Sometimes a story takes a number of years to ripen. And sometimes two or three stories merge in unexpected ways. I just had a moment of convergence when new infill development, sub rosa adaptation, and wartime migration all collided. … | Continue reading
I was a scholarship student in the UK thirty odd years ago and there was a semi-well known band at the time called The Kitchens of Distinction. I have no memory of what their music even sounded like, but the name stayed with me. It was ironic and suggested a certain late 1980s an … | Continue reading
For those readers who are struggling with housing affordability I’m going to describe a recent purchase that could serve as a potential template. My circumstances as a 56 year old investor preparing for retirement in about a decade may be different from yours, but some of the tac … | Continue reading
I have a standard response to certain cosmetic approaches to just about anything. I use the analogy of hair, body piercings, and tattoos. If you’re attractive you don’t need them. If you’re ugly they don’t help. Of course beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. … | Continue reading
I sponsored a series of Ukrainian war refugees this year. I created a posting on Host4Ukraine stating “Дача в Каліфорнії” or “country cottage in California.” Ukrainians understand the concept of a dacha. This is a modest part time granny house outside the city where people grow a … | Continue reading
I began Granola Shotgun in January of 2014 as a way to explore how we, as a society, might get back to building more of the kinds of places I love. For me that meant human scaled, walkable, mixed use neighborhoods that were ubiquitous seventy five years ago. I became a member of … | Continue reading
A flurry of Ukrainian flags appeared all over San Francisco a year ago when Russia’s incremental acquisition of Ukrainian territory ramped up in earnest and turned to a hot war. It was a show of solidarity - what is sometimes called raising awareness. There were so many of these … | Continue reading
Years ago I would wander around this particular neighborhood in Mexico City with friends and marvel at how magnificent the architecture was. Equally impressive was how many of these structures were left to decline for decades to the point that they were no longer functional. Some … | Continue reading
One of my oldest friends from my youth moved to Mexico City after she finished university. I would visit her and we’d have adventures together. On one trip her mom was also visiting from Spain and we explored all the amazing spots in the region. The Zocolo at the center of the ci … | Continue reading
In February of 2020 I sanded and stained the back deck and bought some new outdoor furniture. I was on the fence about whether I was going to rent the property again. This house was always meant to be a country retirement destination. In the meantime I was renting it for extra in … | Continue reading
I just listened to an episode of the GardenFork podcast about electric vs. gas cookstoves. The provocative title was, “Is The Fed Coming For Your Stove?” Short answer… No. The question was raised as some local jurisdictions are promoting all electric homes as part of larger healt … | Continue reading
I’m currently having a conversation with a trusted building contractor about how we might proceed with a relatively simple project. He asked me to be specific about my goals. I’ll use this blog as a way of working through the particulars. I know exactly what I want, but I’ve lear … | Continue reading
I just helped a friend get settled in a small hotel a couple of blocks away from her home. A steady cascade of maintenance problems has been unfolding for the past few weeks and she’s decided her place is now officially uninhabitable for the duration of the repairs. The roaring f … | Continue reading
I’ve been told by many a die hard suburbanite that there are more dogs in San Francisco than children. Their point is that cities are a weird aberration that accommodates a sliver of society that’s outside the normal bounds of mainstream culture. My response is always the same. H … | Continue reading
I like to walk the dog along Crissy Field sometimes. It’s part of the usual rotation around various scenic parks in the city. San Francisco has an abundance of beautiful beaches, forests, and rocky hilltops that provide a heavy dose of nature within walking and biking distance of … | Continue reading
I’m always looking for tangible examples of how our towns and cities go through long slow cycles. Our places as well as our institutions have a lifespan. Day to day the forces at work aren’t always immediately apparent or well understood. But if we step back the arc of history is … | Continue reading
Cities are better when there’s a generous tree canopy. Vegetation keeps the city cooler in summer, trees help clean the air, absorb noise, and beautify the landscape. Properties on tree lined streets are often more desirable and statistically more valuable than those in barren ne … | Continue reading
Over a long summer weekend a group of the usual suspects got together and rented a cabin in the Sierra foothills about three hours east of San Francisco. It was an idyllic landscape of modest homes tucked into the forest around a small lake. … | Continue reading
For readers too young to have any memory of Liberace, in the 1950s and 60s he was one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. He had his own television show that rivaled “I Love Lucy” and he performed live at Carnegie Hall in New York and the London Palladium. He’s often d … | Continue reading
I hear a great deal about sustainability in the built environment that sounds both encouraging and delusional. These messages come from well intentioned environmentalists as well as corporate marketing departments. The general tone of the conversation is similar either way. Every … | Continue reading
Google In the last year and a half I bought and renovated two modest 1950s era homes in Madison, Wisconsin. Two beds, one bath, just under 800 square feet each, plain vanilla, nothing special. They were affordable, they were available, and they do wh … | Continue reading
Back in 2014 I was in the live audience here in San Francisco listening to Tony Hsieh speak. He gave a presentation that was partly about the formation of his company Zappos. But more interestingly to me, it was about his attempts at urban revitalization in downtown Las Vegas whe … | Continue reading
My mother-in-law was born in a small town in rural Nebraska in 1941. Her father was oversees fighting World War II for the first few years of her life, so she and her mother lived on her grandparents’ farm in a society absent of young men. When her father returned home after the … | Continue reading
I just returned from a trip to Las Vegas. I was ready for a little post pandemic adventure and Vegas is just so easy. It was good to get out into the world again and explore the ever evolving Vegas metroplex. Inevitably, I found myself going back and referencing the classic text, … | Continue reading
For years I’ve bought the majority of my meat and eggs from a farm family north of the city. Every two months Farmer Craig drives down in a refrigerated van and I fill my freezers with lamb, poultry, pork, and beef. I have a standing order for a gross of eggs (a dozen dozen = 144 … | Continue reading
As happens from time to time a reader reached out to me and suggested we meet in person. A quick Google search provided a couple of links to podcast interviews where he talked about his life. He described being a military dad and how he and his wife foster and adopt children as p … | Continue reading
Katie, an old tenant of mine, reached out via email to keep in touch as we do from time to time. She and her husband Dave had moved from Vancouver, BC to the Bay Area for four or five years to advance their careers. Once their resumes were fortified they returned to Dave’s hometo … | Continue reading
Source I recently enjoyed a podcast where the two hosts engaged in a bit of banter about real estate. One had gradually purchased a few homes in a row along the same street and compared them to the little houses in the game of Monopoly. The other ask … | Continue reading
This is the road to Central City, Colorado. It’s a classic Wild West gold mining town from the late 1800s that boomed briefly until the ore was exhausted. After that people moved away and the place began to contract. The mining that continues in the area is for aggregate crushed … | Continue reading
On Christmas Eve I walked over to the nearest church in Denver. I was visiting my in-laws and their house happens to be close by. Now… I’m a nominal Catholic. (Sanphillippo.) By “nominal” I mean non-practicing and seriously lapsed. I’m not a religious person at all. I just can’t … | Continue reading
It’s New Year’s Eve and we’re about to enter 2022. I have no Idea what the future has in store for any of us… and neither does anyone else. So instead of guessing about what’s to come I’d like to look back at the past through a peculiar lens. As a young American with very little … | Continue reading
In March I bought a modest house in Madison, Wisconsin as a rental property. I worked with good local professionals to bring that house up to a better standard and in July I found excellent high quality tenants. We have cordial relations and I’m confident they feel they’re gett … | Continue reading
I went to the dentist and when I returned to the bicycle rack I discovered my broken lock laying on the pavement. No bike. I looked at the security guard standing by the door, pointed, and gave him a look. He said, “Oh. That was your bike?” I gazed up at the security camera bolte … | Continue reading
I’m fond of a particular local architect here in San Francisco. Donald MacDonald is originally from Canada, but went to university in Oklahoma and New York and built his professional life in California. He’s most known these days for the new Bay Bridge, but his early career is … | Continue reading
The future is all about strategic adaptation within culturally acceptable parameters. I spend a lot of time with people who are passionate about building high quality places. I enjoy their company and respect their ambition and goals. But I’m exhausted and feel the need to move f … | Continue reading
Several different friends have asked me about a new land use law here in California. Senate Bill 9 creates a state level administrative mechanism for single family homes to be restructured into two distinct legal homes as of right. It also allows existing single family lots to be … | Continue reading
I’ll start with a definition: Subsidiarity “is a principle of social organization that holds that social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level that is consistent with their resolution.” Keep that concept in mind. | Continue reading
I spend entirely too much time listening to experts in business, government, and academia explain the economy in general and the property market in particular. Looking back, very few people who are purport to know how the economy works based on empirical evidence have successfull … | Continue reading
I recently bought a house in Madison, Wisconsin, but before I did I went through a series of adventures in different parts of the state exploring the property market. I was initially interested in Wisconsin because I have extended family there and they encouraged me to look at Ap … | Continue reading
A friend with Libertarian leanings down in Los Angeles reached out and asked about a particular legal case that’s currently working its way toward the federal Supreme Court. Pakdel vs. San Francisco is based on the “Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which prohibits the govern … | Continue reading
I’m completely befuddled by the current state of the economy. Nothing makes any sense to me at the moment. So I’ve gone down a rabbit hole to try and understand our present circumstances from a deep historical perspective, starting with money itself. For thousands of years the … | Continue reading
Many of you will be familiar with the work of Edward Hopper. His paintings depict the American landscape of the early 20th century in a frank and unsentimental manner. Instead of casting everything in a heroic or idealized light he embraced the quality of the world that actually … | Continue reading
I’ve been asked to contribute to a book about smart cities and finance. I looked over the long list of tentative chapter titles provided by the publisher and it’s clearly meant to be an optimistic pragmatic problem solver. There’s an expectation that everything that ails our citi … | Continue reading
I’m prone to going down YouTube rabbit holes that take me to unexpected places. I recently eavesdropped on a Zoom conference where a woman in rural Idaho was strategizing on the global dairy trade. Turns out Mormon farmers are locked in a dog-eat-dog international competition ove … | Continue reading
Everyone has a natural habitat. For some people it’s a big house in the suburbs. For others it’s a cabin in the woods. Some people thrive in a high rise tower in the central business district. Mine is a Main Street town of the kind that peaked about a century ago. But there’s ano … | Continue reading
There’s a lot of talk on the interwebs these days about the mass exodus from big cities. The riots. The looting. The arson. The migration of frightened people seeking safety in the hinterland… | Continue reading
I have an old friend back east who applied for CARES Act emergency relief funds for his small business and he received a $30,000 check. Millions of people are currently getting monthly stipends fro… | Continue reading