We often live by notions and aphorisms, sometimes perhaps more than we should. The greatest danger comes when guiding concepts become clichés, yet we still depend on them for understanding and direction. A number of times recently, I have run across the old saw that we should “get out of our comfort zone,” which has […]
Thomas Dean
Posted inCommunity/News, UR Here
UR Here: A tense encounter on the Pentacrest turns transcendental
Recently, as I approached the University of Iowa’s Jessup Hall on my way to work one cold morning, a wide wingspan of majesty and terror flashed past my eyeline. A red-tailed hawk swooped past me not six feet away and landed elegantly upon a low branch in the Austrian pine to my left. A raptor’s […]
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UR Here: How variation in building facades can change the paths we take
Recently, I was sitting at the front window café bar of Iowa City’s Z’Marik’s Noodle Café on Dubuque Street eating my krith-a-raki for lunch when I decided to conduct a little experiment. For 15 minutes or so, I kept track of how many people walked past on my side of the street and how many […]
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UR Here: Top-down management of Black Hawk Mini Park at odds with park’s original vision
In my previous column, I discussed “place-led governance,” in which urban development considers history, cultural meaning and an inclusive understanding of community members’ use. At the core of place-led governance lies the idea of the commons. For most people, the commons means natural resources such as air, water and soils. Absolutely true—but not sufficient. Current […]
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UR Here: The place is what’s Important
“If you build it, they will come” is baloney. Perhaps it’s heresy to question a platitude from one of Iowa’s sacred texts. But the ghostly voice from the cornfield seems to be whispering in a lot of ears as major changes loom for Iowa City’s downtown and near-downtown area. We have a new Downtown and […]
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UR Here: Summer excursions abound, but what are costs of time away from home?
“It’s great to be home!” A common refrain after a trip, whether returning from a vacation or a business trip, whether coming home after two days or two…
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UR Here: Sweating the small stuff
We are in midsummer, and that means sweat. It’s the time of year when our body regulates its temperature through perspiration, when the heat of the season beads up and runs down our skin with our slightest effort. It’s summer in Iowa…
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UR Here: Cottages, conflict and control
Let’s be clear, this column isn’t about the debate over Iowa City’s Dubuque Street Civil War-era workers’ cottages that are being torn down. This is a column about how we talk about it. Acrimony on both sides of the debate has filled our local media, online venues, Planning and Zoning Commission meetings, and City Council […]
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UR Here: Defining Success
I recently came across an article by “writer, entrepreneur, and video game designer” Jonathan Chee called “5 Key Traits Super Successful People Share.” Chee draws examples from four individuals of extraordinary achievement: a professional bodybuilder, a self-made multimillionaire, an orchestral clarinet player and a polyglot who is developing a new language-learning system. What struck me […]
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UR Here: Winter’s journey
Here in Iowa City, we haven’t had the historic cold and snow this winter as we’ve had in recent years. But the early January snowstorm and cold snap brought out the predictable grumblings and the inevitable question: “Why, again, do we live here?” I embrace winter fundamentally because it is part of the nature and […]
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UR Here: Growing a community that gives
No matter how much we might rail against the obscene consumerism of the Christmas season, most of us are no doubt purchasing some holiday gifts to present to people we care about. And of course, that’s fine and wonderful. But most of the gifts that we will exchange under the tree, at neighborhood get-togethers and […]
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UR Here: Beyond the feast
For the moment, let’s assume the story of the “First Thanksgiving” is true. You know, how the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1621 sat down with the Indians and had a feast that set off an annual tradition in the colonies and then the United States? What we actually do know of that autumn feast is […]
