The Indefinable Look of the 2000s

The 1990s and 2000s have possessed a certain indefinable look - especially in infill housing of the sort that just opened in downtown Sacramento. This is Mercy Housing's income-qualified housing project  near the courthouse and county jail on a formerly very dead corner. It's a great little piece of infill development - the kind you see featured in one of my favorite magazines of all time, Urban Land from the Urban Land Institute. They love this stuff. So do I.

The Continuing Echoes of Rome

Forgive me the brief ramble of history, but I am engrossed this winter in the first and second volumes of  Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." That means being hyper conscious of the Roman Empire's influence still visible in our lives. I'm a guy who took Latin throughout high school. I visited Rome twice, in 1978 and 1981, to soak in the ruins of what must have been a truly magnificent display of architecture in its time. I came across the Sacramento County Law Library on a recent lunch time walk. It's a little corner place near the Amtrak station, all tucked away and invisible to most of the city. The ancients' good taste endures.

Room With a View

We went to the Crocker Art Museum in downtown Sacramento last Sunday and ran into a huge crowd visiting for the Norman Rockwell exhibit. It was great. So was this million-dollar view of downtown from inside the museum. Even better on a rocking chair.