A few weeks ago, my husband and I pulled away from our driveway in Waco, Texas, and pointed the car north, toward I-35. It was around 10:00 a.m. and we had several hours of driving ahead of us. My final destination was Huntsville, Alabama, where I’d spend the week with a childhood best friend. After […]
Lined with trees, a historic movie theater, and a handful of small businesses, Austin Avenue is one of the prettiest streets in downtown Waco. Unfortunately, it’s also jammed-packed with cars. Parked automobiles regularly line both sides of the street and a steady flow of through traffic fills both lanes at a steady pace daily. Even […]
For three weeks out of the month of July, my husband and I worked as dog sitters in West Lake Hills, a small suburban city six miles from downtown Austin, Texas. Established in 1953, it’s a small city (four square miles) with fewer than 5,000 residents; 40 miles of city roads; and its own school […]
Recently, I was listening to a podcast where the guest lamented efforts to take away cars and “force people to depend on public transit.” This sentiment runs deep in some circles. Anybody who has waded into the debate about transit reform has eventually come across the panicked or angry look on someone’s face when they […]
A few weeks ago, I piled into a car with two girlfriends from church. We strapped my son Levi into his car seat and headed for I-35. We were on our way to see a friend and her family who had just returned to Texas from Missouri and were getting settled in San Antonio. With […]
I recently married my boyfriend Rob and moved ten minutes from my home in Sanger Heights into a garage flat belonging to a couple from our church. Rob had been living here for a few months already and as we headed home from our honeymoon in Santa Fe, I began thinking about what our new […]
Few things provide a lesson in urban banality like driving from one Texas city to another along Interstate 35. Over the past two months, I’ve found myself resigned to this unfortunate experience several times for trips to Houston, San Antonio, Garland, and Dallas, and then back to Waco each time. If I’m driving alone, the […]
My first summer of living in Waco, Texas, I sat up late one night journaling. It had been about 10 months since leaving Brooklyn. What did I miss, exactly, I wondered to myself as I leaned my head back against my pillow. A few predictable answers filled my mind: public transit, bodegas guarded by one-eyed […]
I originally thought this email newsletter would be about interesting trends, articles and podcasts related to cities. It might grow into that, but for now, I’d like to take a more personal direction and write about things I’ve learned about cities as I’ve navigated a very unexpected transition from living in the grand metropolis of […]
A few weeks ago, my boyfriend Rob and I were driving back after a long hike in Waco’s beautiful Cameron Park when we spotted a locally owned baked-goods truck a few blocks from my house. After living in this neighborhood for almost a year, I decided it was time to try their gluten-free bacon jalapeno […]