"Our downtown is attracting lots of Young Professionals"

"We are focusing downtown development on attracting new Bars and Restaurants"

"We need to focus on bringing in Upscale Bars and Restaurants, Bistros and Boutiques, and High-End Shopping so that our city attracts more Young Professionals"

Thus spouts the city manager or planning bureaucrat as he prepares his jingos to launch into 2008.

OK - the headline is meant to be sensationalist - the real meat of this entry is about the fact that encouraging people to "get out and move" is not going to achieve the objective of slimming down the population unless we look deeper at the causes for our fatness. I think there is a strong correlation between the per-capita concentration of gyms in a city or region, and that place's prevalence of obesity. I have absolutely no objective statistics to back this up, just my own subjective and anecdotal observations.

They're going to tear down Moore School on Knollwood Street. Funny thing is no one seems to care, even here in presevation-minded Winston-Salem? How can this be, you ask?

How indeed? 

A very good and timely article appeared today in the Journal, dedicated to the regional intercity transit system for the Triad, PART. The reason I display the graph below (courtesy of TRAC) is that the article in today's paper included a noteworthy quote from a UNCC Geography professor, calling the $2.4 Million that various Triad municipalities spend on this system "just another form of government largesse".

Does your neighborhood feel urban? Take the test! 

Think you live in an "urban" environment? Well, you do - if all of the following can be performed, without a car, at 9AM on a Saturday...

Fairly new as of this review, Don Leo's on first glance is your average suburban Mexican joint geared mainly toward middle-class white southerners. I don't always go for these places since they tend to have oversized portions, bland ingredients, and not enough Spanish on the menu. Don Leo's, however, pleasantly surprised me.