There are hundreds of empty storefronts along that depressing ghost town of a street. If you want to talk about improving the city, there’s a major disaster zone that needs seeing to, and fast.
There is a stigma, one I fall prey to myself at times - but more in relation to the bus route that runs along Barton, than in relation to the street itself. I’ve learned, where possible, to avoid the Barton bus (and the King route also) by taking the Cannon.
So what do you do to improve an area inhabited (in part) by people who can’t necessarily afford to shop frequently, other than gentrify it? By which I mean force all the poor out, and entice the more lucrative in. Improvement to a city must include accommodating the economically disenfranchised as much as it means accommodating everyone else. Not that there’s anything wrong with certain aspects of gentrification. It’s just hard to use that word without feeling dirty doing so, because that word also has a stigma to me.
I had a few further comments on my definition of economically disenfranchised, but it might get a bit hairy, so I left them out. Let’s leave it with: people who try, despite circumstances, to improve their lives - not the ones who don’t.
It would be nice to see that area, as well as the rest of the city, thrive. I think getting rid of the sometime “us and them” attitude might go a long way towards helping. (Us and Them: moutain vs. lower city; east vs. west end; downtown vs. not downtown, etc.) We’re all in it together, and what helps one part of the city will help the rest.
Now there’s a DIY project for every nerd’s front yard.
(Source: crazycrafters, via diy-revolution)

See the rest.
I’m partial to that, the LEGO key holder and the lampshade made from x-rays.
So, if you have any interest in seeing those weekly links lists I was posting, you can now get the info from my twitter account, or you can find me on Facebook. Twitter is likely your best bet, unless you have a burning need to know what music I listen to, how frequently I make soup, or what I really thought of that week’s Formula One race. (Note: I’m a little particular about who I add on Facebook, so I may not respond to your request, though ninety-five percent of the time I do.)
Explaining Complicated Philosophies With Gorgeously Simple Postcards -
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
— Charles Bukowski (via youmightfindyourself)
That’s not the only thing the stupid ones are full of.
He might unpick bled to cell, mamma! meanwhile did granary do it? And if I didnt denote, it would reside lightly the average.On the impressive, he elasticity that vasectomy was vivacious, that the tropical galoshes was of imperfect depression, and he saw the spiky softness and wage with emission mind ejected possibly expressing his unfortunate sausage.
Cammywyzru
I think my favourite parts are “vasectomy was vivacious” and “unfortunate sausage”. Although “tropical galoshes” is quite delightful.
Colossal Street Art by Sainer and Bezt -
Backdrop to Reality: The Brilliantly Colored Graffiti Murals of El Salvador -
Here, let me clarify… vulva, vagina, labia, clitoris…
National Geographic celebrates 125 years of remarkable photography with new Tumblr | The Verge
Fascinating Photos Show Current Life Inside North Korea – My Modern Metropolis
Nerd history and then some
Window Socket – Solar Energy Powered Socket
The Window Socket offers a neat way to harness solar energy and use it as a plug socket.