Welcome to
My Urban Curious Blog:
Authoritative, Affectionate, and Occasionally Absurd
I have been writing about cities, urban design, and the quirks of how people live together for more than twenty-five years. Some of that writing has been technical, or professional. Some has been quirky, or heartfelt. Some has been—let’s be honest here—slightly absurd, usually after an unusually strong espresso.
Where Our Cities Come From — and What They Reveal About Us
If you want to understand what a society truly values, don’t start with its slogans. Start with its streets.
Cities are not accidental. They are arguments, built in concrete and wood and brick and asphalt. Every plan — whether carefully drawn or loosely evolved — reveals what people feared, worshipped, prioritized, or tried to control.
Curiosity, Courtesy, and the Sidewalk Ballet
I had a small rainy-day city moment last week that I can’t stop thinking about.
It had me thinking we need more urban courtesy: the small, everyday acts of spatial awareness that make dense places feel humane.
I write about Anthony Bourdain, Jane Jacobs, and my small moment of “sidewalk ballet” gone wrong.
Teaching Theory in a Time of Crisis
On Thursday, I stood in front of a group of undergraduate planning students at the University of the Fraser Valley’s School of Regional and Community Planning and taught Planning Theory for the first time.
Teaching theory right now, in a moment of housing crises, climate shocks, and deep social inequities, feels less like an academic exercise and more like handing students a set of lenses. Theoretical frameworks can help them see that the systems they’re entering were designed, that they carry assumptions, and that they can be redesigned.
Urbanism Notes from Cambodia
Cambodian urbanism is deeply legible if you pay attention to how people actually live: where they rest, how they move, what they make visible, and what they adapt to rather than erase.