road showed regeneration — amid the old growth Redwoods. …

Everyday Anomalies on Resurgence Journeys — Travel to a coast, or “to the shore” and see highways named for war veterans, touring motorcyclists, nature reserves, and campgrounds. See nature reengineered for travel and tourism, and towns whose time, for the moment, have passed. …