We’ve seen misguided urban renewal projects ruin vibrant neighborhoods. We’ve seen highways and railroad tracks cut cities off from their waterfronts. We’ve seen insane tunnel projects try to stitch them back together. We’ve observed cities like Youngstown Ohio try to trim their city limits and downsize, we’ve seen cities like Charlottesville Virginia tinker around with the idea of changing to a town. The latest? Razing the city. Detroit is demolishing tens of thousands of buildings to revitalize itself. What’s tricky with Detroit is that the viable areas tend to be on the outskirts, and the planners want to blow out a lot of what’s in the middle. Don’t the residents burn it all down on Devil’s Night anyway? That was a wrong thing to say. Sorry. Maybe all they need it Clint Eastwood. Lately all of the Detroit images I have in my head come from Gran Torino and Hung.

This article in yesterday’s New York Times is really interesting. I wonder what efforts, if any, will be made to recycle and reuse the materials from the buidings they demolish? I wonder if this is the answer, and if it’s not, what is. I wonder at what point in declining populations and deteriorating neighborhoods we decide to just pull the plug and give up. Whatever the result, it will be a landmark precedent in urban planning forever.

• image one from here
• image two from here

Oh, canopy beds. So romantic and dreamy. Since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted a canopy bed but have never found the right one — mainly because modern canopy beds used to be hard to find. In recent years, more and more of them have been popping up and now there are quite a few great options out there. Enter the MASH Studios PCH Canopy Bed (or as I like to call it, the Most Perfect Canopy Bed Ever). Not only is it gorgeous, but it’s made from sustainable, plantation grown, grade-A solid teak coated with a natural, nontoxic oil finish. Beautiful and eco-friendly? Yes please!

View the entire MASH Studios line here.

Last week, Becky posted an awesome primary colors inspiration board. I wanted to follow up and create an inspiration board with the same theme using products found here on Design Public. Here’s what I came up with!

O.K., I admit it. I’m on vacation, and I forgot to bring the little cord that hooks up my camera to my computer, so I’m going to post something about whatever I can find in my iPhone pictures. This narrows it down to the furniture making place I went the other day near Lincolnville Beach. It is a picturesque spread full of unbelievably beautiful handmade Shaker-inspired furniture, crafted from gorgeous wood. When we are so used to cruising around the internet or the mall in search of furniture, sometimes we lose touch with where it came from. I am lucky enough to get to go to furniture shows and meet designers and artisans because I work for Design Public, but I forget that customers don’t always have those same attachments. It’s so nice to visit a place like this and remember where the furniture comes from, and the traditions of craft that have been passed down for generations.

If you do get to the Penobscot Bay area this summer, you must stop by and see all of this beautiful furniture for yourself at Windsor Cabinetmakers. For more information, click here.

I realized a lot of the flickr picks that I mark as a fave have had a nice fat pop of red in them lately. Here are just a few:

Please click on the images to find who they belong to. Usually I’d be spreading the link love, but I’m trying to get out of town, so I’ve taken the lazy way out!