Big League States: Illinois versus Indiana | Maybe Illinois Wins By Losing

"s" discusses how professional sports teams can help to redefine smaller communities by putting the city into global media systems communicating about particular sports leagues, especially the NBA, which like soccer outside of the US, is a more internationalized brand.

"Big League City: Big League States | The real advantage is held by the sports team" discusses the competition between states when sports teams are located in metropolitan areas spanning two states.  That entry focused on Kansas vs. Missouri in landing a new facility for the KC Chiefs NFL football team, and the offering of over $1 billion in incentives.  

"Big League City: Big League States: Part 2, Salt Lake/Utah" discusses how success of the Utah Mammoth hockey team having moved from Phoenix, is helping to reposition the Salt Lake City metropolitan area as competitive for professional baseball, even though it is a small market.

Towards the tail end of the Kansas vs. Missouri "win," Indiana threw itself successfully into the competition for a new stadium for the Chicago Bears football team.  The team had been playing off Chicago versus the suburb of Arlington Heights, where it bought an old horse racing track as a site for a new stadium, but they had a hard time getting the kind of tax breaks they wanted from the various taxing districts especially schools.

Indiana saw an opportunity and seized on it, and now according to Sports Illustrated ("Bears Heading to Indiana and It's Obvious Who Is Most to Blame"), after the Illinois Legislature failed to pass the kind of bill that the Bears wanted to facilitate their suburban location for the team are going to Indiana.  From the article:

The city and the state have had three years to take the Bears seriously and only now realize they should have. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is the chief culprit here. He drove the Bears to Indiana by insisting it had to be Chicago or he wasn't supporting it.

Illinois and Chicago chasing both business and residents away is a very common theme. This is just another example. If not, then why did Indiana have no problem getting their plan in order to add a second NFL team?

Nashville, Buffalo and Cleveland all eventually got stadium situations resolved one way or the other. Illinois' legislators and Chicago chose to take the route Kansas City, Mo. and New York City took. They let business leave.

It's all been going on in Illinois since before the Bears even batted an eyelash at Arlington Heights. And how is that kind of general approach toward business working out, by the way?

Ironically, a stadium in Hammond is easier to reach for many in the Chicago metropolitan area compared to the Arlington Heights location.

Given that football team stadiums cost so much money, and have few events, maybe Illinois is the real winner here, especially as the Chicago White Sox continue to seek public monies towards a new development for that team, as well as other sports projects seeking public funds (men's soccer, women's soccer, etc.).

If they are going to allocate scare dollars to stadiums and arenas, do it for the ones that have the most activity.

Although at least for in-city locations, football teams are starting to do a better job planning for more events, although only Miami seems to be doing it successfully, well Las Vegas maybe too but more indirectly because it's a good location for signature concerts.

-- "You get what you plan for: the multi-use Miami Hard Rock Stadium versus typical football stadiums | Washington Commanders"

National Trails Day: Saturday June 6th

The first Saturday of June is National Trails Day.  I think that it should be leveraged to promote trail use, volunteerism wrt cleanups, as a day to celebrate opening new trails, facilities, etc. ("Thousands of volunteers help maintain WA trails each year," Seattle Times).  

Too often it isn't.

The American Hiking Society is the lead, but federal agencies, at least they used to, like the National Park Service and the US Forest Service were big celebrants.  

Biking and walking access is a big part of trails and Trails Day events.

US Forest Service lands are free access on Trails Day.  They have a lot of volunteer and other events that day, all over the country.

National Parks aren't free that day.

1.  Last month, while doing park playground evaluation for a grant application, I realized besides most places not having enough signage calling attention to trails, that trail signage could be augmented with information/icons pointing people to nearby services like restrooms or air pumps--bike maps often do this, but not signs.

2.  Years ago, I was blown away by a trail study for Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Ohio (Cuyahoga Greenways Plan) that did demographic studies about the increased range of jobs made available through the expansion of trail networks.  

I haven't stayed in close touch with bike planning best practice over the past few years, but I think this plan is definitely worth reading in terms of how it lays out goals and evaluation criteria for route selection, and even branding!

3. The basic idea is building a network for cycling.  I like the way an old German National Bicycle Plan illustrated the point.

I'm still proud of the concepts I developed many years ago in creating the Western Baltimore County Pedestrian and Bicycle Access Plan in terms of the scales at which to focus the development of bicycle and walking infrastructure ("Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces""):

• within neighborhoods
• one mile radius from schools and bus stops and transit stations
• three mile radius from "town centers"
• along corridors
• between corridors
• connections within and to parks, which I called a County bikeway network
• connections to neighboring jurisdictions (Baltimore County has borders with Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Howard County, Carroll County and Harford County in Maryland, and York County in Pennsylvania.

4.  With regard to trails as networks and infrastructure, urban trails can be particularly good at connecting neighborhoods to parks, libraries, shopping districts, grocery stores, schools and other civic assets.  The Northwest Branch Trail in Prince George's County does this very well--and it's the first trail that I really rode on that made me realize the value of trails versus street riding.

On the street, so much of your mental energy is occupied on defensive cycling.  You can drop a lot of that when riding trails, except for gauging the movement of pedestrians, little kids, dogs, roller bladers, scooter riders, skateboarders, etc.

On the Baltimore and Annapolis Trail and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, brewpubs in Iowa, etc. many businesses have opened rear entries to link to the adjoining trail.

The patio and 606 Trail access point at Wolf & Company in Bucktown. Credit: Quinn Myers/Block Club Chicago.

In Chicago, the Wolf and Company restaurant is the first company to have placed a restaurant entry on  the 606 Trail.  

They specifically chose that building because it could support multiple concepts, including the trail.

Ironically, the 606 Trail was created to serve a lower income area of Chicago ("Lessons from The 606," DePaul University Institute of Housing Studies) but the Bucktown neighborhood where the restaurant is, is decidedly upscale.

The top floor is a cafe with coffee, tea and other drinks.

The bottom floor, 1752 N. Western Avenue opens to the street and neighborhood, with a full service restaurant, bar and market ("Bloomingdale Trotters Should Beware of Wolves, Not Foxes, Along the 606," Eater).

With a butcher case like this, and prices to match, the market is definitely a lot more than a typical convenience store focused on selling snacks and soda.

So Wolf & Company is three concepts: cafe; restaurant and bar; and upscale market, in one, connecting both to the 606 Trail and the Bucktown neighborhood.

5.  Speaking of branding, how about Promoting Bikeway Networks through Postcards?  The Alta Trail Map postcard below pictures their trails for winter skiing.  I like the icons they use to denote the various amenities at different trailheads.  Ski resorts promote mountain biking in summers as a way to build revenue off-season, and publish trail maps.

Relatedly, the Ketchum Idaho Visitor Center has trail maps posted on its walls.  As do some other groups.  But rarely bicycle shops.

6.  Not trails per se, but bikeways, Salt Lake is really doing a lot of great work ("Recent study cites Salt Lake City as one of the nation's safest metro areas for bicycling," Cache Valley Daily), even though its program to add sustainable mobility infrastructure to the city's streets has been stymied and preempted by the Utah State Legislature--legislators complain that bikeways make it hard for them to drive to the Capitol ("Utah Senate approves bill that blocks Salt Lake City's street improvement work," Salt Lake City Weekly).

7.  Besides the drying up of federal funding for sustainable mobility infrastructure ("Cities Losing Federal Support for Bike and Walking Infrastructure," Governing, "USDOT’s historic failure to advance any new transit projects in 14 months may be a sign of things to come," Transportation for America) and fortunately most states and localities are maintaining their commitments to biking and walking (and can't afford to cover federal government funding for transit) ... 

8.  the biggest issue in bicycle planning to me is not the development, construction and implementation of infrastructure and facilities, but providing the assistance people need to make the transition from automobile-centricity to biking.

I write about that here:

-- "Revisiting assistance programs to get people biking: 26 programs"

9.  Secure bicycle parking networks operating at the metropolitan scale.  But while #24 is Provision of secure bicycle parking, and lockers and showers in destination districts.  Zoning requirements to build them in office buildings and campuses of a certain size.  Or as a proffer/ community benefit.

I failed to call out specifically the need for secure bicycle parking networks.  That means 27 points.  This covers the topic:

-- "If you're going to promote electric bikes at scale, there needs to be complementary investment in secure bicycle parking and charging" (2023)
-- "Bike to Work Day as an opportunity to assess the state of bicycle planning: Part 2, building a network of bike facilities at the regional scale" (2017)

Rennes, France does a good job with regional secure bike parking ("National Bicycle Month | Rennes, France: a national model").  Other European cities too.

10.  E-bikes can help a lot.  Years ago I was critical about e-biking, because I thought "regular" bikes worked in cities--especially in flat areas--just fine ("(Still) tired of mis-understanding of the potential for e-bikes."

E-bikes have the added benefit of 

1. extending the distance people are willing to commute by bike
2. making it easier for aging seniors to continue biking
3. making it easier to bike in hilly conditions
4. making a bicycle trip more competitive with car travel in terms of time, so that people actually switch trips from a car to a bike.

From Reddit. An Amazon e-bike vehicle making deliveries in DC.  Although some worry about such vehicles blocking bike lanes. 

11.  Making cycling irresistible. But my earlier position on "the right way to use electric bikes" made me remember job isn't to make plans about how I think people should bike.  It should be about building the conditions to make bicycling irresistible 

-- "Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany," Transport Reviews (2008).  

I used that paper as the foundation for this piece, which was commissioned at the time by the DC Bicycle Advisory Committee in response to a Rails to Trails Conservancy initiative.   

-- "Ideas for making bicycling irresistible in Washington DC" (2008)  

In writing, I made the point that DC is urban and should lay out an urban agenda for biking, as opposed to the more suburban and rural biking "sense" of the rails to trails movement.

I see one of the ideas, delivery services using bike-based vehicles is just now being implemented in DC.

12.  E-bikes and cargo bikes help people shift trips to and from school from car to bike. ("Small But Mighty: Electric Bicycles Can Bridge the Gap in Access to Transportation," National Laboratory of the Rockies, "Study finds that once people use cargo bikes, they like their cars much less," ArsTechnica).

13.  E-bike voucher programs are quick to fill up.  I didn't even know about the latest one in Utah ("Utah E-Bike Program offers $800 vouchers to qualified residents," ABC4).  It opened on June 1st.  Was full before the end of the day on June 3rd.

I like the usually these programs provide more support for those of lesser means.  But I think that they should be loan deductible programs like in in England or Ireland.   Sometimes, they are funded through carbon tax programs and similar kinds of impact fees.

14.  E-bikes on trails (and beaches) can be problematic.  On trails it is because they are faster than people on foot or regular bike.  And certain types of e-vehicles aren't bicycles, but more akin to motorcycles ("Iowa City needs a nuanced conversation about e-bikes," Iowa City Press-Citizen, "Iowa cities team up to promote e-bike safety on trails and sidewalks," Iowa Public Radio/NPR, "E-bikes are all over mountain trails. Some want them banned," "In the South Bay, e-bikes are restricted along the beach. Yet they’re still everywhere," Los Angeles Times, "Moab Opened 200 Miles of Trail to E-Bikes. I Was One of the First to Ride Them (Legally)," Outside).  From the first article:

Anyone who regularly uses Iowa City trails has likely seen the tension already developing: riders moving too quickly through crowded pedestrian areas, oversized throttle-powered bikes built more like motorcycles than bicycles, and parents purchasing machines online without realizing they may exceed Iowa’s legal definition of an e-bike. 

A sign posted at a trail entrance to the Aliso Wood Canyon Wilderness Park 

in Aliso Viejo, California restricts e-bike usage.

That matters because Iowa City has spent decades building trails designed to function as shared public spaces. Pedestrians, runners, wheelchair users, cyclists and families with strollers all use the same network. That system works because speed differences remain relatively manageable and predictable. A 12 mph difference matters on a crowded trail. A 30 mph difference changes the character of a shared trail completely. 

Unfortunately, the public conversation often collapses into two extremes. Either all e-bikes are treated as dangerous, or any discussion of regulation is dismissed as anti-bike hysteria. Both reactions miss the point. Most e-bike riders are responsible, and many are exactly the kind of people cities should want out of cars and onto trails. E-bikes reduce traffic, parking demand, and transportation barriers for people who might not otherwise ride at all. At the same time, it is reasonable to acknowledge that high-speed electric motorcycles do not belong on crowded recreational paths simply because they have pedals attached.

Ketcham, Idaho.

15.  Suggestion: Create a senior bike purchase deduction program from the social security benefits program.  I recently suggested Medicare could do this for seniors ("The "new" Washington Post editorial page blows a chance to be innovative | Nudging versus "nannyism" and senior health care"), but instead of deducting from your payroll check, from your Social Security check.  

There is clear value for promoting senior biking as a fitness measure.  Let's make it easy.  People with lower incomes could get a match--the check doesn't go all that far for many and i can be difficult to save up for big expenditures.

16.  Speaking of seniors, we need to have programs that promote walking and biking as people age.  Some senior centers and organizations do this on a national best practice basis ("Freewheelers: Old Spokes Bicycle Club," Philadelphia Inquirer).  Apparently there is a similarly named Old Spokes group in Calgary.  

Baltimore County Office of Aging sponsors a Cycling Seniors program.  Etc.

A couple years ago, Washington Area Bicyclists Association did an active transportation expo for seniors.  

I think all senior center programs should develop and implement similar kinds of programs.

17.  Acknowledge and respond to climate change.  Trails should consider adding push button mister stations to deal with the heat.  

Water stations where they can be installed, based on access to utilities.

Add shade structures and tree plantings.  With the aim that over decades, the trees become tall enough to provide significant shade.

A mister on a playground.  

 

Totally unsurprised: The Mazda that drove onto the Seattle Light Rail tracks was from Utah

Utah's predominant license plate features an arch rock formation from the Arches National Park.

On the light rail tracks at Mount Baker Station in Seattle.

I am totally unsurprised that the person involved in the incident in Seattle ("How did an SUV get onto (and off) the Mount Baker light rail platform?," Seattle Times), was from Utah.

 Every person from every other place thinks X drivers are the worst.  But Utah drivers are so timid.  They won't enter an intersection when the light is green, they wait behind the line, so traffic backs up. 

It's interminable sometimes to get through a four way intersection because people hesitate and/or if you're traveling straight in the other direction, you wait for that car to clear in the other lane, rather than moving simultaneously.

Scary.  Terrifying.

So many wrong way drivers on the freeways, often resulting in crashes and deaths ("I-80 closed after fleeing suspect causes wrong-way crash near Salt Lake City," Fox13, "Wrong Way Accidents: What They Are and How They Occur").

And there are multiple accidents every year on the light rail, mostly in Salt Lake but in the suburbs too ("One person injured following collision between TRAX train and vehicle," Fox13).

Outside the Delta Center, where professional basketball and hockey games are played in Downtown Salt Lake City.

There is no question that "design flaws" do contribute to these kinds of accidents.  Car-centric people have a hard time conceptualizing mixing traffic with a train car.

And wrt wrong way crashes, to be fair, when we were growing up, mostly you entered a freeway from the right side of the road.  

I can see an impaired person thinking that's the case, not paying attention to signs, and entering on the right, despite the Wrong Way and Do Not Enter signs ("Driving in the Right Direction: State Efforts to Combat Wrong-Way Driving," National Conference of State Legislatures).

But a lot of it isn't the result of design flaws so much as it is driver error and recklessness.  It's hard to design that out of the system when so many people are imprinted with an automobile-centric and dependent mobility paradigm.

Especially in the Salt Lake Valley.  Utah is touted as being environmentally forward through its Envision Utah program ("Progressive Planning in Conservation Communities") but it's the epitome of sprawl.  

And the Legislature and Executive Branch are pretty much pro-growth anti-environmental, unless they have no other choice, like with the Great Salt Lake (" This article is more than 1 year old Utah’s Great Salt Lake rings climate alarm bells over release of 4.1m tons of carbon dioxide," Guardian).

Definition of electric bicycles

 From the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

Map of a suburban "porchfest" music event in Suburban Montgomery County, Maryland lists restrooms

-- WoodmoorStock 2026 community music festival, Montgomery County Maryland

When you get older, or at least if you're on diuretics, you notice more about whether or not public restrooms are accessible.  

Here in Salt Lake, many convenience gas stations do have them but equally as many do not.  You can count on grocery stores though. And fast food restaurants and libraries (if one is close by).

In DC, as needed I used to use restrooms in the hotels while I was biking from place to place.

This is not an installation by Barbara Kruger | You don't want real estate developers negotiating with Iran...

"I shop therefore I am," Barbara Kruger, 1987.
Manipulating the medium of advertising, Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist known for her use of words, color, and typefaces to comment on American consumerism and mass market culture.

Below is the headline from a New York Times Magazine, "Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and the Profitable Business of Peace," about how Trump uses his son in law and other real estate guys instead of diplomats.  

It's definitely a sign of the rot in the American military being extended to the entire Government ("U.S. Capabilities Are Showing Signs Of Rot," Atlantic).

The irony is it could be one of Kruger's artworks.

I joke that my experience dealing with real estate developers in DC (and here in Salt Lake too), is that the more interactions I had, the more I became an intellectual Marxist, poking at the contradictions between capital and community.  Planning the Capitalist City is a worthwhile read.

There are great developers, some who don't do bad things while doing good work, others that do some bad things while doing good work ("Chris Donatelli, a DC real estate developer, dead at 58") and others who are not great at all and their work diminishes the architectural integrity of a community with contributions to community development at best being neutral and at worst, negative.

Real Estate Developers are the last people I'd want negotiating with Iran or revitalizing the Gaza Strip or negotiating with Putin.  Steve Witkoff's firm describes itself as half developer, half investor (financier). See "How The Witkoff Group Built South Florida’s New Breed Of Private Clubs," Forbes and "NYC’s top deals: The Witkoff Group sells One High Line condo for $10.5M," The Real Deal.

Still not good enough.

I used to joke that we didn't need to send soldiers to Afghanistan, but people with PhDs in anthropology.  In this case, we need to send diplomats who understand nuance to negotiate with other countries.

Although the "good developers" understand the more they invest upfront in explaining their project to the community, compromising when necessary, hopefully yielding improvements as a result, the faster they are likely to get approvals and permits on the back end.

Dealing isn't just dealing.  

And Trump's Art of the Deal was built on the premise of dealing from a position of strength when the counterparty is weak.  Trump loses his a** when the counterparty is equal or stronger.

So maybe developers who are good at that--and there are very few--have it within them to become "diplomats."  

As another example, I used to refer to one female real estate attorney as the velvet fist--she was so smooth, but didn't give up anything considered crucial to a project.  Etc.

Pulte Homes is building single-family homes and townhouses in Seven Hills, Ohio. Photo: John Benson, Cleveland Plain Dealer

And speaking of rot, I wouldn't pick a subdivision housing developer to run the nation's intelligence coordination agency ("Trump taps housing regulator Pulte to be acting director of national intelligence," Associated Press). 

Pulte Homes started in Detroit's suburbs but now they build across the country.

It turns out Bill Pulte isn't even part of the family business, he was kicked out ("Housing Official Who Attacked Democrats Invokes a Disputed Family Legacy," New York Times).

The Outdoor pool at the Wagner Jewish Community Center, Salt Lake City

This pool has been a godsend for my attitude and physical recovery from cancer surgery, chemotherapy from a different cancer, and many procedures related to congestive heart failure.  

I joined last July, once my social security dough started coming in.

Two years ago I thought I needed a heart transplant.  Now I'm kicking a**.

Plus indoors they have another pool and a spa.  Also essential.  I need to relearn how to swim as an adult.  But for now, I am content to walk lanes or outside, what I call "cavorting."  Lessons maybe next winter.

And weight machines, free weights, various fitness equipment like steppers and treadmills and cycles.  I used the indoor cycle quite a bit to get back fitness to be able to get back on my bike, not the others.  I weight lift, not much but both on machines and free weights.  It's helped immeasurably.  I couldn't lift 40-50 pounds before, like cases of water.  Now I can.  And my balance is so much better.

Classes and personal trainers too, but I haven't taken that step yet.  An indoor walking track when I first started walking again (I prefer outdoors even when cold, but for awhile I wasn't ready).  And cultural programs.  

It's well worth the membership fee--even if Medicare doesn't pay for it ("The "new" Washington Post editorial page blows a chance to be innovative | Nudging versus "nannyism" and senior health care").

Implementing a Substack version

My "new" Substack.

I am doing so in order to try to rebuild readership as blogs have long since been supplanted by other forms of social media.

Entries will include random musings and observations not strictly on urbanism, which is the primary focus on this blog.

But mostly I will be "reprinting" slimmed down versions of longer entries here, with links back to try to get people to read the full entry.

The "new" Washington Post editorial page blows a chance to be innovative | Nudging versus "nannyism" and senior health care

I was gonna end my online subscription to the Washington Post, but some of the articles from years ago I cited in the recently submitted grant application for a playground at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake ("Forget rest stops. Plan your road trip around playgrounds," "Kids getting burned on swings and slides? Here’s how to fix it"), made me realize that despite the destruction of the Metro and Sports sections, the devastation of the Editorial Page and how the range of op ed writings went from lean progressive to "personal freedom and markets," I still get value from a subscription, both for new articles and old (and often better) articles too.

But not from the editorial page.  And the national and international coverage is still holding up, despite many gaps resulting from staff firings.

Nudging is the behavioral economic theory that people who should change their behavior but won't because it requires a change in their routine or to act, will make the right choice given a nudge.

Nudge theory is a behavioral science concept proposing that subtle changes to the environment—known as "choice architecture"—can guide people to make better decisions without restricting their freedom of choice or altering financial incentives

Nannyism is a term popularized by the English Tories who believe that encouraging people to make positive behavioral changes with "nudges" is an overinvolvement by government in people's lives, that they should be allowed the freedom to f* up and impose the costs from doing so onto the State.

According to Wikipedia:

The term was coined by MP Iain Macleod in (1965) to describe a government that over-regulates personal lifestyle choices. 

In the Nanny State Index, the UK consistently ranks among the most heavy-handed countries in Europe for dictating health and consumer regulations.

The concept manifests across several specific areas of public policy:

• Tobacco & Vaping: The UK has pushed heavily toward a "smoke-free generation," alongside severe restrictions and proposed taxes on disposable vapes.
• Diet & Food: Following the implementation of a national sugar tax, England has enforced strict rules including calorie labels on restaurant menus and bans on junk food advertising near checkouts and on TV.
• Alcohol: Measures like minimum unit pricing aim to curb consumption by hiking the cost of cheaper alcohol.

Instead, the Tories would rather pay the high costs resulting from chronic health conditions resulting from poor behaviors and choices.  After all, higher than necessary costs from health care and a static tax base means government has to shrink to pay for people's bad choices, and that's in the Tory interest because they believe government ("we the people") is unnecessary.  

I call it anarcholibertarianism.

A great example of "nudge theory" decades before the theory was coined was how the now famed criminology professor, Ronald V. Clarke, was the creation of a theory called "preventing crime in situations":

Their theory of situational crime prevention used locks, access control and vigilance. Yet the most impressive demonstration of the theory examined the relationship between the lethality of household gas usage and suicide rates in England and Wales. Their research led to decades of innovations in the design of crime prevention measures, largely following their clear theoretical framework.

Prime example: Less lethal oven gas reduced suicides Between 1963 and 1975, there was an unexpected decline in the number of suicides in England and Wales. Clarke and Mayhew then reviewed the evidence to look for any change in the opportunity structure to prevent suicide. In 1988 they published a report showing that the decline was clearly due, at least in part, to a reduction of lethality in the chemical composition of household gas. It simply became more difficult to commit suicide by just turning on the gas and lying down – then waking up alive with a headache. They concluded that the practical feasibility of carrying out a particular act has a major impact on whether or not the act will be committed – and at what rate of occurrence.

Situational crime prevention theory is but a form of "choice architecture."

The Post is all in on being against "nannyism" even with clear economic/cost-benefits.  The editorial, "Seniors are adults: They don’t need the federal government to buy them bath mats.," criticizes Senator Angus King who wants to send everyone on Medicare (that includes me) a bathmat to help reduce the likelihood of falls, because bathroom falls by the aged cost the health care system a lot of money.

Older adults with assistive devices walking on a trail in the Sawtooth National Forest, Ketchum, Idaho.

Medicare doesn't pay for prevention measures like bath mats, grab bars, and shower chairs.  

According to a pre-Trump Administration report which is scrubbed from the HUD website, Overcoming Obstacles to Policies for Preventing Falls by the Elderly Final Report,  by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the annual cost of health care from elderly falls is at least $80 billion per year.

To put that number in perspective, if Jeff Bezos who is one of the globe's wealthiest and owns the Washington Post, was responsible for covering that cost year after year, his fortune would be wiped out in 3 years and 2 months.

Although note that Senior Housing Services programs, which used to be funded by HUD, will make these kinds of fixes, as part of broader renovation assistance aimed at keeping seniors in their homes despite infirmities--keeping people at home as long as feasible costs a lot less than nursing homes, another major health care cost, but for Medicaid.

Housing renovation data by age and economic and physical circumstances.  Years ago I saw a presentation from the Joint Center for Housing Studies.  

Right: house in the Trinidad neighborhood of DC showing severely deteriorated roof conditions.

It contrasted overall housing remodeling statistics with statistics for lower income households.

Most households do one major remodeling project annually, targeting one key element of the house, either repair, maintenance, or the creation of a new feature.  Annually, the average household spends $2,400 on improvements and $700 on repairs.

Their research finds that a disabled household spends 10% less than the average, senior households 20% less, minority households 30% less, households with houses under $100,000 in value 50% less, and households with under $20,000 annual income spend 50% less.

Households with all of these characteristics spend an average of $500 year on repairs and improvements, less than one-sixth of the national average, and a majority of these households spend no money at all.

Nursing homes/social care.  The US is running into a fiscal cliff as society ages and Medicare doesn't provide nursing home care ("New Study Explores the Need for Expanded Long-Term Care Services to Support Aging-in-Place," JHU).  

And what about social security?  Plus the fiscal cliff of Social Security benefits having to be cut because Republicans won't take proactive steps, they'd rather "defund" part of the government by letting it fail naturally ("Waiting To Rescue Social Security Has Weakened Our Options," CRFB)

In England, local government is responsible for providing what they call "social care" for the disabled and aged, and it's driving cities into bankruptcy ("Social care is bankrupting councils. Why aren't we angry?," New Statesman).  Families are sending their relatives needing care to Thailand because it is cheaper ("Families sending relatives with dementia to Thailand for care," Guardian).  Anti-nannyism has real and escalating costs.

Waiting for a ride.

These costs demonsrate the value of changing the policy on assistive devices.

In my comment on the Post editorial, I said that Medicare could make bath mats a "joining premium" like how PBS and NPR give you premiums (gifts) in return for donations.

It's an intellectual and policy failure of great proportions for the Post to not acknowledge the reality of the severe economic cost of falls.

The other thing, while the term "ableist" is in decline these days by Trump mandates against inclusion, you really get insight into the need for universal design--in the old days, the Post published articles about it, such as:

-- "Adapting Your Home To Maximize Mobility," 2006
-- "A Safe Home, Step by Step," 2010
-- "Making the case for cottage homes," 2019
-- "A major renovation yields a multigenerational home on Capitol Hill," 2021

to better deal with the changes in psychomotor prowess that come from illness, disability, and or age.  Instead, the Post's worldview is shaped by its writers being able, not infirm.

At one time too, the Post had an award winning Health section focusing on wellness and behavior change.

Last year they did one of their "Washington Post Live" events on the "Future of health policy in the United States."  Times sure have changed.

My circumstances changed in a flash.

I went from biking to work for 30 years to being a hospital "frequent flyer," but for good reason.

I had colon cancer, presented heart failure in post-op after surgery, and the biopsy found I also had an aggressive rare Lymphoma, so I started chemotherapy within a month of the colon surgery.  Without treatment for the Lymphoma the oncologist said I'd be dead within a year.

Chemotherapy f*s you up.  

I was so weak, but I didn't vomit.  Though once it did take me 3-4 hours to have a bowel movement.  Suzanne said the prednisone made me mean.  It did help my appetite.

I did use chairs in the shower some because my FIL had dementia before he died, and we kept the equipment.  I even used a transporter because for a time I couldn't handle the "long walk" from the entrance of the hospital to my heart doctors or to the radiology/lab testing section. For more than two years, I was pretty damn weak, especially because even more medical things happened:

• I was hospitalized for covid, 
• probably could have died thank god for remdesivir, but it did worsen my heart
• got a heart pacemaker
• then an additional lead
• then a stent, even though less than a year before my angiogram found limited plaques, and 
• serious reduction in appetite as a complication from chemotherapy and the medicine, 
• which led me to a few months of enteral nutrition feeding + regular eating--enteral really sucks, the tubes can clog easily, and emergency rooms aren't set up to deal with feeding tube clogs.

Plus, one of the medicines I took made me cough constantly--it turned out it was from a medicine I didn't really need, fortunately, and once I got off it, and other medication changes my appetite improved.  Although I still only weigh 20ish more pounds than my low of 110.  From a high of about 175.

Today's shower.  

And that was after I went through chemotherapy swimmingly.  I had three treatments, then covid, so treatment stopped.  In preparation for resumption 14 weeks later, testing found I no longer had the Lymphoma (thank you to mRNA maybe).

But it took me until about the past two months when everything finally came together "at once" and I am super better.  (I'm still susceptible to illnesses like norovirus which can wipe me out.)

Yet only two years ago I thought I was a candidate for a heart transplant.  My ejection fraction could be better, but I haven't been tested since my recovery kicked in.

Our shower has a "natural grab bar" the soap dish, and is a pretty tight squeeze so I could lean against the walls.  But I was damn tired, had balance problems etc.  I think I might have had assistance once or twice...

Now I don't.  It helps that last summer I joined the JCC Wagner in Salt Lake first for the pool, and weight lifting really started only this year (not much so far 30-60 pounds depending on the machine or free weights), cycling (I've just started being able to bike a bit "in the wild," after not having done so since September 2023), spa, and pool walking.  The JCC has indoor and outdoor pools, that + the spa have been incredible for me.

Another premium that should be part of Medicare: fitness memberships/a MAHA agenda for aging.  I'm not part of Medicare Advantage, so I pay from my limited social security income the monthly cost of JCC membership.  The local rec center is cheaper especially with a senior discount, but there is no pool.  The County rec centers with pools happen to be much less convenient for me to get to, triple the time.

But Medicare should consider paying for fitness memberships for all enrollees, regardless of the type of plan, because lifting weights and other fitness activities have so many positive benefits (Physical Activity Benefits for Adults 65 or Older, CDC, "Resisting decline: the neuroprotective role of resistance exercise in supporting cerebrovascular function and brain health in aging," Frontiers in Physiology, "How can strength training build healthier bodies as we age?," National Institutes on Aging).

Or a deduction program funding the purchase of bicycles like in England or Ireland ("The Benefits of Biking for Seniors, Including the Mental and Physical Payoffs," Bicycling), but instead of deducting from your payroll check, from your Social Security check.

They could do this in conjunction with County and City Recreation Centers, Senior Centers, and yes, for profits.  Better that fitness centers make money off of Medicare than prescription mills and other fraudulent activity.

If we were really about MAHA, "Make America Healthy Again," ("Dr Oz at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services: a chance to improve food service in hospitals") those are the kind of preventative care measures we should be instituting.  

A FitLot exercise station at the Columbus Center in the City of South Salt Lake.

While RFK has done stupid PR stunts with unhealthy people like Kid Rock ("RFK Jr.'s erotic workout video with Kid Rock sure is weird," USA Today), imagine if the FitLot exercise equipment station piloted by AARP on its 50th anniversary--they funded one, but just one, in every state--were rolled out to playgrounds and parks across the country.  

(I am working to install one at Sugar House Park.)  Especially because it turns out they aren't just used by the elderly, but by people wanting to maintain and improve their fitness.

My energy level has rebounded significantly.  The past week, although I developed a cold as a result, I worked 10 hour days for about 9 days on the grant application, doing some 8-15 discrete tasks each day.  Before the last  two months, I maybe could have done 3-4, took naps many days of the week, etc.  Now I am waking up before 7am which is what I used to do naturally, before I was sick.  I'm not taking naps.

(Oh, and I am drinking alcohol some again, and coffee.)

What about the people who are in a permanent state of debilitation?  But most people who are debilitated remain debilitated, no Lazarus Effect for them.  They need compassion and assistance.  The Post really fell down by not considering this issue more broadly than the opportunity that they saw to shoot an arrow at "government waste" and overinvolvement of government in our lives rather than "personal freedom" to be really sick and unhealthy.

Fuck you Washington Post editorial page, until your writers have similar kinds of experiences and develop some empathy.

Just based on my response, the Post clearly missed an opportunity to move better policy choices forward.

========

These are articles I wrote suggesting DC could develop a wellness oriented program in association with building a new hospital in Southeast DC, where suffering from chronic conditions is high.  Of course, DC took the least innovative path.

-- "Health equity devolves to cities and states as the federal government cuts taxes for the wealthy," (2025)

-- "Ordinary versus Extraordinary Planning around the rebuilding of the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington DC | Part One: Rearticulating the system of health and wellness care East of the River" (2018)
-- "Revisiting East of the River medical care: United Medical Center" (2018)
-- "Update on DC's plans to build a new United Medical Center" (2018)
-- "A glaring illustration of the need for comprehensive health and wellness planning in DC: Providence Hospital" (2018)

-- "Community Health Improvement Planning" (2019)

-- "Hospitals as urban anchors/revitalization levers, not usually, but with great potential to serve communities in important ways: Examples are two forthcoming projects by Intermountain Health and University of Utah Health" (2023)

-- "Big omission in blog series on advance hospital/health and wellness planning, public health planning: addiction services" (2024)

-- "Costly failures in the mental health system" (2025)

An online ad promoting that electric bicycles don't face rising gasoline prices, Murf

 

Lady in a seating area off the main lobby at the Sun Valley Resort, Ketchum, Idaho

She's in her 80s.  

Her husband was significantly older and died 10+ years ago.  She's obviously kept spry by doing things in town, she had walking sticks and said she hikes and skis.

Besides telling us about the happy hour specials and setting at Hotel Lamplight, she had stories to tell.

She lived in San Francisco's Haight Asbury district in the 1960s.  Got her PhD in British Literature.  Married her husband because he was a Brit.  

Loves skiing.  They would leave Sun Valley every year for two weeks in Switzerland.

Before all that, she volunteered for the voting rights registration campaigns in the South.  She knew Martin Luther King, Jr.  She said he was handsome but too short to sleep with.

The Community Library in Ketchum, Idaho has some distinguished elements

 1.  Great collection of national newspapers, even the Financial Times Weekend, but the magazine collection is average.

2.  Nice seating areas and a fireplace.

3.  Projection of children's art on a wall in the lobby.

4.  Really nice Lecture Hall.  The back wall is their rare books collection, and they have a hearing loop for the hard of hearing.  And they have decent comfortable chairs for the speakers on the stage, which is unheard of.

5.  Should have thought at the time they were planning for a new building to include an exhibit hall.

Walk Ketchum pedestrian program signage on streetlight poles, Idaho

So simple.  Any place can do this.

However, the Ketchum Master Transportation Plan doesn't mention this scale of pedestrian signage.  

Similarly, while the 2006 Downtown Master Plan does mention pedestrian wayfinding and offers some examples from elsewhere, it didn't include photos of what they ended up with.  Which is pretty subtle and easy.

There was a Walkable Ketchum group, but given that the last post is 14 years old, I'm guessing they accomplished what they wanted, and moved on.

Talking to strangers | Modern shotgun style houses as workforce housing for firefighters in Ketchum, Idaho + playgrounds

I take a lot of photos in public places, or not so public places, and people wondering if I am up to no good challenge me.  Because "I can talk" (your ear off), usually it's not a problem. 

There's an article in the Washington Post, "The mental health benefit of striking up conversations with strangers," about the value in talking with strangers.  For me, it's an opportunity to learn--to interview and interrogate, even if it doesn't seem like it.  From the article:

Nick Epley was commuting to work at the University of Chicago when he looked across the train and wondered: Why are all these people sitting elbow to elbow ignoring each other?

Epley, a professor of behavioral science, thought about how very lonely people are, and he challenged himself to strike up a conversation with the woman sitting next to him. It changed his life — and led him to write the book “A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health and Connection.”

After reading it, I decided to try the experiment myself. For the past month, on my commute to work, at kids’ birthday parties with my daughter, in the elevator at the office and on the street while walking my dog, I’ve been challenging myself to talk to strangers. Would it actually feel good, or just awkward?

I’ve always been a fairly outgoing person, but the idea of talking to strangers and befriending acquaintances still made me feel anxious. As I contemplated opening my mouth to talk to the stranger sitting next to me on a nearly-silent bus, I felt as if my jaw was sealed shut by fear. What if she didn’t want to talk to me? What if I said the wrong thing, or she felt like I was bothering her?

Ever since my involvement in college student government, I can "talk".  This increased manyfold as I got more involved in urban planning.

In my recent playground study for a grant application, I talked to people at "playgrounds," like the "senior" Fitlot at Columbus Center in South Salt Lake.  

Even though it was built with money from AARP, it turns out an Instagram group called  #slc.calisthenics organizes meetups there and at similar sets of equipment, and lots of people of all ages end up using it--part of my observation is that people/kids play with what's there especially when "more appropriate" equipment isn't present.  I saw a four year old doing pull ups on the same set.

I talked to little kids like this one.  She said the monkey bars are her favorite element at playgrounds.  (So did an older boy at a different playground.)  So I aim to have more types of monkey bars present at the playground.

Observations, analysis, and conversations made the application so much stronger.  Going to about 15 different playgrounds in a couple days educated me fast and deeply about playgrounds--including realizing I needed to be there when kids were, because I didn't know how they used certain equipment.

Young children like learning to bicycle on soft surfaces because it doesn't hurt when you fall.

We need wider sidewalks around the playground oval because there is mixed traffic--kids on scooters, bikes, skates, skateboards, adults on bikes (because we have inadequate bike parking, people walking, people sitting to the side, etc.

Greenhorn Fire Station Workforce Housing, Ketchum, Idaho.  When I was taking photos of these buildings at what turned out to be the Greenhorn Fire Station, I learned the back story, which I wouldn't have known otherwise.

I took the photos because I thought the buildings were an interesting interpretation of the New Orleans shotgun style house, and years ago, I helped write a chapter in a book compilation about the type.

618 Jefferson Street, Flickr photo by Elliott Cowand, Jr.

I learned after being challenged, not realizing it was a fire station, and photographers could be would-be terrorists, one of the tenants came out to ask me what I was doing.  As a result, I learned the back story of the complex, for which I would have had no idea about otherwise.

In an area of ever increasing housing costs because of its being a resort area, it's an effort by the North Blaine County Fire District to provide workforce housing.  They rent the land from Idaho DOT, for the Greenhorn Fire Station, and built eight prefabricated units, mostly with donated funds.  

The 870 s.f. units are rented below market rate to tenants who agree to serve as volunteer fire fighters ("Final housing units arrive at Greenhorn Fire Station" Idaho Mountain Express, "Greenhorn Firefighter Housing Fully Occupied," Wood River Weekly).

What an interesting and important project.