Jeffery

He does have a touch of homophobia... "A perverse residue of those Civil Rights years lingers on today in the campaign for gay marriage, which affects to be identical in substance, and which is now, ironically, the only vector of action in Democratic politics inviting male valor - while it is also a huge distraction from many far more pressing tribulations we face, from resource scarcity to the well-being of the only planetary ecosystem we call home. I say, ironically, because gay marriage represents an existential endeavor that seeks to escape or nullify the fundamental tensions of the two-sexed human race. Like all things fashion-oriented, its essence is novelty, and the essence of novelty is that its charms wear off. Sooner or later, the charm of being not quite a man and not quite a woman will seem less than compelling to those not directly preoccupied by it. I bring it up because the Democrats have (foolishly) made it the public's business to the exclusion of other things. So, for Democrats, the last remaining imaginable act of male valor in the arena of politics is to come out of the closet." ...which you'd expect from him given his anti-modern POV. Edward Abbey (who had a similar riff) was homophobic too, though that came more in his last, posthomous novel.

Yes, thanks! Looking at the delinquency maps for the Dayton area interesting to see increasing delinquency in suburban Kettering and Huber Heights, which might portend things to come? And the decline in housing prices is pretty interesting...how across the board this is.

How about if YOU pay THEM to intern? Back in the early 1980s there was a big-name architectural office in Chicago that required you pay them to work for them (or intern with them). They considered working for their firm such a career boost that it was worth your money, and they called their little scam a sort of grad seminar or insitutue or something (they had some sort of term they used..dont recall the details). When the interviewer told me this I started laughing...I was so shocked that my reaction was to laugh in her face..."You want ME to pay YOU to work for you?" HAHAHAHA!"

This was my mothers opinion when I said I wanted to go to architecture school. In fact she had that opinion of college in general, saying I should "learn a trade" and then maybe go to college. She was actually correct (though I think she didnt know it at the time) since architecture is sort of a playground of the elite and upper middle class...you have to be "connected" to get the good/interesting commissions. It was pretty obvious when I was in college, even at a lowley place like UofK, that my classmates came from a different world than I did. I can imagine what a bubble top-flight schools like Harvard GSD, Princeton, etc are like.

...or is ALREADY happening in Louisville. From the article: "....Jurjevich developed a “demographic effectiveness measure” that basically grades cities on their ability to attract and retain young people with college degrees. Portland ranks No. 2 nationally, behind only Louisville, Ky.... Verrrry interesting! I can assure you something is going down in Louisville. This young adult/cutlural transformation thing down there is really obvious to an old-time with a long memory of the place, like myself.

^ I can live on $1,500 a month in Dayton pretty easily....but its because BoBo lifestyle consumption hasn't caught on here yet (aside from Yellow Springs). Doing the same thing in Chicago would be pretty tough, since "hipster" is sort of a marketing thing and prices go up when places/things become "cool" and 'in'. I think it says a lot about Portland that you can have a sort of affordable bohemian lifesytle on the cheap. You can have it on the cheap in Cincy, too: Northside! I sort of like this. This living for life vs living to make more money/gain higher status/power. Man, maybe I should move to Portland?

Heh, yes....I think I'm probably too old for this, but so far its been interesting. I think with the weather getting colder and it getting darker I am going to be walking more, though. Last afternoon was my last longer after-work ride, since I notice it is sunset by the time I get back home. One thing I am going to have to get is some sort of reflective vest or better lights for the bike....the vest pretty sure I want to get... just in case I have to run errands when its darker. Yesterday after work a lady pulled over and told me she had a hard time seeing me (this was during late afternoon country road riding...except these "country roads" are getting busier with exurban/suburban traffic)...not sunset yet, just a lower later afternoon sun....so I figured I would have been visible at that time (say around 6:30 PM). After she told me that I put on the front and rear lights in blinker mode, just in case.

Did some investigative bus riding this weekend. Was planning on taking the bus to go hiking at Carriage Hill Reserve, which is on the northwest side of Huber Heights (the NW edge of the built up part of the metro area.). This is sort of a farm museum combined with nature preserve, whcih I rarley get to (been there only twice in my 24 years in Dayton). Turns out its not realistic to hike there from the bus due to the arrangement of bus stops and trafficy roads. Yet I CAN take the bike there. Looking at the map I see that not only can I take the bike to Carriage Hill to go hiking but ALSO can take the bike out into Miami County and even go cross-country on backroads to catch a return bus at Vandalia or take the bike trail along the Great Miami River back into downtown Dayton. Another world of possibilities and extended range has opened, using the bike in conjunction with the bus. Big bike plans coming up is next month: 1. Festival Weekend in Mid October: Yellow Springs Street Fair and the Waynesville Sourkraut festical. Usually congested, trafficy, impossibe-to-find-parking scenes. But guess what....I can avoid all that by just taking my bike! I can ride over to Waynesville from my place in Centerville, and use RTA + bike to get to Yellow Springs. Different days for each festival (Saturday in YS and Sunday in Waynesville), but still do-able. 2. MAYBE renting a bike in Pittsburgh on my way back to Dayton and going cycling in Pittsburg a bit. Also plan on stopping at this place: OTB Bicycle Cafe....a bar/restaurant with a cycling theme. @@@@ Been using the bus more now for later night thngs....during the week to catch various open mike nights in the city, and also to go to UD to get books from their library, and will be using the bus to go to some screenings from the LGBT Film Festival this upcoming weekend. So far I can still use the bus to get some bike riding done after work, or mix of riding/hiking. I can get about an hour or so of cycling in after work if I want to. @@@@ Sort of wish Dayton had a zipcar thing. There ARE times where Id like to rent a car for just a night or maybe just a few hours. Tho Avis is pretty cheep with their daily rental at $35 or so.

Summarizing: US economy hobbled by weak hiring, manufacturing WASHINGTON (AP) - A trio of reports Thursday offered a reminder that the U.S. economy is struggling to grow and add jobs. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week stayed near a level that signals only weak hiring in September. Manufacturing shrank for a fifth straight month in the Philadelphia region, a sign that weaker global growth has hurt demand for American-made goods. And a measure of future economy activity declined for the second time in three months. The data followed a poor month of hiring in August and the Federal Reserve's move last week to launch new stimulus measures to give the hobbled recovery a jolt. ...in bold...a drop in a leading indicator?

I was planning on blowing through Williamsport but it might be worth tarrying here considering how nice the buildings are. The hotel in the early pix is a remarkable survivor.

Was wondering if a UOer had posted pix of Altoona....sure nuf....actually this place looks neat....these PA towns have a lot of good generic architecture (like those rowhouses and commercial buildings on the top two posts. Altoona is on my itinerary for my upstate NY/PA road trip. I was wondering about that Railroaders Museum...might be a chance to see a GG1, but wonder about the exhibits. Rob, if yr reading this, thanks for the intel you posted on Horseshoe Curve as I was planning on driving up to that on my way to Johsntown, that and the Portage RR historic site.

Small Industrial Cities. From what I saw in the New England/Mid Atlantic area I was pretty suprised on how good these small factory towns looked. Places like Waterbury, Norwich, Lowell, Portland (tho Portland is more of a port), Holyoke, Troy, and even Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. These places should have been as dreary as Springfield or Lima, but seemed in better shape. I think the lack of suburban srpawl might have something to do with this.

Yes, I think this is a good distinction. There is a strong element of lifestyle consumption going on with the hipster trend. There is the creative aspect, which would be the ironic appropriations and references in hipster style, and the style or pose becomes a commodity.

...except that it was developed by the oppressed. What we saw mass marketed in the late 1970s had sort of underground orgins out of the gay scene,sort of an overlap of underground clubs/gay scene stuff....a bit like how house started...

Opeation Ivy had a great logo.

You are correct, I do not know any personally (and there are few to know anyway, here in Dayton). I just find the phenomenon intriquing, as an outside observer, and interesting in a historical and cultural/stylistic sense.

Lincoln Square is well known to me since back in the 1960s it was a German neighborhood, the "main street" of the big postwar German emigration to Chicago. Back then they didn't have those street trees. And the Davis movie theatre showed German B movies without subtitles. It was always a good basic neighborhood, back then, with that nice Wells Park as an amenity. But it was much more "German"...today it appears to have gentrified. This was the neighborhood my mother emigrated to when she came to the US in the late 1950s. So a personal connection to the place. The Brown Line (AKA) Ravenswood was what she used to go to work, in fact I think she got on at that Rockwell stop, or one nearby.

Fed reports a decline in industrial production and (on what th numbers mean): US industrial production fell 1.2 percent WASHINGTON — U.S. industrial production fell in August by the largest amount in more than three years as factories produced fewer cars and other manufactured goods and Hurricane Isaac triggered shutdowns along the Gulf Coast. Industrial production dropped 1.2 percent last month compared to July, the Federal Reserve said Friday. It was the biggest setback since a 1.7 percent decline in March 2009 when the country was in recession.

More reporting on downward mobility...ignore the political spin provided by the source and look at the numbers...thought these are about peoples' perceptions of where they fit in....vs hard numbers.... Survey: One-Third Of Americans In ‘Lower Classes’ According to the Pew Research Center, Americans who say they are in the lower-middle or lower-class has risen from 25 percent to 32 percent in the past four years, in the national survey of 2,508 adults. Not only has the lower class grown, but its demographic profile also has shifted. People younger than 30 are disproportionately swelling the ranks of the self-defined lower classes. The shares of Hispanics and whites who place themselves in the lower class also are growing. Among blacks, the story is different.... ...and news about the evolving two class society/winner-take-all economy: Census: Rich-poor gap widens The income of American households continued to shift dramatically in 2011, falling sharply for middle-income and working-age people while rising for top earners and seniors, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. Overall, median household income fell 1.5% to $50,054 last year, the fourth consecutive annual decline after adjusting for inflation, the bureau said. The typical household has lost ground in seven of the past 10 years and now takes in less cash than it did in 1996 when adjusting for inflation... So gains of the 1990s boom are being wiped out.... Apparently 15% of the population are in poverty, too, according to reports....

I should also say, with the waning light, I am going to start to ride during twilight, sort of out of necessity. I did do one nightime ride, mostly on sidewalks, but not too comfortable with this. I do have a front and rear light on the bike now, but not convicned this is really safe (in terms of my poor night-vision, poor street lighting in suburbia, and the headlight / front basket conflict...I have a front basket for the bike now)... Presumably I can get a more powerfull front light, but still leery about this....

^ 23% is a big drop.....

I was starting to slack off a bit on the carless part but gas is pushing $4/gallon again.... very easy to get lazy and find execuses for driving... The bus is working great, still. Been using it a lot but also using it to do long walks. Bus to Belmont and then walking all the way back in to town, but stopping off to buy beer, pretzels, stuff at the market, etc.....this is to get exercise and not give up on walking. The temptation is to use the bike ALL THE TIME but I want to remain loyal to my pedestrian past prior to the bike. Longer Distance Cycling Been to Yellow Springs twice by bike, twice. Tipp City twice. Xenia once. Verona (on the Preble County line) once. Waynesville once. All these times except Waynesville I used RTA to get to the trail head and then cycled to and from the destination. The longest ride was a round trip to Yellow Springs and John Bryan park...with a return trip all the way downtown... 55 miles (including the ride home from the Dayton Mall bus hub). ....this was suprsing. Didnt think I could do Yellow Springs, but this means going to the Street Fair is now do-able by bike and I dont have to hassle with the parking and traffic. Another goal is to do Troy. Since I know I can ride that long ride from Tipp City into downtown Dayton, I figure I can ride up to Troy, have lunch in Troy, and then cycle back downtown. Also thinking of extensions from Verona. AS part of the Verona trip I rode up into Darke County and there are some country villages I could use as destinations, or cut across the northern part of Montgomery County via Phillipsburg and catch the bus back @ Englewood. Waynesville is the revelation. I rode there via country/suburban roads, which is different than bike path riding. But riding to Waynesville connects me up with the rail-trail that eventually goes up to Xenia and then Yellow Springs, or back into Dayton. Figure if I get fit enough I can make a loop and catch RTA back from the East hub or downtown... Waynesville also permits me to work in some hiking at Cesars Trace/Hisey Park...4 -5 miles of hiking trails right off the bike path. @@@@ But this is all recreational stuff. The bike is a masssive time saver when it comes to running errands, especially grocery shopping and getting to the library to use the net or get books...since I can get up to the Centerville library as well as the Miami Twp library via a reasonable bike ride. But the best deal, from a quality-of-life POV, is that it permits me to continue to do hiking after work. I can still get some daylight after the long bus ride to do some hikes since I can cycle to the hiking trails in Grant Park and Yeck Park, at least for the time being. Eventually it will get too dark for this, but for now the time-saving of cycling brings the "Wald und Wiesen" closer in time. I have the bike pre-positioned when I get home...walking stick already strapped to the bike via bungee cords.... The reason for the

I would have thought 'orginal hipster' would be the ones in the 1940s and 1950s.

I met the City of Lights people...the ones who were doing the repair shop...at the US Social Forum and their presentation is what got me interested in cycling as a form of transportation.... I think the issue of bike safety and interaction of bikes w. cars & pedestrians (Im a ped, too), is an issue that crosses class & race lines.... Incidentally they recently had a bike death here in suburban Dayton, on SR 444 in or near Fairborn/Wright-Patterson AFB.

...this sounds a bit like whats going down in LA: City of Lights What is City of Lights? The objective of City of Lights is to educate, empower and advocate for low-income bicyclists of color and create social justice in the environmental and bicycle advocacy movements. We have given out bike lights and safety vests at the CARECEN and IDEPSCA centers since April 2009. We helped create the BiciDigna bike repair space, a partnership between LACBC, IDEPSCA, and the Bicycle Kitchen since January 2010. Additionally, we have served over 600+ low-income cyclists and continue to do safety, maintenance, and legal rights workshops, under the popular education philosophy that anyone can be empowered to teach others anything. We fill the gap of the lack of representation of low-income cyclists of color in the bicycle advocacy movement.