Brendan Crain graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Honors College with a BA in English in August of 2006, and is currently the Chicago Director of Content for Neighbors Project in Chicago, IL. He is a people person, and has an intense, related interest in urbanism. This, mixed with some youthful idealism, has led him to decide that he will attempt to make "Urbanist" into a career (A non-academic one, because the thought of being an academic bores him to tears).
Brendan started his blog, Where, as part of this process, and found that it has been a fantastic investment of time as he has made some great connections and learned a great deal about cities and urban policy around the world. He admits that part of the appeal of his chosen career path is the fact that he will get to make it up as he goes along (which also happens to be part of the appeal of blogging). Brendan likes taking calculated risks, and thinks that Americans' obsessions with safety, political correctness, and antibacterial soap are what's causing the decline of innovation in our society.
Brendan Crain's blog is Where.
I’m a big fan of Jay Smooth over at Ill Doctrine, but he’s outdone himself today. I was sick to my stomach when I heard about Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani mocking community organizing at the Legion of Doom’s GOP’s convention in St. Paul last night. …
I’ve got my doubts about Barack’s veep choice, but this quote from Denver mayor John Hickenlooper gives me hope. Perhaps, as is very, very possible with the contemporary media, Biden’s big mouth has overshadowed wise policy. Let’s hope that’s the cas…
Like Fairie Tales, only a bit less connected to reality!Case in point: Discovery News, today, brings us this report on a competition between several teams of researchers to find a way to turn car exhaust into an energy source. Sigh. Where will it end…
(Cross-posted from the Neighbors Project blog)I’m moving out of my current apartment at the end of the month. When I go, the next people to live here will be paying literally almost twice as much as I currently pay in rent. My neighborhood — on the …
Tonight’s storm in Chicago:And, oh god…Tokyo is on Google Street Views…
From the look of things, the zero carbon high tech eco-city of 2030 might not really look that different from the boring old present of 2008. Innovative minds are coming up with new ways of harvesting power from just about everything, reducing the need for crazy-looking turbine towers or solar-paneled skylines.
As I listened to his speech to the US Conference of Mayors, I found myself shocked — dumbfounded, even — to hear a presidential candidate speaking about urban issues in such plain and ambitious terms.
It sounds like science-fiction, no? But, in a recent post written from the American Planners Association convention in Sin City, California Planning & Development Report contributor Bill Fulton argues that Vegas is on the track to claiming a spot on the shortlist of the most exciting urban places […]
Today while taking silly internet quizzes about which Classic Leading Man and Classic Dame most matched my personality (don’t judge), I noticed something interesting and, perhaps, subliminal. In the Leading Man quiz, choices for what kind of town to […]
Places are what people make of them. Now, technology could be making it easier for tech-savvy street artists to etch their own experiences and opinions onto physical places, communicating the artists’ own sense of a place to others who pass through it.
