The city we inherit.
The city we make.
Essays, observations, and stories about the places we share—and the kind of life they make possible.
Latest essays
Our three most recent pieces.
The Floor Between Us
You can learn the layout of an apartment you've never entered. The sounds that pass between neighbors reveal how much of our private lives depend on the buildings we share.
What Chinden Remembers
Chinden is one of those names Boise says without hearing. Behind the road name is the story of Chinese gardens along the Boise River, the people who cultivated them, and a history reaching back to the Civil War.
Why Cities Fail When They Chase the Canopy
Boise’s green landscape depends on an irrigation system that keeps working long after the water stops flowing. Civic life works the same way. Visible success depends on institutions, relationships, knowledge, maintenance, and responsibility that have to be carried from one season of work into the next.
Earlier essays
Continue through the archive, or explore a subject.
How a City Learns Whom to Trust
September 28, 2026
The Meaning of Rising
September 21, 2026
The Rules Written on the Ground
September 14, 2026
Why Community Has to Be Scheduled
September 7, 2026
We Built the Outside for Cars
August 31, 2026
The Enormous Gamble
August 24, 2026
When Standing Straight Feels Strange
August 17, 2026
When Neighbor Became a Question
August 10, 2026
The Architecture of Adulthood
August 3, 2026
The Cultural Autoimmune Disorder
July 27, 2026
Why We Wait for Disaster
July 20, 2026
The City Cannot Be All Work
July 13, 2026
The ideas behind the work.
Explore the civic vision that connects the essays to places and projects across Boise.
More to think about.
Weekly essays about place, public life, and Boise’s future. Occasional updates on Table Rock, Civic Path, the youth docuseries, and our nonprofit’s work.
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