Robert Pence

Striking composition & light!

Desperate-looking area. What's the story behind the angels?

Uh-Oh! I tried to stop, but I cant! < :speech: > It has taken years to for small towns and cities to reach their current toxic level of car dependency, and cars are both a result and a cause of their decline. During World War II gasoline was rationed and because most civilian industries converted to military production, buying a new car or truck required a government allocation based on defense-critical need, followed by a wait list. Tires were almost impossible to find. After WWII austerity, people reveled in their regained mobility. They looked for opportunities to get in their cars and exercise their freedom to travel whenever and wherever they wanted. I remember my own family doing that after the war. That coincided with the birth of the "American Dream" of a house on a big lot away from town density, and as automobile dependency increased, so did development patterns that catered to and even required automobile use. Small towns and cities lost their local transit systems and small taxi companies, and car dependency and car accomodation fed on each other. Around where I lived, outlying strip centers started to appear in the early sixties, and downtown businesses, thinking convenient parking was key to survival, started buying underutilized nearby properties and razing the buildings. By the seventies the battle was clearly lost, and buildings were being razed to get rid of tax burdens. Even now, when there's growing awareness of the importance of viable downtowns, in a lot of small towns significant buildings are still being bulldozed because they can't generate enough revenue to fix a rotting roof. Many of the current residents are at least two generations removed from the time when people were accustomed to walking to nearby destinations to buy necessities, and even if a corner grocery could match the big-box prices, the concept of walking to a store a few blocks away would never enter people's consciousnesses. Driving everywhere has become an ingrained part of midwest culture. I hope that the increasing cost of petroleum contributes to a rebirth of the concept of living locally. </ :speech: >

Neat pics. Looks like a pleasant, comfortable neighborhood.

Bellefontaine anchors the Top of Ohio Bikeway that loops past the Piatt Castles and Ohio Caverns. It's a beautiful, hilly, scenic rural ride. I think maps are still available at the library.

Several years ago I read an article in a photography magazine describing the construction of sound or light or motion sensors to trigger an ultra-high-speed electronic flash. The article was illustrated with photos of things like a bullet shattering a light bulb. I think it was all done in a dark box or room with an open shutter, because there wasn't any mechanical shutter with quick enough response to capture the events. The exposure was timed and controlled entirely by the flash.

What are you on this morning - Have you been drinking my coffee? That is just scary! I was going to post it in the favorite quotes thread, but I'm affriad....very afraid Sounds like something other than coffee to me. Remarkable photo, chain! How many tries did it take to sync up with the bursting of the bubble?

From the Green Line trains, it sure looks like it. There are whole blocks near the el that have maybe one or two duplexes on them. In some areas there's a lot of rehab and infill going on, but there are also some failed rehabs - buildings that appear to have been completely rebuilt, but they're boarded up or standing vacant with broken windows and busted doors. The turnaround appears to be a long, painful birthing process in some of those spots. The present transit alternative to the Green Line is the #4 Cottage Grove bus. I've ridden it, and it's a long standing-room-only haul to the loop; I'd guess that typically it takes at least twice as long as the el. Even if you're lucky enough to get a seat, on a lot of Chicago streets the buses ride really nasty. The el gives a much less abusive ride.

Excellent photos. Probably my favorite historic district in the midwest.

We shouldn't overlook the impact of land use patterns and policies on transit efficacy, either. While there's growing awareness of the adverse effects of sprawl on the environment and the taxpayers, there's still a lack of stringent, enforceable public policy requiring developers to pay up front not only for the immediate capital costs of related infrastructure, but also to contribute to an endowment for the future maintenance and upkeep of that infrastructure. It might be good to include a subsidy from the developer to assure transit access to new developments, especially commercial strips and apartment complexes. If the full social costs of sprawl were reflected in the cost of development, there would be more incentive toward dense, transit-efficient development and less toward continuing our pattern of irresponsible, land-wasting sprawl.

Salt reacts with concrete, too, leaching out the calcium and eroding the surface. It damages concrete structures like bridges, as well as corroding rebar and steel supports, and weakens and pits concrete road surfaces. Where asphalt has been laid over concrete, the salt get through cracks in the asphalt and erodes the underlying concrete, destroying the bond between the materials and resulting in potholes.

Great views!

Been there, but it's been >20 years. Orrville is on the former PRR mainline and gets lots of freight traffic that moves through pretty fast. When I was there, they were working on the old depot to turn it into a museum. Neat building.

Some years ago I was visiting a friend who lived in Oak Park. On a Saturday night we went out to hit some of the bars on the north side, and after closing we took the Lake Street El back to Oak Park. He was used to it, I guess, but I was scared sh!tless! Between downtown and Oak Park it seemed like mostly a no-man's land at that hour, and on that part of the ride the train was full of a lot of pretty scary-looking and -acting folks.

Great compositions. Cincinnati presents a lot of different views through the eyes of different photographers.

It's been a long time since I've been in Akron. Downtown is looking up.

It's good to see the transition of an area that was a hellhole for many years! For me, a small-city midwesterner, it was hard to imagine people living in those conditions.

How am I supposed to pick a favorite from among those? They're all excellent, and some are just stunning.

Bryan is a nice town. The 19th-century buildings around the courthouse square are in much better condition than those in many similar-sized towns. Bryan originally was settled because of the abundance of good water from artesian wells in the area. I don't know of any of those that still flow.

Cute, fuzzy little critters! The one in the red suit is fuzzy too, but he ain't all that cute.

I like.

Double-track is plenty adequate for the Green Line, too, from what I've seen. It doesn't carry anywhere near the ridership or traffic density that the Red Line does. Mid-day, if I remember correctly, trains leave Cottage Grove every 17 minutes. Most times I've ridden, there are only a handful of riders who board there, and they never fill up.

I'll agree. Cars, especially parked cars, make it difficult to shoot attractive streetscapes. Visually they're even more disruptive than utility poles and spider-web networks of power and phone lines.

I checked out the photo set on your site. Beautiful city, and absolutely gorgeous photos. I'd heard that Prague is one of the best historic cities in Europe, and the pictures bear it out.

In this case, the mixed use was what made it possible to fund what the redevelopment commission wanted in the first place -- an additional downtown hotel adjacent to and connected with the Grand Wayne Center, the convention center (the Grand Wayne is already attached to the Hilton). Hardball Capital, owners of the Wizards, were already lobbying for a new ball park to replace a dated one near the Coliseum, some distance from downtown, and they were willing to kick-start the project with a substantial investment. Barry Real Estate, of Atlanta, got involved in the condo/retail aspect, and White Lodging will build and operate the hotel, a Courtyards by Marriott. Initially the city had proposed a luxury hotel, but there were no bidders for that. I think a Courtyards is better suited to the Fort Wayne market, anyway. It's still an attractive, quality brand and pricewise it's more in line with what business travelers and other visitors to a city this size will want.