“I arrived at [Thomas] Kinkade’s Village [at Hiddenbrooke, a subdivision “inspired” by his paintings] expecting to be appalled by a horror show of treacly Cotswold kitsch; I was even more horrified by its absence… no matter how gauzy Kinkade’s vision, there is no question that the current suburban aesthetic makes us want it — bad.” Janelle Brown in Salon.com

“At the John Hancock Center, handbags are carefully scrutinized in the lobby, but cars are admitted to the adjacent parking lot with barely a second look… Let’s turn our lobbies back into public spaces. Let’s stop scaring the daylights out of people and stop telling people that they’re coming to work in a dangerous place.” Developer and building manager J. Paul Beitler on ill-advised security measures taken at downtown office buildings since September. Making someone sign in before getting into an elevator won’t stop a dedicated thief or assassin, and cafe bombings in Jerusalem notwithstanding, automobiles generally pose a greater security risk than pedestrians or bicyclists. So why scrutinize backpacks but not trunks?

From an interview with Naomi Wolf in the Jan/Feb Utne Reader: “Large cities can be really wonderful and community-based places to raise children, partly because you are away from the tyranny of automobiles. I love that in this city kids can run in and out of stores where they know the storekeepers, and they see a wide variety of people on the street… I found that the suburban environment is especially isolating for women and the children they care for.”