Could California’s Coldest Place Blaze a Path to Better Development?

Up in the Sierra, the Town of Truckee Is Embracing Dense Urban Growth

One of California’s hottest development projects can be found in one of its coldest towns.

In an era of bitter neighbor-bites-neighbor fights against big developments, perhaps it’s fitting that an antidote should emerge from the Donner Pass. Tiny Truckee—a very snowy municipality of 16,300—has embraced a plan to double the size of its century-old downtown.

The Railyard Project—it’s being built on a 37-acre railyard—shows that communities can overcome NIMBYism, environmental litigation, and all the usual California obstacles in pursuit of transformational development. The project also shows just how difficult and complicated …

If Barbie Chang Is More Still

If Barbie Chang is more still than water
            what will happen to her

tumors will they still grow in her if she
  …

Ursa Major | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Ursa Major

Old she-bear, pent
in her rocky den,
gnaws a footpad
dry as dust,

solitary rakes in sticks
and scratches the scar
that marks a hunter’s
mis-aimed lead.

Shaking the ice
off her …

Why Californians Should Believe in Snow Days

They’re Fun. They Fuel Our Nostalgia. They Remind Us of Our Obligation to One Another.

I’m sitting here in Maine having a snow day. I can only see about 30 feet in front of my cabin; everything beyond is obscured by white frosty particles, which …