City Untangled

    Personal Thoughts on Physical Limits, Complexity, City Planning, and Community

    • A Community Dialogue on 4/5/2025

      For the completely optional RSVP form to help me get a sense of how many will show up, please go here. Hi everyone, I will be hosting a community dialogue on Saturday 4/5/2025 from 11:00a to 12:30p at the Northampton Forbes Library Community Room. My new title for it is,… More ⇢

    • Toward Better Multi-Family Homes, Part 3

      In this article, I am going to focus on condominiums and their pros and cons. To start, the term “condominium” in the strictest sense refers to the type of ownership, not the type of building. This is a common source of confusion, which I will try to clarify. Here is… More ⇢

    • Peak Complexity, Part 1

      Reader Warning: Technical discussions involving computers, organizations, and societal collapse As technologies become more sophisticated and governments become more granularized, e.g. more departments, are our lives always getting better? Or is there a peak complexity at which point adding more complexity is not beneficial but harmful? The concept of peak… More ⇢

    • Toward Better Multi-Family Homes, Part 2

      I had a negative experience some time ago at an urban planning workshop, of all places. I will not say when to avoid identifying the event. I will recall what happened to make a point about how wide is our gap between the theory and practice of multi-family housing. The… More ⇢

    • Toward Better Multi-Family Homes, Part 1

      I lived in multi-family homes most of my life, ranging from duplexes to a 13-story tall condo complex in South Korea. I am writing this sentence in a duplex where I am temporarily cat-sitting for a friend. I will eventually return to the apartment I rent. Changing the zoning code… More ⇢

      Toward Better Multi-Family Homes, Part 1

    • Physics Don’t Negotiate

      As of this writing, it has been more than three years since the collapse of the Champlain Towers condominium building in Surfside, Florida on June 24, 2021. 98 people died. The investigation is ongoing. There are now thousands of pages of research and discussions on the collapse, but the essential… More ⇢

      Physics Don’t Negotiate