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As we worry about COVID-19, wear masks and keep our distance, the question is coming up as to whether in the long-term dense urban areas will suffer the most from the pandemic. Will the trend toward walkable urban areas reverse in favor of suburban-style sprawl? They might, but I would bet against it. There will be a fear of being in confined spaces with big crowds and more of us will be isolating ourselves, but our need for social activity won't change. If we're working from home, having our groceries delivered and streaming movies, the opportunity to get out and about - to be with, but not so close to other people - will be more important than ever. If you look at infections, sure New York got hit hard, but America's suburbs hardly provided a fortress . Anywhere people come into contact is an opportunity for the virus to spread. Isolation can also become a liability if a contagious virus eventually arrives. Of course, we can only see the real impacts from the rearv...

Looking for ways to get out of the house and keep with social distancing guidelines, we headed to Mesquite and Samuell Farm . While far outside the Dallas City limits, it is one of those oddities in American urban geography because it is owned and maintained by the City of Dallas. ... Many people expect businesses to open back up and there is increasing debate over whether people with weak immune systems have a right to control the activities of everyone else. Even if you could get around the moral issues, I suspect COVID-19 is far less discriminatory than we were led to believe early on. For example, an article in the Washington Post reviews how people in their 30s and 40s are succumbing to COVID-related strokes.  Some are also pointing to Sweden which resisted drastic lockdown measures. They typically fail to mention how having universal healthcare makes it possible to even consider such an approach. Sweden's story may not be completely written yet, so let's hol...

In a way, I am glad this is a low-light phone camera image as I wouldn't want to call out anyone individually. This photo was taken in Griggs Park in the State Thomas area of Dallas. There is some social distancing going on, but not a face covering in view.  Over on the Katy Trail, some mastermind came up with a plan to only allow people with last names in the first half of the alphabet on the trail Thursdays and Saturdays and the other half Fridays and Sundays. I have also seen several calls to keep those not from the immediate area off the trail. Well, if the immediate area fully funded the trail they might have a point. Imagine New York City trying to limit Central Park to the surrounding highrises. Redic! The solution should be to close some streets, creating more immediate spaces to recreate. In the long-term, the need for more trails and parks and bike trails should be obvious.

Two weeks ago we came up with the idea of going to Ennis, Texas to see the bluebonnets. It turns out Ennis does not want people coming to see the bluebonnets in the middle of a pandemic. So, it was another weekend at home in Dallas. I could travel to Ennis through these photos from a couple years back. There's a good bit of discussion on Twitter about whether people will still want to live in dense places after we emerge. It has occurred to me we are lucky to live in a place where social distancing isn't as hard as it would be in a city like New York. No one knows what the long-term impact will be, but I'd bet people will be afraid of mass transit for some time, globalization will be in retreat, remote work will increase and wearing masks will be a new normal. That said, we've been hearing about the reasons why people don't need to live in cities anymore for a long time. The internet meant people could live anywhere, and people chose cities. Maybe ...

As household staples become more scarce, Governor Abbott seems like he may try to send people back to work. IMHO this will lead to confusion and risk additional cases of coronavirus. On today's Easter Zoom call with family, a relative who is retired from work in the healthcare industry said "I will be staying home. That doesn't make any sense." Businesses and the public may not follow the governor's guidance if they feel it's unsafe, especially in the presence of conflicting information from medical authorities. It's going to taker some time to work our way into a new normal. If we run our course, that new normal will be more resilient and we'll be able to navigate future viruses or a return of COVID-19. If we jump right back into our old ways, we'll be vulnerable again. ... With the exception of Friday, the three-day weekend was supposed to have been a rainy one, but we had nice weather for most of it - just a few scattered storms (with h...

Last night I grabbed the real camera (sorry phone) and headed to this newfound scenery again. The Santa Fe Trestle Trail will continue to provide scenic walks for a while.

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has made us explore Dallas more. Last night we headed to the Trinity Trestle Trail. It's easy to get to from Uptown: just head to Riverfront Boulevard in the Design District and drive to the end. The trail entrance is located behind the Longhorn Ballroom. It was late an there were many insects, so we didn't walk to the end, but it looks like it leads to somewhere in Oak Cliff.  Also, after ten years, I don't have a good idea of the layout of our city. The road layouts leave a lot to be desired and the highways here are really monstrous barriers dividing our neighborhoods. I was confused when I saw Southside on Lamar from that part of Riverfront. How did I get over here? 

This past weekend we decided not to make our weekly trip to White Rock Lake. Instead, we ventured from the house in Oak Lawn destined for Skyline Trail.  We found a route that avoided the unpleasantness of Oak Lawn Avenue. We headed to Reverchon Park, onto the Katy Trail, past the COVID-19 testing center at Victory Park, under I-35, onto Slocum Street, across Riverfront Boulevard, across the Continental Bridge and onto Skyline Trail. The inclines made it more of a workout than once around White Rock Lake, but I enjoyed the diverse scenery. Aside from an empty DART bus passing, we didn't encounter traffic. I imagine this route is even practical on a future Sunday once the pandemic recedes. We returned to the Skyline Trail later in the day for a walk but found the parking lot closed.  Not to be deterred, many parked along the narrow roadway instead and the trail was busy with walkers and joggers. We reversed course and returned home.  The underpass mentione...

The first time I had Mapo Tofu it was the very spicy kind. Sometimes when you get it from take-out places it is mild. It often has little pieces of meat in it, but some restaurants make it without.  Trying to order a dish as vegetarian in a restaurant can be challenging. Often the server will return and convey "the chef says that won't be any good." I've learned to make this at home with the sauce packets from the Asian groceries. It comes in two varieties, spicy or very spicy and it's hard to tell which is which before you buy it. Luckily I love the taste of these little red peppers so it doesn't matter much.  I start by frying some onions and veggie crumbles. Skip the onions at this stage if you want to be closer to authentic. Then add the sauce packet. I usually throw in a green vegetable like snow peas or a diced zucchini. Sometimes the take-outs add peas, but I haven't seen vegetables added in a service-type restaurant.   Then add cub...

Never before have I tried to make pie dough or a vegetable pie. The result was tasty, but my attempt at making dough was pathetic. I couldn't fathom putting two sticks of butter in anything, so I tried an oil-based recipe. It was also a "disaster" because the hand-made pie dish we bought at a college art gallery, which they said could actually be used for pie, developed a crack when I took it out of the oven. I don't know why that would happen... the baking temperature for glazed ceramics are more than what I am using to bake pie. The crack is not the whole way through, so it can still be used for display. Anyway, although not flaky, the taste of the pie dough was fine. The firm consistency may be good to keep the crust from becoming soggy. The recipe contained corn oil, water, flour and salt. Next time I will make sure I have enough. Inside, I added carrots, celery, onion, shaved and chopped Brussel sprouts, celery, parsley, pepper, paprika and some Quorn meatl...

It's hard to remember a time that wasn't March. The world has become a very different place in 2020. I am afraid we have at least several more months of this "new normal" and then a considerable period of recovery. Just today, I came across a photo of a shuttered business in San Francisco I had walked by earlier this year. While many businesses have been ordered closed, in many places construction is continuing.  Living in an area with several major buildings in progress, I have wondered if or when it will stop and what the long-term effect will be. I did read that non-essential construction in New York has stopped .  So many people in our society don't have the option of working from home to avoid the virus- construction workers among them. Some people don't think the government should be able to require businesses to close. It's a good question, but I think questions of public safety are in a different realm. Perhaps if businesses and stay or...