Blake Roberts

A Philadelphia residential street

Why Urban Spaces Make You “Happy”

Despite losing an Academy Award to the song “Let It Go” from the movie Frozen, the undisputed song of Spring 2014 has been “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. The song not only topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for ten straight weeks, but also was Number 1 on five other US and 33 foreign charts. The song […]

Sherlock Holmes Statue in Edinburgh, Scotland (Kim Traynor, Wikimedia Commons)

Finding Your Inner Sherlock Holmes

“You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.” – Sherlock Holmes, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities has been hailed for many insights, but, in my mind, the most important one was that planners and policy makers need to observe and respond to […]

Truckee Railyard Master Plan Vision (Source: City of Truckee)

Truckee’s Railyard Project

While the City of Sacramento’s redevelopment plans for the 240-acre Downtown Railyards appear to be getting closer to reality, another railyard project is progressing 100 miles east along the route of the first transcontinental railroad in Downtown Truckee (CA).  The approximately 75-acre Truckee Railyard area, which is located on former Union Pacific property and the […]

Better Block Project on Grand Boulevard in Kansas City, Missouri (Image: Better Block KC)

Building Better Downtowns One Block at a Time

For those living and working in depressed areas, one of the most difficult steps in achieving revitalization is to visualize a better future. Words and pictures can fail to capture the imagination. Plans may not seem to reflect resident sentiment. Time frames can be frustratingly long. Local governments may lack the funds for implementing improvements […]

Ten Amazing Real Reel Places

Ten Amazing Real Reel Places

As Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony shows, movies still have a strong power to transport us to places like mid-19th Century America in 12 Years a Slave, late 1970s New York and New Jersey in American Hustle, outer space in Gravity, and a near-future Los Angeles in Her. As impressive as those movies are in creating […]

University Avenue at Ramona Street, Palo Alto (Finlay McWalter, Wikimedia Commons)

The “Virtues” of Downtowns

Downtown Palo Alto, located in the heart of Silicon Valley and adjacent to Stanford University, is home to an unassuming two-story building at 165 University Avenue that was once home to Google, PayPal, and Logitech when they were small companies.  Music-recognition service company Shazam recently had their Silicon Valley headquarters in this building. Media, such […]

Ficklin Wilcox Wine Tasting Room in Midtown Sacramento

Local Taste: Tasting Rooms in Downtowns

Over the last thirty to forty years, the United States has seen a significant geographic expansion of the beer, wine, and spirits industries. Originally limited to traditional industry centers like Kentucky, Milwaukee, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and St. Louis, entrepreneurs have started breweries, distilleries, and wineries in other cities, regions, and states, particularly in […]

Jackalope Statue in Jackson, Wyoming

Herding Jackalopes: Dealing with Diverse Physical Environments

One of the quirkier pieces of American Western folklore is the “jackalope”. This mythical creature – a jackrabbit with the horns of antelope, deer, or goat – is based on a real virus that causes rabbits to grow horn-like growths. A small industry has grown from this legendary creature, including postcards, hunting licenses, mounted heads, […]

Universal Studios Singapore (source: Walter Lim, Wikicommons)

Sesame Street Grows Up

Since I grew up watching children’s television in the 1970s and 1980s, I was definitely intrigued by a recent poll asking the question: How did Sesame Street influence your childhood perceptions of urban neighborhoods? There is no question in my mind that Sesame Street gave me a positive view of urban neighborhoods. My childhood was […]

Apple Campus 2 in Cupertino, California

The Original Googleplex: The Economic Benefits of Downtowns

For centuries, downtowns in communities large and small have developed because face-to-face interaction is essential for economic and social development. When I heard about proposed Apple and Google campuses in California’s Silicon Valley, I was struck by how the supposedly innovative designs of these campuses and their focus on encouraging face-to-face interaction borrows heavily from […]