Jeffery

Im trying to figure out how history is a way of learning problem-solving and creativity. I just don't see it.

^ hah..yes Ive been thru Port Jervis before! Stunning scenery in that part of the world..... I was thinking of a detour to Oil City since the place featured in a documentary film I saw last year or the year before.....

Excellent post (as usual, Cdawg). I think the book on the Wicker Park scene, "Neo Bohemia", makes a very similar point to yours, about erosion of stable work and middle class income...and that "bohemia" is sort of a stylistic adoption to this (if we can agree that "hipster" is a subset of "bohemia"). And yr distinction btw the two hipster types reminds me of what an old San Francisco type (a buddy of my first boss, native to The City and sort of bohemian in that Bay Area way...) told me..his distinction btw "Beatniks" & "Hippies"....that Beatniks worked and Hippies did not. I used to think that hippys were beaniks after they did acid, but apparently there was more of a distinction than that.

The Atlas of Pennsylvania....this isn't a coffee table book, its the SIZE of a small coffee table! Dated, but still a great fun book for map freaks. The Sangamo Frontier....frontier archeology in Illinois, made intelligble. The author makes something dry interesting, probably the best archeology book ive read since "Arthurs' Britain"...and the author gives some good quick history of how the Illinois frontier worked...trade and settelment patterns, etc, as well as the usual material culture stuff one associates with archeology.

My road trip plans have changed and Im thinking of more of an Appalachian Northeast type of tour. So far the only sure thing is an overnight in the Corning/Elmira area (and maybe a short jump to see one of the Finger Lakes...probably a detour t Hammondsport if not Ithaca) and a stop to see the famoous Chataqua Ive seen some great pix here at Urban Ohio on Johnstown (I think Rob posted them, or perhaps other posters, too?), so sort of have a good feel that this would be a great mountain/rustbelt place....but how about these others: Williasmport? Altoona? ...and maybe Binghampton? You all know what Im looking for: old blue collar neighborhoods, local diners and lunch counters, ethnic neighborhoods with big old churches, maybe old factories lying about...in short places with a lot of grit and character. Seems Johnstown has all this but what about the others? Would any of the above be good stopovers?

Louisville is in the top 20, (I think 18 or so?)....and Dayton clocks in below perennial basket-case Youngstown, at a ranking of 80, pushing to get in the bottom 20.

From one of Sullys links (the Economist artcile): The details of the report were worse than the headline. Revisions reduced employment in June and July by 41,000 in total. The unemployment rate fell for the wrong reasons: 368,000 people left the labour force and the participation rate, the share of the working-age population either working or looking for work, slumped to 63.5%, a three-decade low, from 63.7%. The household survey, which often diverges from the larger survey of employers, found that the number of employed people actually fell in August by 119,000 from July. (bolding mine)

Andrew Sulllivan: Jobs Report Reax "Crisis is the New Normal"....and take a look at the chart that accompnaies the blog round-up. As I suspected we are locking-in to a 7.5% to 8.5% range as "structural unemployment (hovering around 8%, it seems) in an era of slow growth....

Time for the fall road trip.... This time it will include a stop in Cornin NY, but also 1. Albany 2. Burlington Vt 3. Providence RI 4. parts of easter PA (ovenighting in Bethlehem & Lancaster) ..plus Portland and Hartford.. I'm particulary interested in Albany after my brief visit there to see the Occupy camp. That trip I was staying over in Troy, so managed to drive around Troy and Cohoes a bit, but missed Albany (aside from the capital park and that awful modernist plaza), which looks like it might be more interesting than one would expect. ...I will be passsing through Burlington (spending the nite there) and the White Mountains on my way to Maine. This isnt quite as interesting as I'd expect as Burlington sounds like generic college town (was hoping for more "mill town")....maybe should cancel this leg of the trip. But i did want to see the Saratoga battle field and Fort Ticonderoga (my tourism is geared more to history) Been researching Provdience (another place I spent too little time in last time) and it seems this place is really got it going for a smaller city. Maybe worth more than a day (plan is to at least visit Samuel Slaters Mill in nearby Pawtucket) Big questions on PA. Ive been to Bethlehem...liked the place, so will be spending the night, but am very curious about Allentown, which looks to be the larger city. I plan on spending some time walking around the old parts of Allentown...hopefully they have coffee shops or short order places stuck around like they did in Scranton. ...same with Reading and Lancaster. Plan is to pass through Reading, but stay over in downtown Lancaster, and explore that city on foot a bit (yes I know this is PA German/Amish Country, but the Amish hold no interest for me....aside from perhaps the vernacular architectureand certain landmarks like the Ephatra Cloister). So im wondering about Lancaster, if its got a good downtown /older neighborhood thing going...or would Reading be the better choice (Reading seems to be built on hills or mountains)? I am thinking of trying to squeeze in a side trip to Pottsvllle to visit the Yungling Brewrey and see some of the anthracite country..but already seen this minining town scene w. Scranton & Wilkes Barre. Also thinking of returning via Altoona and Johnstown, overnighting in PBGH...but thats pretty open ended.

This is even being promoted in Cincy as I heard some spots for it on the Cincy radio Downtown Dayton Revival Three Stages, with local and national bands (nearly none of interest to me).... ...band list: John Legend Train Guided By Voices Guster Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk Rusted Root Heartless Bastards Mat Kearney Red Wanting Blue Griffin House The Werks The Ohio Players Robert Randolph & the Family Band Cowboy Mouth Buffalo Killers Good English The Cliftones The Giant Steps Crusher Andy Grammer Kristy Lee Tony Lucca Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe Motel Beds Bronze Radio Return Needmore Brent James and the Contraband Burnt Sugar Bad Sines Wheels Lauren Eylise Customer Service and the Gem City Horns Jordan Hull Green Light Morning The Right Now

...which gives the origin of the somwhat unsual neighborhood name. National recognition of a place that just gets better and better... In Columbus, Ohio, an Arts Belt Is Thriving COLUMBUS, Ohio — The transformation of the Short North — a 14-block artsy strip here — from scruffy to chic began in the 1980s. And the scrappy neighborhood, which connects downtown Columbus to the sprawling campus of Ohio State University, has defied the recent economic downturn by continuing that evolution with a string of new developments...

This might have bearing on the RTA vs Beavecreek case here in Dayton. The US DoT is investigating a slightly similar discrimination complaint against Beavecreek due to its excessive requirements for bus infrastructure.

Speaking of pets I seem to be somewhat adoptd by a stray cat who has been coming by my patio. Ive set out saucers of milk for it, and once it snuck past me and skitted through the screen door into the apartment. Yet its only "sort of" friendly in acting a bit unsure if it wants to be petted.... ...not like a dog. Cats.

Sorry for the belated reply...it was just "ok". I liked those Sunday craft fairs on Main better, though this had more vendors and food trucks (which is apparently a hot national foody trend that Cincy is also playing in). For some reason this didn't click with me....I might be getting over this hipster lifestyle consumption thing. The highlight was actually scoping out the "new" Washington Park, which is really sweet and also kid-oriented with that playground and water fountain.

^ thanx for that tip on Huntington!

Sweet, sweet thread! I can just see renting one of those bungalows with a bunch of fellow students or post grads and throwing house parties (which used to happen in Lexington, KY, alot...in fact there are tastes of Lex in these pix). Inside/Out...heh...i used to own that documentary! Back when i was a big indy music fan. I think Athens was the first of the "local music scenes" of the US post-punk era to become widely known....(outside of the usual suspects of NYC & LA & SF just a bit). Before Seattle, before Porltand, before Chicago/Wicker Park, and all that stuff (but maybe not before Minneapolis?)....there was Athens. Also took a road trip there on a gloomy winter day with my sister, from Atlanta..."out on/the Atlanta Hi-way"....just to see this famous place... while there visited that record shop shown..."wuxtry"...maybe that restaurant or one like it, too. Southern college towns, and college towns in general (but not all of them), are sort of islands of bohemia in seas of clampdown mentality. You really get that feel in Athens. For this part of the US, Bloomington Indiana and Athens Ohio have something similar going on...sans music...though I think the Ohio Athens has been influencing the Dayton music scene. One would be tempted A place that is a college town and emphatically NOT like Athens is Norman, OK.

^ ...various reasons. I don't want to talk about it on this thread, since this could be a great discussion for this new plan, and perhaps even planning history of Cincy (one of the pioneer US urban planners, Ladislaw Segoe, worked out of Cincy), so will leave it at that. BTW, there is a big planning effort underway in the Dayton area...a four-year regional planning initiatve that also provides some in-depth analyses, but from a regional vs city POV (I participated in one of the workshops): Going Places "...an Integrated Land Use Vision for the Miami Valley Region" ...which does dip south to include the Springboro/Franklin area.

Im really skeptical of planning, but I just love the maps and graphs that are produced by the process....

Chicago hot dogs are more about the dogs not having a lot of additives, how they are cooked (steamed), and....especially....the toppings. I didnt know Cincy had anything special about hot dogs. Their street food is that chili.

That pix of Steve's Lunch was sweet...those are the kind of places I love to discover on my road trips..

...I recognized the face but couldnt place it. @@@@ Here is another take on the bike subculture thing...from Milwaukee (of all places) comes this nice, large format slick quarterly...has a sort of zine-ish feel, like Urban Velo. Cog ...but they cover BMX and cyclocross type of stuff too...

More recession predictions...this one based on internal issues, not the foreign debt crisis: CBO warns of significant recession if Congress doesn’t act to avoid fiscal cliff (alarmist headline from a usually mainstream publication) The nation would be plunged into a significant recession during the first half of next year if Congress fails to avert nearly $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts set to hit in January, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday. The massive round of New Year’s belt-tightening — known as the fiscal cliff or Taxmageddon — would disrupt recent economic progress, push the unemployment rate back up to 9.1 percent by the end of 2013 and produce economic conditions “that will probably be considered a recession,” the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.

We lovess listss, yess we do.... The Most Hipster Colleges

According to the article there are bus tours showing people the Brooklyn hipstesr. They did this in the 1960s & 70s in SF...bus tours of the Haight so tourists could see the hippies and bus tours of the Castro so they could see the gays. Gray Line was the company. Hmmm... Do they have "Rent a Hipster" yet? Like they had "Rent-A-Beatniks"? Apparently (and showing how things come full cirlce), one of the rent-a-beatniks, Ted Joans, published a book entitled, yes, wait for it, The Hipsters "The funny, wild, hilarious and witty world of the hipsters from Greenwich Village to Paris, A mixture of Dali, Ernst and Kerouac stirred up in a surrealist stew by America's only true "insider" and "outsider"- Ted Joans, a young Negro painter and coffee shop poet...."(front cover) A legendary book in the Beat canon,with collages & text by the quintessential hipster Ted Joans (1927-2003) published at the height of the "Rent-a-Beatnik" era. Published in 1961. I was two years old.

^ In Dayton 'urban biking' is BMX/mountain bike ridden by some old grizzeld briar or some baggy shorts minority or younger thug-lite types... Wow, really.....has this hit the blogs and stuff???