I’m not sure that urban planners have the power to do that. Its a bit out of their range to dictate where the cupcake shops “sprout”. I think they are able to work within existing zoning codes and let the market forces handle the rest. I recognize that every neighborhood should have some sort of sweet delisciousness but the money has to be there first or all you get is churros…I’m just saying

Cupcakes themselves are merely a generally inferior cake-delivery system (to wit: easily overcooked thus dry), but their popularity annoys me to no end (see, for example, the unbelievably twee cupcake pincushions foisted on a slobberingly willing craft world by Betz White, or the eighteen pages of results one gets by searching for “knit cupcake” on etsy.)

I really like this post, and your blog in general.

But are the proto-yuppies going to move to a neighborhood – or even frequent the neighborhood – just for cupcakes? You would increase your chances of success in injecting some life if they were part of a multi-front blitz of cupcakes, high-end coffee, pet boutiques, fixed gear bike shops, day spas, tapas restaurants, “urban clothing” stores, and of course the unfortunate matter of the eviction of the current residents for those willing to pay the new “market rate.”

Good point about the possibility that substitution of small scale reinvestment for the apparatus of power may have been a more successful route to “liveability” of urban places. I, like you, want to think of these things in positive terms. But leaving aside my previous (affected) cynicism for yet more; the criminalization of the underclass is THE POINT of the proliferation of CCTV and aggressive policing. If you don’t make SOMEONE a criminal, what’s going to happen to all those honest, hardworking policepersons who’ll be on the dole? Not to speak of the economic engine of prison construction! Do you know how many JOBS they provide?!?

; ) p.s. love the blog.