In 2010—with “six postcards not to send to an urbanist“—I began a series of entries with often ironic messages about urbanist trends.

Three years later, in the era of activated alleys and reclaimed, underused urban space, it’s time to try again.

The above photograph would have had little significance to city dwellers of old. Plain and simple, the alley was closed. Today, however, in the era of active alley spaces, social events and renewed, scaled retail venues, a dedicated urbanist might ask, with emotion, “but why”?

Such are the ironies of new connotations in a changing world.