The easiest, lowest-investment neighborhood improvement you can make: eyeball graffiti
I am a sucker for googly eyes. I keep buying them. FOR NO REASON. When I pass them in an aisle I black out, only coming to as I walk out of the store, several packs of googly eyes in my bag.
Finally, I have a use for them: eyebombing.
How to make bank with yard sales
My husband and I are getting ready to move into a smaller space with our son — right now we’re renting a house, but are going back to an apartment soon. This is all part of a bigger plan to downsize our living space and therefore our possessions, and it’s one that we’re really excited about.
This was our first garage sale, and we were NOT prepared for the singular anxiety and crazy-making that comes hosting a yard sale. Luckily, we pulled it off, and here’s how.
Starting conversations about inequality in finding a home
In the recent foreclosure crisis in the United States, a disproportionate amount of women and racial minorities were the victims of subprime loans and mortgages with adjustable interest rates — statistics that speak to inequality in housing. For Anita Hill, there is a “sense of belonging that comes from being at home” – so what happens when one is without a home? Reimagining Equality reveals that these biases are historic in the American construction of what “home” means.
My door is open: why I’m pretty public online about my home
Rockethaus is pretty public. I run two blogs dealing specifically with homes, I tweet pretty much all the time, and I am also a normal Young Professional living in America. A LOT of my life happens online, publicly, where other people have access to it, even people I don't know terribly well. We talk about parties, problems, events, and projects, and we do a lot of it completely in the open. My mom would argue that it's dangerous for people to know where I live and what my habits are, but I prefer to think it's part of community building.
Eavesdropping: one of the many joys of city living
Our condo faces onto a courtyard, and when the windows are open there’s definitely a little Melrose Place action that happens. We hear neighbors coming and going, having sex, spanking each other, etc. It’s always entertaining.
We can also hear the callbox at the front gate. Monday night, this is what Dre and I heard, as we sat on the couch staring each other silently with wide eyes that said, “Don’t start laughing! They’ll hear you!”
Clean out the books you don’t want in stranger-interactive ways
Sometimes when you’re a Reader, books get… overwhelming. They start to take up every end table, the back of every toilet, the dining room table top. You might be ready to part with your books — but only for an appreciative soul.
A design company in Dogpatch gives the neighborhood something to stand behind with their new emblem
What if all our neighborhoods had not just NAMES, but also IMAGES? Flags, patches, shirts. We’d be like The Warriors and shit!
San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood is kicking us off. Let’s go!
Our corner has noisy, dangerous traffic. What can I do to change it?
The tl;dr version: I live on a dangerous noisy corner and I want to change that. I’m really hoping you guys can help me find a solution.