Suburbia, the next Slum?

There's this great article in the March 2008 Atlantic Monthly called The Next Slum?.

The premise of the article is that due to long-term economic and demographic changes, suburbs, or more precisely exurban auto-centric suburbs, will undergo economic decline while central cities and urban suburbs with walkable neighborhoods and rail transit will prosper.

Snow, Snow, Snow

I haven't seen this much snow since I saw March of the Penguins. For the past two weeks or so its been snowing almost non-stop. I've had the pleasure of shoveling our walkway and sidewalk over and over again. I say pleasure because for this southern-bred boy, shoveling is still a bit of a novelty to be savored. I may feel differently in a few years. Julia, of course, loves playing in the snow, and she's even tried to help me shovel and sweep the walkway a bit. Its very cute to watch.

Luckily my daily commute does not involve driving more than a few miles to and from the train station, otherwise I'd be more upset by the weather. Riding on the train, however, and looking out the window at the white landscape is quite enjoyable, as the snow definitely softens the hard edges of the industrial scenery. Even the roads are still white as many of the municipalities have literally run out of salt. Oak Park is only salting a few major roads to conserve its supply. Apparently there is a barge on the Mississippi with a new shipment of salt, but its being delayed by all the ice. How ironic. Its a good thing we don't have hills or curvy roads.

The Years are Short

While surfing the intertubes I came across this link (h/t Instapundit) at www.theyearsareshort.com.

It was so touching I wanted to go wake up my daughter and hold her tight. Despite my best efforts I'm becoming quite sentimental as I get older.