With some people actually trying to sentimentalize the Alaskan Way Viaduct as humans finally finish it off before Mother Nature beat them to the punch with her raised pinky finger during afternoon tea, it would appear some of us are longing for simpler times, such as when roadways didn’t require a v
ote.
It’s not all rose-colored glasses nostalgia, either. Turns out, there’s a reason some tried-and-true ideas stand the test of time. And a recessionary period is a natural time to rediscover things that work, to recognize that always re-inventing the wheel gets expensive. (Cities that kept their original trolly tracks had an easier time getting the next generation of trolleys operating, for example.)
Such “what’s-old-is-new-again” discoveries always include the phrase “full circle.”
For instance, in these financial times, wherein paychecks don’t go as far as they once did, many families are finding it more affordable and practical to live in urban areas in older, smaller homes than it is to live in suburbia in the biggest houses ever built en masse in American history.
And with more people living in urban centers comes the demand for goods and services that households need to operate. So we see, despite the recession, the building of smaller grocery and general merchandise stores. For example, Target, the popular and affordable “big box” retailer will open a smaller version of its store near Seattle’s Pike Place Market, a neighborhood with many condos.
And so comes the “full circle”: The retailer JC Penney, which left downtown Seattle and other cities 30 years ago to embrace the suburban shopping mall era, will now return to downtown Seattle (a block away from Target, in the 87-year-old Kress Building, not far from its original location) with a smaller version of its clothing store.
And with all the downsizing, the “full circles” keep coming: The Wall Street Journal reports that as living spaces shrink, the “much maligned Murphy bed” is making a comeback. The paper says the modern wall-beds, or fold-out beds, are much more comfortable and elegant, not like the rickety kind found in a grandmother’s house. (Yes, “mother-in-law” suites and basement apartments are also making a comeback as parents move in with children, and vice versa.)
(Trivia: The Murphy bed hit its lowest and most hilarious point in the 1978 movie “Foul Play” when the would-be swinging single Stanley, played by Dudley Moore, unleashes his automated sex laire on Goldie Hawn’s unsuspecting character, Gloria.)
The applied lesson: Watch the original movie; we don’t need a remake.
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