I spend a lot of time bashing corporations, and criticizing libertarians. But one reason have fewer neighborhoods is quite simple: we outlawed them.

For example: a lot of zoning is residential only or business only - huge swaths where you can't build a mixed residential/retail mix. There are also subtler things - parking and setback requirements lower density. Lower density makes mixed use less desirable. (If building retail in a residential neighborhood does not give you access to a significant built-in market, then as a developer you are better off building your next retail project in a retail area.) Also a lot of suburbs have explicit density rules - no more than x homes per acre.

There are other reasons, destruction of streetcars, massive subsidies of automobiles, but rules that are extremely unfriendly to mixed use are a big part of what happened.

Of course there's been a big movement back towards towards urban density in recent years. Funny watching the green movement embracing high-rise towers, when they're exactly the kind of thing environmentalists used to fight against. But it's a way more efficient use of resources. And city planners are actively trying to shrink Detroit's footprint to make it function. Same thing happened in New Orleans after the hurricane.

And there are still no grocery stores in many parts of the city. It seems like if there were more, smaller, stores that people could get to, there would be more jobs. But I think they might have to be subsidized for awhile to work.

There are some big foundations working on this very thing -- Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson especially.

How deviated does a septum have to be to screw up your sinuses?

The doc asked if he could show the images to the rest of the staff as an extreme example?

My stepdad, who has had killer sinus problems his whole life, had surgery after Christmas for a deviated septum, and he is *stunned* at how much it helped him.

I'm suspicious I will feel the same way, after they catch me (and they will have to run very, very fast). but for now, I'm going to try to take care of it by not letting things get so bad, or bad at all.

Oy, Sox. I'm thinking that when I get back on Kaiser, I'll go see the ENT, and there's a good chance I'll be there with you--I've spent way too many days in the last few years doped up on Claritin or Aleve-D.

I hope you get some relief soon, Consuela. I know I didn't realize until about a month on the kill-it-with-fire-meds exactly how much pressure and pain I'd been experiencing*, suddenly there'd be days where it was gone, and I felt so much better. It still comes and goes, especially with the weather, and the doc said it was nearly cleared up, but not quite. I have to go back in 2 months, but the guy is my hero, so it's ok.

(*my pain levels, especially around my face, are completely questionable, thx to the migraine icepick effect. If it's not blinding, or if it just creeps up on me, I'm a complete idiot about it.)

The doc asked if he could show the images to the rest of the staff as an extreme example?

Heh. I had a doctor who took pictures of the scabies on my elbows for that reason.

Sox, partial yay for a diagnosis?

What Typo Boy said WRT to zoning and such. I am amazed at the number of corner stores that used to exist in my neighborhood (you can tell b/c they literally have a door that opens onto the corner) and they are nearly all residential or vacant now, though that is likely more due to competition with Big Box grocery stores.

Relatedly, one of my favorite places in the city is being denied the permits it needs because of a lack of offstreet parking - the city said to just use some of the yard for the parking, when the whole reason people go there is for the ambiance of music in the yard. And the neighborhood overwhelmingly supports them.

The lack of neighborhoods is also related to the decline in fitness. People do a lot less walking when there's nothing to walk to.

One of the reasons I wanted to live within walking distance of town when we moved here was specifically because I didn't know if we would have two cars. I can walk two blocks into town for milk or bread or a pharmacy or the post office, and a not insignificant number of doctor's offices. If pressed, I could even walk to the supermarket, although how much I could carry home would be an issue. There are a lot of developments here (not to mention pricey, really rural older homes) where walking anywhere wouldn't be possible.

When I was a kid, we had neighborhood schools, at least for elementary school. I miss that. So many of Sara's friends live nowhere near us, certainly not in walking or biking distance.

I am amazed at the number of corner stores that used to exist in my neighborhood (you can tell b/c they literally have a door that opens onto the corner) and they are nearly all residential or vacant now,

Tons of these in my 'hood, and little in the way of active retail. (Though it is getting much better even in the past few years - gentrification ahoy.)

I don't want to think about how out of shape I would be if I didn't walk a lot as part of my normal life. I mean, I never exercise on purpose!