Recent Posts
Learning to Identify Local Wildflowers
I want to know what grows around me. I hope to learn edible and medicinal plants. And learning flowers builds a connection with the place I live!
Announcing My Candidacy for Mayor of Post Falls
I'm running for major because I want my children and grandchildren to grow up here and enjoy the same quality of life we do today. This means prudent stewardship, prioritizing families, and a positive vision for the city.
5 Books Every City Councilor and Engaged Citizen Should Read
You want your city to be a better place. Whether you are an elected official, or getting involved as a citizen, you need ideas for what's possible and actionable steps to take you there. These books can help!
Honk! Learning from a Dynamic Public Music Festival
HONK! is a high energy, dynamic, activist street music festival held in Somerville, MA. How can we learn from it to build local culture in our area?
Book Review: Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles Marohn
American cities are failing. Most cities are insolvent, carrying debt they can't pay off as instructure maintenance costs loom and land values fall. What do we do?
How Do We Fix Sprawl? Book Review: Sprawl Repair Manual by Gail Tachieva
Suburbia sprawls endlessly. Cities are insolvent. Entire neighborhoods slump into disrepair. How can we fix it all? This practical manual details a difficult, but doable, way forward.
Book Review: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar
More space in America is dedicated to parking cars than to housing people. How did our built environment become this way? Why is parking so frustrating, the center of every zoning debate, and the key to reviving our towns?
Modern Quality: Where Do We Get Beautiful Things?
If you go to any major store, most of the stuff you can buy is cheaply made and ugly. Why? Quality and beauty make us happier and healthier. Where can we find them?
Why I'm Running For City Council
I’m running for Post Falls City Council because I want my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to grow up as part of a thriving, resilient, local community here in North Idaho.
A DIY Future: How to Discover Options and Effect Change
How bad do things have to get before you try to change them? How do you figure out that change is even possible, and build up the inertia to act?
Book Review: Retrosuburbia: The Downshifters Guide to a Resilient Future by David Holmgren
Not everyone has 40 acres and a mule. This book explains how to be more sustainable, off-grid, and productive on a regular neighborhood lot!
Book Review: Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It by M. Nolan Gray
You might expect zoning to be a boring topic, but M Nolan Gray makes a compelling case for why you ought to care about zoning, explaining what it is, where it came from—and why we should abolish it.
Why Idaho Needs a Victory Garden Tax Credit
Global supply chains are fragile. We need supply chain resilience—especially food independence. To that end, we propose a “Victory Garden” tax credit, which, like its namesake in WWII, will prompt people to grow some of their own food. Dig for Victory!
What Is Localism?
Localism prioritizes the local above the distant, the organic above the centrally planned, insisting that local communities be stable, sustainable, and relatively self-sufficient. Here are seven ways localism benefits our communities.
Seven Principles to Guide Development in Kootenai County
Our county faces rapid suburbanization and dramatic change of character as farmland is devoured by big development. Here are seven conservative principles we can use to guide the county’s future.