In many places, the zoning prohibits the mixing of retail and residential. This stupidity has been accompanied by stupidities in municipal policy, such as disallowing accessory apartments - under the theory that renters are incapable of behaving decently.

I am far less interested in serving as a change agent than in functioning as a prose artist, whether it's fiction or nonfiction.

Two decades from now, I doubt that the home building industry, so called, will even exist as we have known it.

The suburban cycle which began a hundred years ago is nearly over. We are in for a period of contraction and economic hardship.

I abhor the word "consumer." Consumers, unlike citizens, have no implicit duties, obligations, or responsibilities to the common good. It's a degrading term. The use of it degrades the public discussion.

Anything goes and nothing matters.

Detroit right now is virtually abandoned at its core to the degree that a lot of what had been slums thirty years ago are now wildflower meadows. The rebuilding of Detroit will occur a much smaller scale. It remains to be seen what will become of Detroit's vast suburbs.