Charles Wolfe
Mercer Island, Santa Fe
As seen in:
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Grist,
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and
Reforming Expat; Former Guest Scholar, KTH Royal Inst. of Technology; Affiliate Faculty, U. of Washington; Author & Influencer, 3 books re cities/place identity
Articles by Charles Wolfe
I stopped buying expensive peripherals after testing this $20 keyboard and mouse combo
Recently, my Chromebook keyboard has been glitching, with some keys not working. I tried prying the keycaps and checking the button underneath, but to no avail; I had no clue how to fix it. So, not wanting to buy a whole new internal keyboard and set it up myself, I looked for cheap keyboards that would offer a similar experience and came across the KoorUI BKM01. It supported Bluetooth for my Chromebook and Wi-Fi for my PC, which is so old it doesn't have Bluetooth.
The Ambiguities of Urbanism
And Fragmenting an Amorphous Word Here’s a tale of an over-broad word — urbanism — and what happens when we veer from narrow topics we used to champion. What are the consequences of doing so? Spoiler alert: It’s also a good guide to the ambiguities of many geographical moves or experiencing career transformation.
Framing Photographs in a Digital Age
A Renewed Gloss on Understanding Place Back to some nagging questions about places, observation, and photography, regardless of scale. How and why do we choose to understand where we live and explore? What are your go-tos? Today, regarding my go-tos, I will ask an even deeper question. Why have I constantly framed my photography lately (as in printed and surrounded with wood or metal) while adapting my passion for cities into an inquiry into broader landscapes?
The Importance of Discerning Gazes
Why Dramatic Views Matter I once had a friend who commented on my love for “gazes,” meaning my penchant for championing dramatic views and vantage points for reflection. She was an artist, and we collaborated for a few years, often discussing how we understand places from memories of other places that, at first, seem to look the same. Sometimes, our subjects were urban, but most often, we examined intersections of built areas with nature.
Understanding How Places Betray Us
Or Maybe Our Memories Run the Show After some days in Tangier, Gibraltar, and London, and watching (on Facebook) a Detroit friend traipse around Edinburgh on one of his architecture firm’s “global urban study” missions, I’m forever wondering why some are disappointed in where they live. We cross streets, and squares, and spontaneously dart into alleys that seem hidden at first. Such navigation is a key element of the relationships we form with urban places.
Achieving Post-Pandemic Community
Should ‘Third Places’ Lead the Way? Today we move from “place triggers” (my last post) to creating positive places. In the post-pandemic search for resurgent community connection, place activation, and purpose, the longstanding idea of third places is making a comeback. At least three Substack authors, Karen Christensen, Colin Marshall, and John Tibbit have recently addressed urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s 1989 classic book about third places, The Great Good Place.
Negotiating the ‘Triggers’ of Place
And the Importance of Positive Memories Are you feeling triggered by a place? I may not be an expert in environmental psychology, but I’ve thought and written a lot about how certain places can deeply affect our emotions. They can bring back memories that are closely tied to our identities and our met (or unmet) goals. They can amplify feelings of significance or frustration. These memories-the negative ones in particular — are the stuff of self-help books, therapy, and online support groups.
Venues Where Space Meets Time
How Values and Belief Systems Frame What We See Unfiltering Our Reality of Place These simple premises inform our points of view about city life. For every image, topic, or discipline, our values and belief systems frame what we see, especially when familiar guideposts get filtered away. Remove color, crop, leave only hint and nuance, and the city can become an off-trail place where inquiry is a form of intellectual rescue and rediscovery.
Revisiting the Sit-able City in a Suburban Chair
Does an Adirondack on a Lawn Fit the Meme? What of lonely, outdoor suburban chairs, such as the Adirondack “throne” above? Is it a quiet yet profound symbol of urban sit-ability, an imposter, or something else? Perhaps surprisingly, I’ve concluded that the Adirondack chair has bona fide status as our cities and towns evolve. Here’s why. Some years ago, before the COVID era of outside seating, I wrote one of those viral blog posts that just repeated what others — such as William H.
Envisioning the Post-Pandemic City and Town
The pandemic has brought about significant changes in our cities and towns, accelerating long-term trends like online shopping, and presenting new equity and inclusion challenges. We regularly discuss altered workspaces, office-to-residential conversions, new transportation patterns, and new uses for public spaces. Key concepts such as replacing closed businesses, outdoor dining, and evolving community hubs are familiar topics of this new era.
'Visual Prosecution' and the Post-Pandemic City
Downtown Seattle on September 2, 2023, from Belltown. | Charles Wolfe 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.
Must Rejuvenation Inspire?
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. No matter how much they claim to honor community input and history, recovery measures must be more than sound bytes and diagrams from consultant toolkits.
'Interesting' v. Architectural Style
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 language and levels of detail. I've done that on purpose, in fact, to regain a discipline I once had but was suspended by relocation and change.
The Layers of San Francisco
A book that I wrote seven years ago, Seeing the Better City, emphasized the role of juxtapositions in understanding the urban built environment. I suggested that attention to these overlaps or overlays - areas of regeneration and resurgence in my current inquiry - could identify the location of current disputes or policy conflicts. I did not, however, stress these areas as artistic expression, to be interpreted for their contrasts and transitions from layer to layer.
Cities in Remission
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 term (that describes the delightful choreography of people-centric urbanity) has evolved to create a period of uneasy calm.
Penance for the Cars
Any road trip along the California coast owes credit to Father Junipero Serra and the string of Mission towns located along El Camino Real. On Monday, the car-cruising configuration of Highway 101 in Eureka took me to on-screen memories of American Graffiti, filmed in Petaluma. Today in downtown Petaluma, I saw the essence that memory, the auto-dominated central spine of a portion of El Camino.
Beachcombing as a Metaphor for Change
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 a phenomenon - a beach composed not just of pebbles but of glass. Glass Beach is all-in-one remnant, ruin and regeneration.
About the Resurgence Itinerary
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. If Sunday was a confusing amalgamation of coastal vignettes from Oregon and elsewhere, Monday's theme was far more clear, all about the trees that dominated the day.
Amalgamations
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. From golf courses to dune ATV's, ice cream and fish n' chips, witness a mix of uses cloned from many places, but expressed with the particularities of the Oregon Coast and Highway 101's world.
Southbound in Uneven Times
Commencing the Resurgence Journey The journey south begins, spanning the boundary between Washington and Oregon, from Mount Hood to the Columbia River. Before 14 days of travel, the send-off view from Washougal recalls the indigenous landscape, while downriver, Vancouver's identity evolves. Then, a swatch of Portland, whose once touted urbanist stock is now under scrutiny in the era of post-COVID evolution. Change is cyclical, dominates conversation, and is often beyond our control.
A Downtown Regeneration Agenda
During my current return to Seattle after several years abroad, I have been exploring various topics for GeekWire, related to urban resilience, recovery, and innovation in the post-pandemic era. In this series of four articles (to date), I share my perspectives on how cities can adapt and thrive in the face of unprecedented challenges and opportunities. You can find each article at Geekwire's summary link, here. AI envisioned the future of downtown Seattle.
AI envisioned the future of downtown Seattle. Here's where it fell short.
Can AI help the transform the future of downtown Seattle?
From vacant storefronts to vibrant hubs: Revisiting 'third places' for urban resilience
In Seattle, city government and the Downtown Seattle Association continue to build on the “Amazon Great Return” through a variety of strategies to reactivate downtown. While attempts to maintain safety and deter drug trafficking remain forefront in the news, increased foot traffic, intriguing office-to-residence retrofit proposals and trends toward park and retail reopening suggest a spirit of renewal.
It's not just about bringing workers back to the office: 10 indicators of a downtown resurgence
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant transformations to cities worldwide. The road to recovery is complex and not always predictable. Some cities such as Salt Lake City or Bakersfield, Calif., are now seeing more downtown activity than before the pandemic. Seattle has a different reality.
Analysis: Amazon's 'Great Return' to the office is just one aspect of a downtown Seattle comeback
One major harbinger of a post-pandemic swing to normal in downtown Seattle is Amazon’s much-heralded return to the office this week, which I like to call the “Amazon Great Return.” In Seattle, which has one of the slowest rates of workers returning to the office, hopes are high. “I’m very pleased that employers like Amazon recently announced and recognize that coming back to work downtown is a great thing,” Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in his recent State of the City address.
A Regeneration and Recovery Agenda for Seattle, Chatbot Style
By Chuck Wolfe Artificial Intelligence Sure Sounds Familiar After answering some interview questions from a reporter about my hometown's ongoing recovery, I asked the Bing Chatbot to write an Op-Ed based on the content of my books and associated ideas. It created an eerie parallel dimension full of familiar phrases and things, and gave ...
24 Hour Prayer and Worship Experience to Include Notable Athletes, Pastors, Organizations and Musicians
Clark Kellogg and Darrin Gray Among Guests Set to Participate in FaithPrep Live Event INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2023 / EINPresswire.com/ -- The FaithPrep Live program is hosting a virtual 24 Hour Prayer and Worship Experience starting tomorrow, August 25 at 12:00 pm EST, and ending on Sunday, August 26 at 12:00 pm. The event will be livestreamed on Streamyard as well as the FaithPrep Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels (@faithpreponline).
24 Hour Prayer and Worship Experience to Include Notable Athletes, Pastors, Organizations and Musicians
Clark Kellogg and Darrin Gray Among Guests Set to Participate in FaithPrep Live Event INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, UNITED STATES, February 24, 2023 / EINPresswire.com/ -- The FaithPrep Live program is hosting a virtual 24 Hour Prayer and Worship Experience starting tomorrow, August 25 at 12:00 pm EST, and ending on Sunday, August 26 at 12:00 pm. The event will be livestreamed on Streamyard as well as the FaithPrep Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels (@faithpreponline).
Faith Academics Partners with TEL Education to Offer Affordable College Courses for Private School/Homeschool Students
Faith Collegiate to be offered through FaithPrep schools and other programs; Southeastern University to provide online courses for FaithPrep Florida TAMPA, FL, UNITED STATES, February 6, 2023 / EINPresswire.com/ -- An online Christian school provider has partnered with an innovative education company to offer affordable college courses for private school and homeschool students. Faith Academics provides online faith-based educational programs and courses for students in grades K-12.
Reflecting on Bridges to Home
How familiar settings suggest the universal while reawakening who we are. Tonight, from Mercer Island, two light paths cross the water, forming gateways to my hometown. To the left, a bright streak travels east, and to the right, a more subtle, staccato pattern moves west. Together, these beacons are maps and memories of my life before now. Meanwhile, Seattle reflects in the still waters of Lake Washington.
Exploring the Pier of Dreams
When does a dream reach fruition? On the evening of November 17, 2021, I stepped onto the pier at Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight. I walked to the covered area at the end, the evenly spaced lights showing the way. Oliver and David returned to the shore and I stayed behind with my camera. On the English mainland across the Solent, the glimmer of Portsmouth framed the receding dusk. It was a colder night than I expected, and I was underdressed.
Learning the Layers of Place
How experiencing things left behind spurs a diverse understanding of places, and human nature. In August 2006, I traveled to the islands of Malta and Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea. I arrived after some research with an open mind. I went away with an inquisitive attitude I hope never to lose, and an unforgettable sense of how multi-layered landscapes — and personalities — still await our dissection.
Governor Beshear Announces Funding for Riverport Improvements
By Naitore Djigbenou and Chuck Wolfe, Media Contacts FRANKFORT, Ky. (July 15, 2021) – Gov. Andy Beshear today announced $500,000 in awards for critical repairs and equipment replacement at five Kentucky riverports. The funding is in the form of grants to be matched by the authorities that operate the riverports, which are at Paducah, Eddyville, Hickman, Owensboro and Louisville. “From roads to riverports, quality transportation systems are vital to support a thriving economy,” said Gov. Beshear.
10 More Counties Joining Transition of Driver Licensing from Circuit Court Clerks to Transportation Cabinet in July
FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 23, 2021) - Ten more Kentucky counties will make the transition in July to a new, secure driver-licensing model, administered by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), that gives Kentuckians more choices and modern services. The traditional system of licenses and permits being issued by the Office of Circuit Court Clerk in each county is being phased out. It is being replaced by a network of KYTC Driver Licensing Regional Offices intentionally located across the state.
The Emotion Roadmap
The Emotion Roadmap: Take the Wheel and Control How You Feel with Chuck Wolfe airs 12 Noon to 1 p.m. First and second Wednesday of each month. Have you ever found yourself stuck, uncertain what to do? Smart people, excellent leaders and critical thinkers, effective managers and problem solvers often become stuck when something emotional is happening to them or someone they are dealing with.
15 Quotes About Cities
Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote." To me, there is no exception with regard to cities, and the result is both humbling and inspirational. I have a working hypothesis that websites which aggregate quotations about cities and city planning are among the most telling chroniclers of the relationship between humans and their urban environments.
What London and Stockholm can teach Seattle about congestion pricing | Opinion
The Emerald City wants to implement a transportation solution that is equitable. Without viable alternatives to driving, that might be impossible. A congestion pricing sign in the London borough Hammersmith & Fulham.
Durkan's $5.9B budget slashes jobs, increases transit funds
The mayor's proposed budget does ultimately call for an increase, from the $5.6 billion being spent this year to $5.9 billion. That was something of a surprise, considering Durkan's statements in March that she would ask for 2- to 5-percent cuts from each of the city's department.
2018 election battle: Is Trump scarier than Seattle?
The August primary left no doubt among Washington state’s Republicans that they have a challenge on their hands in November. In congressional races, the Democrats are safe in all of the seats they hold now, while three Republican districts are in play, including one in deep red Eastern Washington. At the legislative district level, Democrats had a very strong showing that suggests they might well increase their slim majorities in Olympia.
Our favorite mountains are under siege. Blame your selfie.
Washington’s Cascades are blessed with plenty of granite wonderlands and picturesque tarns, but The Enchantments stand apart. White stone spires and domes streaked with snow encircle a high alpine basin, and emerald lakes and waterfalls out of a Norse legend decorate the valleys. That’s why Bill and Peg Stark, who were among the first climbers to visit the area in the 1940s, gave the places mythological names — Leprechaun, Sprite, and Gnome lakes.
Seattle, cloaked in smoke, puts on a face mask
The air quality is bad in Seattle and worse in the suburbs, with Monday toppling a century old record, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. As Beijing enjoyed “moderate” breathing conditions, some areas around Puget Sound saw the air downgraded to “unhealthy” for everyone. And with that rating has come a minor panic, with the region bending its routines and discussions around the hazards of the smoke as it might for a blizzard in the winter.
Carmen Best confirmed as police chief in historic first
At one point, Councilmember Lorena González asked those who supported Best, who had been serving in an interim capacity, to stand in City Hall. Nearly the entire crowded room stood in support. “Take it in, Chief Best,” she said.
Live coverage of the 2018 primary election - from Seattle to Ellensburg
While this year’s primary election is a bit less exciting than Seattle's mayoral primary last year, it’s still important. In the State Legislature, there are several seats up for grabs and the top two finishers from the primary will head to a general election that could shift the power balance in Olympia.
A view of Seattle from the outside looking in
Driving to Lisbon, Miguel, a Portuguese consultant, was talking about what it really means to be a “smart city” when he took a minute to start explaining his music collection. After Miguel plugged his iPhone into a Mercedes radio console and demonstrated the style of his favorite fado singer, Seattle quickly — and inadvertently — stole the show.
Coming soon to Seattle: Pre-tax dollars for transit
One way he may do that is to mandate Seattle businesses create pre-tax accounts for riding public transportation — a sort-of Health Savings Account for bus rides. As Seattle sniffs out any avenue for closing opportunity-gulfs between its poorest and richest residents, it’s meant to be a light-touch approach that could be an easy win inside a tense City Hall.
As Seattle changes, remember ghosts like the old Orpheum Theater
In Seattle, last week, I looked across the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Olive Way, into McGraw Square and towards the Westin Hotel, noting a Seattle urbanism trifecta — the Lake Union Streetcar, the skillet food truck and one building of Amazon’s new headquarters complex under construction. What’s not to like about that view? Well, one thing for sure.
We Can’t Ignore the Health Impacts of Climate Change (Part 1)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) organized a three-day conference on climate and health. As the Trump administration took power, the conference was abruptly canceled. So former Vice President Al Gore and his Climate Reality Project, former President Jimmy Carter, the American Public Health Association (APHA), public health expert Dr. Howard Frumkin and others stepped in to fill the gap, putting on a one-day summit at the Carter Center in Atlanta last week.
Urban Lessons from Hong Kong and Tokyo
One of the best things is strolling across cities around the world. They’re all different, yet remarkably similar. It’s the perfect opportunity for reflecting how your own city or cities compare. Two places I’ve recently had the pleasure of exploring are Hong Kong and Tokyo. These Far East mega-cities may seem an odd couple at first, but there’s a key theme they share: they’ve been built over and over again. Hardcore redevelopment is part of their DNA.
Chuck Wolfe - Chuck Wolfe is an environmental and land use lawyer with a graduate degree in regional planning, and over 24 years of experience in environmental and land use law, innovative land use regulatory tools and sustainable development techniques.
Vital storefronts are an indicator of urban success, while empty businesses are akin to the ruins of Pompeii. Even when storefronts go empty, some cities find ways to simulate that all is well. False …
Alaska and Sustainable Food and Renewable Energy
A high polytunnel for growing food (extendng the growing season) in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley. USDA/Creative Commons The Lower 48 U.S. states have come far in the battle for local food, but Alaska also has much to share when it comes to creating sustainable economies. Despite dramatic seasonal changes, infrastructure gaps and transportation challenges, sustainability has always been a way of life in many of Alaska’s small communities.
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