A hip downtown Hayward?

"But numbers don't add up to hipness, at least not yet. Downtown Hayward's partial revival shows the very real appeal of mass transit. It also shows that new development in a place doesn't necessarily bring boom times to what's already there."

There's a reason I love John King. Check out the rest of his take on a not-entirely-so-new Hayward.

Interesting article about the Esprit building in San Francisco, and green architecture that came before its time.

CB Richard Ellis buys Trammel Crow.

Room? Yes. Staff? No.

Interesting that the new state hospital in Coalinga would go so woefully unstaffed. Understandably, many professionals don't want to abandon urban areas for the much-more rural (and aroma-filled) town.

It also mirrors a real-estate trend, perhaps somewhat in the making -- we've seen consistent migration to the Central Valley and to smaller towns in search of more affordable housing. Could the fact that this flashy new hospital is having trouble getting people be an indicator that the tide is indeed turning?

"Part of the change that's happening on Sixth requires a constant upkeep. It's the "broken windows" theory in action, which holds that immediate and consistent handling of the little problems -- graffiti, trash, shattered glass -- can prevent greater neighborhood decline. In other words, if you can change the way a neighborhood is perceived, you can change the neighborhood."

An interesting look at the un-gentrification of San Francisco's Sixth Street.

The McMansion

Damn. Now these are some big homes.

There's a reason I like John King. This particularly self-aware column, purportedly about Wal-Mart's Herculean efforts but more pointedly about the self-absorption of the big city -- leaves you with mixed feelings. By design.