Rough Guide: Florida

From Pensacola to South Beach, Max is currently researching the most unique features of the Sunshine State. Stay tuned, and if you can’t wait, slide on down to Jimbo’s in Virginia Key for a taste of what’s to come.

Rough Guide: Great Lakes

Oh, so you think the Great Lakes means the Wisconsin Dells and Chicago? There’s much more (metal sculptures on the side of the road near a munitions dump outside of Baraboo, for starters), and all will be revealed shortly.

Tales of 02120: Boston’s Mission Hill On Foot
(for the Not For Tourist’s website, forthcoming August 2010)

With a solid supply of Roxbury puddingstone, an impressive basilica, and some rather stunning views of the Hub, Mission Hill is a neighborhood that remains largely unexplored by the casual visitor to Boston.

Sounding Out Chicago: An audio series of explorations in and around the Second City
(in collaboration with Ann Dornfeld, National Public Radio contributor)

Longtime friends (and first-time collaborators) Ann Dornfeld and Max Grinnell will be teaming up to create a number of audio profiles of the people and places that define Chicago. Curious listeners can look forward to aural explorations of the city’s celebrated Valois Cafeteria (popular with Jessie Jackson and Studs Terkel), the nooks and crannies of the University of Chicago, and the Twin Anchors tavern in the city’s Old Town neighborhood.

Chasing After the Creative Class, or Can Every City Play The Same Urban Development Game?

Many urban areas around the world are looking to draw on a number of development strategies which are predicated on attracting members of the so-called “creative class” (think artists, engineers, scientists, and other creative types) to their respective regions. This strategy has a number of very serious pitfalls (and limitations) and this forthcoming piece will explore some of the very real dangers that relying too heavily on such a strategy might present for a wide range of cities.

37 Hours: Madison, Wisconsin

The New York Times did in fact recently profile  MadTown (as it is known to many locals) in 36 hours, but a certain native son is fairly sure an authoritative Grand Tour of this isthmus-centered city can’t be done in less than 37 hours.

Come back to theurbanologist.com soon to join Max as he downs a few old-fashioneds (a brandy-based cocktail popular in the Badger State), wanders through the State Capitol, and checks out Madison’s aggressively liberal East Side for some excellent vegan chili and tom kha tofu.