A new domain!

This is my final post for American Dirt....at this website.

I now have my own domain with WordPress, with a much more elegant layout, bigger photos, and greater flexibility.  It has been over a year in the making, but at last, the day has come for American Dirt.

Please visit dirtamericana.com for all future blogging on landscapes and the built environment.  As always, I welcome comments and am happy to respond.

Winding down.

My apologies for how quiet it has gotten around here.  Truth be told, I've been very busy writing...as well as transferring American Dirt to a new domain.  Within the next few days, I will provide a link to my permanent site, which will host all prior posts as well as the future ones.  This URL eventually will not post any new active updates the blog.

At this point, I am still working out some final kinks to my domain, which I was hoping to complete before 2014, but, alas, it was not meant to be.  Stay tuned, thanks for your patience, and have a happy New Year.

Tropic of Capricorn.

No, not a reference to the lesser-known Henry Miller sequel here.

As this blog goes to post, I am currently en route to Montevideo, Uruguay, where I will be living for a good part of the summer.  My blog posts, never frequent, will probably have to slide to just a few per month.  But I will still be checking regularly and will definitely try to respond to comments as promptly as possible.

I wish my readers in the Northern Hemisphere (which is practically ALL my readers) a wonderful summer; I'll try to make the most of my subtropic winter.

Bear with me.

Two days ago I published the second part of my analysis on St. Louis housing.  It was available for a very brief time, but for some reason it is no longer visible.  My apologies as I investigate the problem; I should have the blog re-posted within the next 36 hours.  Thanks for your patience!

Browser band-aids.

It has been reported to me now by several sources that some people are having a difficulty reading my blog.  The two problems I hear about most frequently are 1) the text itself is missing from under the titles to each article; 2) the relevant links on the right-hand column don't appear.  Virtually everyone who has approached me with this problem has been using Microsoft Internet Explorer, a browser which currently isn't available to me on the MacBook Pro that I use most of the time.

I am investigating this problem; it seems I'm not the only one using Blogger that has issues with IE browser legibility.  During the time while I am addressing this problem, American Dirt may be offline for a day or two.  As always, I appreciate everyone's comments and feedback and look forward to more in the future--hopefully on a fully-functional blog.  Thanks again.

Photo upgrades.

I routinely snap photos of a landscape with the expectation that I will eventually transform it into a blog topic.  Many times these photographs are spontaneous and lack much foresight.  Because, until recently, I was in Afghanistan living under somewhat challenging conditions, I bought a reasonably cheap but durable camera.  Sometimes the photos I take need to be covert, and this 12-megapixel camera is small.  But it's not the fanciest thing; I sacrifice image quality for subtlety and versatility.  I have taken some great pics from time to time, but most are average and certainly not professional.  Future postings at American Dirt will likely remain under these conditions, where the photos exist to propel or enhance the written analysis.

That said, sometimes the pics have been so ugly or inadequate that they have detracted from the writing.  In these cases, I do my best to find an improvement, and I have succeeded recently and upgrading the photos on two popular blog posts.  I am therefore including these links with the encouragement that my followers either scan them again for superior illustrations, or read them for the first time.

One from June, focused on the attempt to establish a central monument in the small city of Muncie, Indiana, after the central courthouse was demolished several decades ago and replaced with this:

    

 The full article on this structure, and several other downtown Muncie landmarks, can be found here.

The second article, from July, looked at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, in terms of its engagement with the otherwise bustling High Street.  It proved to be one of my most popular blog entries in over a year, with over 1,500 views.  This Ohio structure featured in this article is visible in the photo below:

A couple new photos, courtesy of Jung Won Kim, have helped to enhance the argument in the blog article, which can be found here.

As always, comments are welcomed.  I do my best to respond to as many as possible; thanks for reading!

Branching out.

I have recently been invited to post for the blog Urban Indy.  As evidenced by the name, it focuses completely on urban and development considerations in my hometown of Indianapolis.  The writing will be a bit more informational and less analytical than my posts here, and they are far more likely to assume pre-existing knowledge of the community.  (Here at "Dirt", I try to explain and orient my readers as much as possible, since I assume they often aren't familiar with the places that I describe.)

Regardless of the audience for both blogs, I will cross-link whenever I post there, and I suspect that the majority of my Indianapolis-related posts will end up there in some manifestation, even if the intended audience is also here.  My first post at Urban Indy just went up; it explores the background and proposed changes based on the relocation of the city's Bloch Cancer Survivor Plaza.  In this case, the site is moving, not only because the current installation is rapidly falling into disrepair, but because the new site aims to be generally more accessible to the public.  The current site, though in a densely populated area, is rarely used, because, at least in part, the urban environment and street design makes basic pedestrian access a real challenge.  Even if it were well-maintained, the intrinsic quality at the park of high-speed vehicles passing by (which endowed it with the visibility that the Bloch family wanted) makes it unappealing for most visitors looking for a place to sit and relax.  Ideally, this shift in location will spur a greater deal of though about the possibilities for development at both locations.  As of yet, the decision to relocate in itself seems reasonably well-thought out, and I do believe it will be a slight, if not, significant improvement.

As always, I look forward to responses, and I am excited about the prospect of serving two different blogosphere communities.

Tilling the dirt.

I recently arrived back in the States and am working on a new blog post, which I hope to submit in just a few days.

In other words, American Dirt is back up and running.  I look forward to continuing the dialogue on landscapes across the country.  Thank you for your patience.

Hiatus continues...not an abandonment.

I regret that it has now been over three months since I have been able to post to this site, but my computer, without a doubt, threw in the towel at the end of last year, and the dusty environment of Afghanistan is no place to buy a new one. I have finally left Afghanistan at the beginning of March and will be through late May.

American Dirt is not forgotten and will re-emerge when I return. Thanks for your patience and your subscriptions; I look forward to writing, photographing, and responding to comments again when I return.

Technically a hiatus.

Happy New Year's wishes to all, though this blog ends the year on a bit of a sour note. My computer revived while in the States, but, now that I'm back in Afghanistan, it seems to have failed again--while another December blog post was in the process (among the only files that was not backed up). All my photos are also stored there, and while most are backed up as well, it is very difficult (and a bit risky) to manage external hard drives while working on shared computers over here.

Until I figure out what is wrong with this computer, or purchase a new one, I'm going to have to do the unthinkable and put this blog on hiatus. This could be only a matter of a few weeks, though it may also be a few months, since it's possible I'll be in Afghanistan that long and I don't want to bring a brand new computer into these living conditions. All is well otherwise, I wish you the best start to your 2012, and please stay tuned.

Technical tangles.

This month has been a little arid in terms of posts, and some of it is due to workload, but a lot is just due to poorly functioning IT over here. Due most likely to an unusually cold, rainy and snowy November, we have had very inconsistent Internet access--usually less than half of a day. That has hindered my flexibility in getting the blog completed at a reasonable clip.


In addition, the battery to my personal computer just went dead, leaving me without any option for uploading some of my most recent photos. I will get this situation fixed so that I might be a bit more productive next month. And, since I will soon be ending this contract in Afghanistan, my blog will hopefully soon include some very recent photos and hopefully my postings to this blog will occur a little more frequently. As always, thanks so much for reading.

In limbo a bit longer.

My apologies to all, but I have yet to stabilize here in Afghanistan--I am still base-hopping, and will continue to do so for a bit longer. This was not my intention, and I have by no means forgotten my blog, but while I remain a transient, I cannot form a contract with a private Internet Provider. And without an Internet Provider, my only option for blogging is the occasional 30-minute allotments we get at the shared Internet cafes, which is not enough time for a substantive post, and it makes it hard to draw from the research and photographs stored on my personal computer. I will say that I am currently at Bagram Air Field, it is much more compact than Kandahar (and therefore far more walkable), it's a more picturesque setting, and the old infrastructure/architecture initially installed by the Soviets seems to be serving the American forces well (as well as French, Polish, Egyptian, Korean, and Macedonian).

Thanks for your patience while I continue to establish a "hub" for my work here. As always, comments are greatly appreciated.

Sweeping the dust bunnies.

Much thanks for your patience as I adjust to the technical challenges that life here in Afghanistan affords. I'm currently working at Kandahar Air Field, and only within the past twenty-four hours have I (after much difficulty) procured an open Internet connection. And by "open", I mean that it is unrestricted: obviously through work I can easily access the Internet, but the Department of Defense understandably limits access to "time-waster" sites, so I have little ability to use the Web for purposes other than checking the news and sending e-mail. All blogs are prohibited. Fortunately I've found a reasonably secure wireless connection at an Internet cafe, though it is slower and more expensive than anything I would encounter stateside. Needless to say, my access is limited and will continue to remain that way until I've found a rhythm.

But that rhythm will elude me for quite some time. Within the past two days, I have found out that I am most likely going to transfer to one of the bases in the north of the country, with a probable interim period at Bagram Air Field (also in the north). Thus, I cannot forge a contract with an IP here in Kandahar because in all likelihood I won't remain here much longer. To avoid this post from seeming overwhelmingly negative, let it be known that these changes, though jarring, should also prove exhilarating and will allow me to explore military installations within a variety of milieus: some run by NATO, some by Americans, some by other allies; some in regions more peaceful than others; some in milder climates and lower elevations while others are nestled in the lofty, frigid Hindu Kush range that comprises a huge portion of this landlocked nation. I will continue to work on posts of American landscapes which will appear intermittently here at the blog, and--security concerns notwithstanding--will alternate those more conventional posts with montages of the dusty valleys of eastern Afghanistan.

I conclude with a photo from the "Boardwalk" of Kandahar Air Field--essentially the downtown of the base, a commercial center where the most people congregate and the majority of conventional goods and services are available. (Also the most frequent target of hostile rocket attacks.) Are these distance measurements accurate?

From dirt to dust.

I have completely neglected my blog posts this month, and though some might see my justification for it as a cheap excuse, I’m willing to throw to my readers to gauge their long-term support over these snags. “Snags” is probably an understatement, but for the past few weeks I have been preoccupied with preparations for a new job in Afghanistan, most likely at a US Air Force base there. I left my temporary home in Biloxi earlier last week, and I have been typing this document on a plane to Florida as my week of orientation begins, to be followed by the arduous flight halfway across the globe.

Though I am thrilled about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in this new job, it does place my blog in limbo. I remain committed to discovering new landscapes and exploring the built environment, but my focus has remained doggedly within US boundaries. I put “American” in the blog with a clear purpose in mind; I had to narrow the scope to some degree. But I will not likely spend much time on American soil for the next year, and this distance from home leads me to question how much time I’ll be able to spend on American Dirt. Yet I still have dozens of potential topics for posting, enough to sustain the blog during this sojourn. Unfortunately, the demands of the new job will give me even less time than I have had throughout October, and my Internet connectivity might be meager by Western standards. I will continue American Dirt, but the rate of posting for the months ahead may be more akin to this October (2 or 3 posts a month) rather than the prolific months of 2009.

Friends and supporters have helped my ambivalence about how to continue: many encourage me to blog about Afghanistan, regardless of my initial goals with American Dirt. And since most of my time will be spent on US bases there (probably Bagram AFB), it wouldn’t entirely deviate from my thematic focus to feature articles and analyses—the built environment will remain fundamentally American. However, I fear the blog could tread dangerously close to a series of real-time journal entries, which has never been my intention or desire. I’m also a bit constrained by conflicts of interest and national security, regarding how much I can elaborate upon what I see there.

Thus, I intend to find balance in this transition from Dirt to Dust. The thematic core of American Dirt will occupy much of my blogging activity at this URL over the next year, with articles and observations very much akin to what I have featured in the past. But I will occasionally deviate with Dust—a term I use to describe any Afghan observations, most of which will likely dominate with photos until I determine the propriety of writing full analytical pieces. I choose the word “Dust” not just because of its good alliterative qualities when paired with dirt, but because dust ostensibly is a prevailing part of the Afghan way of life: a gossamer powder, not unlike talcum, which settles onto everything (hopefully not the innards of my computer).

Stay tuned in the months ahead, for although the posting frequency may be a bit sparse, I should more than compensate through an unconventional approach at reconciling landscapes both domestic and foreign.

And thanks, as always, for your readership and support.

Midpoint assessment (spatially).

A few weeks prior, I managed to achieve what would have seemed to me unthinkable when I started this blog 15 months ago: a blog entry featuring my 25th state. Upon featuring an article on airport security in Roanoke, Virginia, I had officially covered half of the US states. Obviously, from looking at the spread of articles, some of these states figure more prominently in the blog than others; it is clear that I have spent a good amount of the past two years in Indiana and Louisiana. And, of course, the fact that these articles explore half the states hardly means I have come even close to covering half of the country’s land area. The nation’s 3,141 counties (or county equivalents) offer at least a somewhat more pointillistic way of surveying the land, and I have only covered about 2.2% of them. And, as anyone scanning the featured states in my blog can quickly see, the West remains virtually completely untapped. Featuring more Western landscapes remains a goal of mine, but my familiarity with the region leaves something to be desired; I haven’t visited California in 13 years.

But leave it to me to sell myself short, even as I try to promote the blog. The intense work load is unlikely to let up soon, which prevents me from posting as frequently as I’d like, as well as devoting time to get the word out. But that hasn’t stopped me from enrolling my blog in Google Analytics to learn the stats regarding my blog's viewership. Unfortunately my subscription has been spotty since I first enrolled in December 2009; I unwittingly terminated my enrollment in April of 2010 when I changed the blog’s template. I finally realized the error of my ways in early August of this year, but the three months in which my Google Analytics tracker was down will remain a mystery. Nonetheless, here are the most critical observations at this point in covering 50% of the states (if hardly 50% of America):

- My most popular blog articles have surprised me, since they usually aren’t among the most commented upon. The persistent success of Indianapolis’ Greenwood Park Mall is my third most viewed site; the unusual skyline of Houston is the second most viewed, and the study of the flag of Maryland (and vexillology in general) is my most frequently viewed page.

- For a blog titled American Dirt, it comes as no surprise that English is by far the preferred language of my viewers, and that the overwhelming majority of visitors to my site come from the United States, followed by Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia. More surprising is that Malaysia, Philippines, and Switzerland feature into the top 10. And alas, the world’s most populous country, China, has not viewed my site at all in the past two months. Brits actually spend a longer time on average on my site than Americans, by more than thirty seconds.

- Even as the geographic scope of my blog has expanded (it initially nearly always featured articles in Indiana), the majority of sites used to reach me are Indianapolis-derived blogs: UrbanIndy.com and Urbanophile.Com are the top two.

Diversification has long been a goal, as well, of course, with expansion. But the former may even be more important for ensuring long-term support. Even as my posts will likely be sparse for the foreseeable future, I hope—however slowly—to improve both of these two characteristics. Thanks again for reading, stay tuned for more, and, as always, I welcome your comments--and will be happy to respond.

Updates and downgrades.

Occasionally—maybe even frequently—I am apt to represent something incorrectly in one of my blog entries. While the underlying claim to most of my posts is an analysis based on observation and opinion, the road to my final destination is always paved with on-the-scene reports, research, or even press releases, and sometimes it is based on interviews and hearsay, particularly when I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the site in question. More often than not, a single newspaper article or scholarly journal elicits links to other articles and journals, and it isn’t uncommon that one of these outside sources may contradict another. Before long, the swirl of conflicting details nestled within these secondary sources exponentially increases the amount of time I devote on a single blog post. Needless to say, I can get bogged down on certain details that may very well be certifiably incorrect.

So I thank a recent reader for pointing out to me that my diagrams illustrating the site selection history for the new Evansville arena were a bit off. I blogged extensively (in three parts) on this subject a few months ago, critiquing the rationale behind the decision to demolish a block of old commercial buildings on Evansville, Indiana’s Main Street in order to make room for this new sports venue. Unfortunately, my illustrations didn’t quite get the original recommended site correct—the one announced prior to the Main Street demolition. I had one of the two blocks right, but my diagram gets the configuration aligned the wrong direction. It was tricky finding an accurate rendering or site plan of this rejected site for the arena, but a reader helped point me out to it. Since then, I have corrected my illustrations and, ideally, the three-part article on this arena—now fully under construction—should be free of graphic goofs.




Another situation which I have recently encountered is when an actual development proceeds in a manner contrary to my own research and writings, through no fault of my own. Quite simply, the development does not materialize according to the publicized proposal from which I based my blog entry. Several months ago I wrote about what I called “Retroactive Land Banking”, and I used an example in Bloomington, Indiana of several structures sitting vacant on the principal commercial street, Kirkwood Avenue. These vacant buildings were hardly a product of blight or disinvestment—they involved an incremental assembly of adjacent parcels, in order to demolish and build something new. At the time, the plan involved the redevelopment of this row of squat buildings into something more ambitious: 120 Kirkwood, a 4.5-story LEED certified condominium complex with retail on the first floor. While the website for 120 Kirkwood remains active, the ambitions for the site at the ground-level seem to have retreated, based on a very recent visit to Bloomington:



Now it appears the developer is simply renovating the existing structures for retail. No more condominiums; no more multiple stories. This won’t be the first time the persistent housing slump has forced developers to renege on their original visions. (Nor is it the first time I've blogged about it.) Whether the Bloomington developer failed to secure adequate financing or couldn’t find enough jet-setters willing to make down payments for a unit (or both), the project now looks to involve little more than a face lift, which is hardly the preferred result of months or years of buying and assembling a row of parcels. It simply is not the highest and best use of the land permitted by local zoning ordinances. Maybe someday 120 Kirkwood will come into fruition; just two blocks down on Kirkwood, one other mid-rise condo complex is now under construction. And maybe I'm wrong in my speculation, and the project will eventually begin three stories of condo construction atop this one floor of retail. But the apparent current direction of this project only vitiates some of the claims I made on the original blog post, reinforcing the limitations of long-term planning in the face of an infinite number of contingencies—as well as the limitations of writing about these long-term plans.

As always, comments are welcome on both this post as well as the revisions of the older posts.

Scrubbing.

As public and private forces continuously try to repel the contaminants from despoiling the fragile coastline of my temporary adopted state of Louisiana, I can only reflect upon some house cleaning that could benefit this blog. Awkward analogies aside, I always hope to improve the scope of the blog, plumbing new depths through observations of the built and natural environment—simultaneously learning from others and teaching myself. The goal remains to divorce myself from partisanship as I look at things and simply ask, "What does it mean?" As American Dirt approaches its one year anniversary, I will set aside my goals for the blog’s impending toddlerhood:

1) Refinement of earlier posts. In a matter of weeks, you will see repeats of earlier essays—not out of laziness, though I most likely will time these re-runs for moments when I’m particularly busy. Rather, they will always be improvements of writing from before, whether it involves an interview, additional research, or recommendations/observations from the commenters.

2) Greater geographic diversity. I have had people ask if I will ever feature essays outside of the US. I deliberately wanted this to remain an American commentary, so I see that as highly unlikely—and the ground here in the States remains so fertile that I rarely if ever need to look overseas. I may reference observations from trips abroad, or from research that derives from foreign sources, but my goal is for this to remain an American blog. However, I do hope to show a greater geographic spread. Right now the American West is particularly underrepresented, which is more a product of having not traveled there much lately. I am bound to get a western blog post before too long. Indianapolis will remain the hub and will probably dominate the posts, though, as has been clear lately, I have strayed from Indy-based posts lately, mostly out of necessity.

3) Improved photography. This may be my biggest challenge. Clearly I’m not a pro photographer, nor do I have a state-of-the-art camera, and I’ve always wrestled with how much I want to instill artistry into my camera work. For truly distinctive urban photography, look no further than The Heidelberger Papers, whose blogger has also recently expanded his focus to cities well beyond Indianapolis. And Huston Street Racing deftly chronicles urban issues with a much more sophisticated lens than I can hope for. Photography is critical to my blog, but the blog will never elevate photography to the primary focus—as much as I try to improve photos through settings, shutter speed, and framing, far too many of my pics are taken spontaneously, often on the sly, and using an only moderately precise cell phone camera. I will let the readers of the blog know if I have a certain post that emphasizes photography first. And in spite of my often crude photos, I am already getting to the point where I have to be conscious of maxing out the available disc space for my blog. Chances are I will have to shrink the sizes of photos from my early posts, since they were inordinately large.

4) More clearly articulated themes. Aside from the “Terra Firma” sidebar, which is working pretty effectively, I want more of a rhythm to my posts, and I want them to be more obvious. Each month I try to do one photo montage but I don’t quite announce it. It should soon become clear. I may also soon start featuring guest posts, sometimes with a “Point-Counterpoint” approach. I will always make clear when, on occasion, I feature guest photographs, as I already have in the past.

5) More short posts. My early posts were monsters, sometimes totaling over 10,000 words. I was frustrated with so few responses, but I deserved it. Now if I have a long post I usually break it into parts, and I will try to feature many more brief posts as well, often with only one or two pics. (These may be the ones where the emphasis is the photography itself.) Most of my posts average about 1,200 words, and 2,000 has become the understood breaking point. I’ll try to make it abundantly clear whenever I have a mega-post and again will divide it into smaller parts.

Clearly the ultimate goal of all these refinements is to further foster discussion and feedback. I appreciate all the response in the past, and welcome your further recommendations for keeping this labor of love going strong. Thanks again.

Removing the gauze.

If you've tuned in the past few days, I've been gradually tweaking the appearance of the blog to give it a bit more personality. This announcement serves as an indicator that I'm finish making these adjustments for now. No doubt I'll alter the appearance again in the future, but too frequent appearance changes only serve to erode the identity. So, this is all for now.

As I approach my tenth month with this blog, I again want to thank the followers, commentors, and general supporters--thanks for helping me stay alive with fresh posts, even as my own workload has grown a great deal. Keep it up, and I intend to keep the dialogue going for many moons.

E-flatulence.

I will likely be away from the blogosphere for a few days starting tomorrow, as I embark on a brief road trip across rural Appalachia. In anticipation of these travels (which will inevitably require me to visit a few gas stations), I offer this classic marquee in front of a station on the outskirts of Baton Rouge:


Surely the irony isn’t lost on the manager of this franchise. Or could it be owned and operated by another immigrant entrepreneur (as is often the case with gas stations), whose limited English allows him or her only to see promotional opportunity and not implied dyspepsia?

Speaking of promotional opportunities, it has recently occurred to me that my blog is ugly. I have experimented briefly in the past with changes in appearance, but I have never been satisfied with them and they usually had a blink-and-you-miss-it life span. Expect that within the next few weeks the page will be getting a more permanent face lift. The spirit and mission of the blog will remain unchanged.

And, as always, thanks so much for your responses. When all goes well, I get comments forwarded to my e-mail address immediately, so don’t think that if you respond to a much older post that I will overlook it. I sure try to catch everything, and will continue to do so as I begin to roll up the sleeves for some refinements on older blog post ideas, coupled with new ones.

Perserverence.

As my seventh month of blogging winds down, I recognize (and to a certain degree apologize) that my posts have been a bit more infrequent this past month. This is in no way an indication that I am retreating from the blogosphere, but it does reveal a few things:

- I'm quite a bit busier through work. At the beginning of the month, as I was transitioning from contracting to PFT work, I was juggling three jobs simultaneously. That has fortunately come to an end.

- I've become a bit pickier about photography. My mission is that all substantive blog posts will have at least one graphic, and I have no plans to deviate from that at this point, even though it often makes it much more difficult to develop a new topic. (It also makes my subject matter far more provincial than I had originally anticipated, since my work has not yet required me to travel at the level that I had expected that it would.) Sometimes I have to return to a site because I realize in hindsight that the photo just doesn't quite get the point across. Obviously this is time consuming.

- I'm getting a bit closer to suffering writer's block. This may explain more than anything why my posts have slowed down; I don't ever want to be completely tapped out. One way of preventing this is of course for me to travel more, which I have every intent of doing. Another of course is for the followers of my blog to continue the comments, or for those who never commented, to begin doing so. I welcome praise and criticism, as well as corrections if my observation is factually inaccurate. Thanks for all the support in the past, and help keep the dialogue continuing well into the future. Thanks again!