Revitalize, or Die.

09/02/2026

09/02/2026

Going live today at noon EST with an AMA.

Drop your questions below if you haven’t already.

09/02/2026

When the healthy majority steps back from civic life, that void gets filled and in every instance I have witnessed, it never gets filled by people with good intentions.

Unhealthy towns are always more susceptible to corruption, always more prone to messy politics, and there is always some ridiculous conspiracy being bantered around. The worst part is, the well-intentioned and concerned get vilified but those with no intention of participating.

This is because there is an imbalance in how things are supposed to operate. The flowers have receded and no one remembers anything but the weeds.

The solution isn’t that complicated, though we have done our best to make it seem so. No one has ever proven to me that a boring meeting is more effective than a fun one. No one has yet show me that having joy in a process diminishes the outcomes. People want to have fun and feel connected.

Lighten up, this work is too important to be boring. Make your civic work fun and social. Get people together. Fill the field with flowers again.

The weeds only win when we let them.

09/01/2026

Humans are optimistic by default. We want to believe tomorrow will be better than today. We tend to see the best in one another. We want to be part of a community.

A healthy, well-functioning, optimistic and self-reliant community is actually the default setting. This is what 99% of us want.

But something has gone wrong with the soil in most of our towns.

We have an imbalance and it has created conditions that are healthier for weeds to grow. Those weeds are thriving, but only because we let them.

The bullies, the pessimists, the conspiracy theorists and the complainers will always be a part of a community. But when a town is healthy, no one notices them or pays attention to them. They shout into the wind for all it matters because the rest of the town is occupied with being content.

When the healthy majority steps back from civic life, that void gets filled. And in every instance I have witnessed, it never gets filled by people with good intentions.

08/31/2026

The problem isn’t that the “wrong” people are downtown. The problem is that everyone else isn’t there.

A healthy meadow contains weeds as well as flowers and no one thinks twice about the weeds. But when something is wrong with the soil, only weeds grow and we can spot that something is out of balance.

Downtown is where people should gravitate. The heart of the community. The question shouldn’t be how do we get certain people out of downtown, but why isn’t everyone convening there?

When everyone is enjoying the center of the community, those who might be struggling don’t stand out so much. They are just as much a part of the community as anyone else.

The real question is what happened to the healthy balance of people. And why aren’t we asking it.

08/28/2026

Don’t trust anyone that argues aesthetics don’t matter or that beauty is entirely subjective. They just want your town to accept less than you deserve.

08/27/2026

So much of what makes a person appreciate their community is beauty.

We place a considerable amount of value on aesthetics. Humans have a greater sense of attachment to places that are pretty. We seek out charming environments and will pay more to visit them or live in them.

Yet most communities don't have a single organization advocating for good aesthetics. Not one person whose job it is to ask whether what gets built is actually worth caring about.

Which is why most towns never see anything attractive built.

Years ago I was involved with my local preservation organization. It was time to replace the old wooden sign in front of the organization's prized property. We ended up in a heated argument about whether to replace it with a plastic sign. Equal proponents on each side. It left me astonished. I had assumed that preservation minded people were also concerned with quality design.

Preservation matters. It is fundamental to the revitalization of any community. But we cannot overlook how much it matters that the built environment, whether ancient or brand new, is lovable and charming. People derive a sense of attachment from things they find attractive. And a building has a much better chance of growing old if it's pretty.

Whether new or old, beauty is timeless.

08/26/2026

Not all old buildings are special.

Conversely, not all new buildings are garbage. Well, at least they don’t have to be.

I love following accounts on social media that show these sorts or projects off. Photos from Frankfurt, Germany of blocks of new construction that look hundreds of years old. A project called Catfiddle Street in Charleston completely blends in with the existing built environment. A new civic building in Budapest looks like it’s been there forever. Paris, Nijmegen, Barcelona, and even New York City all have examples of recently built structures that are a welcome addition to the landscape.

There are a growing number of examples of beautiful classical style buildings being constructed around the world that heal the urban pattern. Buildings that have context and help repair the damage done to street life. Structures that are gorgeous and make residents proud of their city. Projects that look like they belong and have always been there.

This gives me hope that we can undo the damage we have done to our cities and towns.

When everyone believes quality construction is impossible, the possibility of doing so becomes that much harder. We have to stop saying we can’t and start demanding that we do.

08/25/2026

For years I was under the wrong impression.

The argument I always heard and often ended up making myself is that we shouldn’t tear a building down because we couldn’t build anything like it again today. This is a well-intentioned argument, but I believe it has had some negative consequences.

I spent decades of my career believing that we didn’t have the money or know-how to build anything of quality anymore. The fact that we don’t build many pretty buildings anymore doesn’t mean that we can’t build pretty buildings anymore. Conflating the two thoughts led me, and I am sure others, to believe that it was an impossibility.

But it’s not. It never was.

I remain a preservationist. Historic buildings matter enormously. Old buildings are just cooler. Nearly every popular restaurant or retailer is in an old building. All the best apartments and condos are in old buildings. I will take an empty eyesore building with potential over an empty surface lot eyesore with no potential every single time. No one looks at a rusted ’57 Chevy and demands it gets thrown in the sea. Old buildings, like old cars, just need the right person to come along and love them back to health.

But preservation and new quality construction are not mutually exclusive. We can save what we have and still demand that what gets built next is worth saving too.

Honestly, I feel a bit cheated for all the years I didn’t realize that was possible.