Friday, 02-Aug-2024


After the lights and sounds, and the movement and exploration, of the Harry Potter experience… Gina and I both needed a big of decompression. We found it at a nearby development called Tour and Taxi.

I can’t quite think of the specific term for this kind of place… I’ve seen them all across the United States, mainly in techy areas – a new development, focused on the Google / Apple / Facebook / non-denominational-tech-startup ideal of an Arcology – a space to work, play, live, and eat. Somewhere that cool young tech professionals can live, without ever leaving and having to interact with the unwashed masses.

If you haven’t heard of arcologies, by the way, they’re a really cool idea that I adore considering – check it out when you have a moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology

Anyways, yeah it was a cool hipster place that I kind of hate, but also kind of love. I hate to love.

We ordered food via the touch-screen terminal (since interacting with humans is so gauche), found a cool swing-seat in the shade, and relaxed while waiting for the text that would tell us when our snacks and drinks were ready.

The place was still in the process of being filled, and was in this really cool mid-point of partial inhabitation. It was basically a massive aircraft hanger, intended for maybe a hundred vendors / restaurants and thousands of inhabitants… but for now had maybe half a dozen stores and maybe 50 people. The area that was populated was that perfect level of density where you felt comfortable, but now crowded – and looking out across the massively open and empty hangar had this weird sense of infinity and possibility.

…

I don’t quite know why I’m writing so much about this place. It was really interesting to me, and I’m super curious to go back in a few years to see whether it’ll be a bustling hub of humanity… or an abandoned landscape of empty shops.

Yeah.

It was neat. We had a drink, I checked out a bookshop, and then headed out into the sun.