hugeasscity

Apparently my friend WB (who named this blog) has some “ideas” he wants to express.  So I beseech you, esteemed readership, please pay attention to the “posted by” credit at the top of the posts.  

I walk to work everyday and have, for a long time, been perplexed by why so many people don’t know how to use sidewalks.   The generally accepted method is much akin to how cars and bikes use roadways.  Your path of travel should always be to your right (Anyone wager on how many folks are […]

         

So writes Roger Valdez in a balanced little riff on affordable housing in the DJC. “First, we know growth is good. Accommodating people in the city is more sustainable than sprawl, but sometimes neighborhoods resist growth. That resistance works to limit supply by making permits more expensive and time-consuming. Welcoming growth can help increase supply, […]

This is the 1958 Logan Building at the corner of 5th and Union, and I like it. It was built with a complete air-conditioning system, which was an ultra-modern feature at the time. And no, your eyes do not deceive you: it has windows that open. Perhaps in 1958 people still had enough self-respect and/or […]

The unaccounted for: AVA (8th and Pine): 36 stories, 200+ condo units, 190-room hotel. 7th at Westlake: 31 stories, 16 floors office, 184 condo units. 8th and Stewart: 400-foot tower, 300+ condo units. 8th and Westlake: 225+ condo units. That adds up to over 900 housing units in projects that have been put on hold […]

Noisetank’s greatest moment came back in 2005 when, during an NPR Fresh Air interview, Terry Gross asked Paul Anka about “one last thing in the annals of Paul Anka lore, and this is a website that you probably really hate…” (starts at 20:55): The Guys Get Shirts had become an internet phenomenon. The Noisetank IT […]

The answer seems rather obvious to me.                      

So then why do so many people get their panties in such a bunch about them? But before going there… talk about Instant Karma: Yesterday I had the closest call I’ve ever had on my bike downtown. A Metro bus blew by me within inches, and when I confronted the driver about it at the […]

(warning: echo-chamber post forthcoming) Erica Barnett nailed it: “Cyclists are angry for a reason.” As I wrote back when hugeasscity was still an innocent babe, I appreciate the frustration that feeds the Critical Mass gestalt. And this is an appreciation that you cannot gain until you’ve spent a lot of time biking around the city. […]

hipster fixie ‘the bumblebee’ you want this! – $800 (Capitol Hill) Reply to: sale-781268604@craigslist.org Date: 2008-08-03, 9:24AM PDT Come one come all! Hipster kids behold: the Bumblebee. Ok so I never got around to painting it like a real bumblebee but you could. This is your perfect ticket of acceptance into your local fixed gear […]

[ The coolest house in Medfield — and children are still allowed to live in it. ] Medfield made the Boston Globe in a story headlined with “Welcome to Medfield, especially if you don’t have children.” Medfield, like many other similar small towns in Massachusetts, has been encouraging “over 55” developments because it costs so […]

Nothing has more universal appeal than the most technologically advanced killing devices ever created. Except maybe donuts. The scene at Mt. Baker beach, where every age, race, religion, political affiliation, and socioeconomic class joins as one to bask in the glory of the paramount failure of the human race. I brought my kids. It was […]

[ Apropos of nothing, a scene from the Umoja Parade at 23rd and Cherry in the Central District ] Is there anything interesting happening out there? Density this, sustainability that, bla bla bla. Can any of you readers out point us to something fresh and inspiring? Summer laziness has set in, and I’m going to […]

It’s almost as if I just returned from the nuthouse: what a sight it was to see the street life around Pike/Pine. So what if a man was shot and killed on the street three blocks from where I live in the Central District while I was away. Last February there was a murder in […]

This is Medfield State Hospital, located adjacent to the 1960s subdivision in which I grew up. If you stood where I took the photo in this post, turned around and took a short path through a narrow boundary of trees, you would come upon the scene above. When I was a tween my friends and […]

Originally built in 1651 and last enlarged around 1850, Medfield’s Dwight-Derby House is one of the oldest intact houses in the U.S. Built in 2005 for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, this home features a miniature replica of Fenway Park’s “green monster” in the back yard. I guess we’ve gotten better at garages over the past […]

For a town that is so wealthy (median income = $98k, median home price = $525k) the downtown public realm of Medfield is remarkably shabby: Here we are at the primary downtown crossroads. (Pretty much every small town in this region has at least one pizza house, and amazingly, they have withstood the competition of […]