Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Murals trade summer for winter, turn day into night and morning into evening, bring country into the city, juxtapose natural curves against architectural edges, favor color over gray tones, and often make us question the 'dichotomy of urban art' which states that fine art is found in museums and commercial art is found on the streets. [2012]

Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK

Fashion looms larger than life in the urban cores of cities on both sides of the Atlantic. It helps make cities cool, and cool is what counts today. [2009]

San Juan, Puerto Rico

It used to be a tradition (rarer these days) to honor the illuminati of history by naming schools after them. In Puerto Rico, they have gone beyond naming. On the campus of the Escuela Graduada Abraham Lincoln in Old San Juan, they have replicated the Lincoln Memorial (sin apología to Daniel Chester French). American citizens all, we are. [2009]

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Just think how accessible wide sidewalks are for those who have limited mobility. No doors or gates to navigate and no narrow aisles. For him, a sidewalk market puts everything at arms length: except for the bananas. [2011]

Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan

Where is Sun Moon Lake? The easy answer is China. But which China? The lake is located on the island of Taiwan in the Republic of China, but its image appears as a decorative element in the passports of the People's Republic of China. Does somebody need a geography lesson here? Or, is politics involved? [2012]

Genoa, Italy

Albania is still one of the most cloistered countries in Europe. After the collapse of Communism, however, an Albanian diaspora radiated across the continent, and Italy become one of the chief destinations. Some disasporans settled in Genoa, where one of their numbers shared church-step squatting rights with a wayward American a few years ago. [2008]

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA

A locally worrisome issue ten years ago has become a nationally troublesome issue today. It seems like every election cycle, more and more creative ways surface to silence the voices of minorities. Let's wait this cycle out, though. Demographics are changing fast in the United States. [2004]