The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Society / politics / economy

College Towns

collegetowns.org

College Towns, where urbanism meets higher education. Click to read College Towns, by Ryan M Allen, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

Society / politics / economyEssays / personal

’24’25’26
Posts
162 from 10 Oct 2024 to 26 Oct 2026
Posting
weekly (51 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://www.collegetowns.org/feed

2026 43

  1. Haunted House Adaptive Reuse, Old Photo Archive, & More
  2. Where Are All the Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween? They Were Never Born
  3. Happy 2nd Birthday to College Towns
  4. Why Are Universities Cutting Child Care?, Buy a Masonic Temple, & More
  5. How Do We Get the Boys to Study Abroad?
  6. In Defense of Palm Trees, Ugliest Dorm I’ve Ever Seen, & More
  7. When Universities Shutter Museums, Adaptive Reuse Corner, & More
  8. The Urbanism and Education of Deadwood
  9. War Department’s Uni Witch Hunt, Last NYC Bohemians, & More
  10. Let College Towns Grow Up
  11. My Own Students-Slaughter-Bear-Story, New Professor Show, & More
  12. To Save Higher Ed, Melt Down Your Iron Gates
  13. A New Way of Educating City Builders
  14. Billionaires Revitalized Dead Colleges, Guerilla Bike Lane Sweeper, & More
  15. Visa Restrictions for International Students Hurt Local Economies
  16. Free vs. Faster Buses, Celebrities Want to be Professors, & More
  17. Can Professors be Patriotic?, World Wishes US Happy Birthday, & More
  18. World Cup Visitors Remind Americans to Celebrate Our 250th Birthday
  19. New York Haters Lose Again, New Ethical Uber, & More
  20. The Curious Case of Youngening Grad Students
  21. Ticketmasterification Ruins Ticket Prices, Paris Syndrome Japan, & More
  22. The 16% of Dangerous Drivers Dilemma
  23. Write for College Towns this Summer, RIP Hostel Common Room, & More
  24. Students Hate AI at Graduation, Research Hits Home, & More
  25. Bicentennial on Semiquincentennial: Did the Smartest Guys in 1976 Predict 2026?
  26. Traffic Cameras and Campus Free Speech, Ruining Old Books, & More
  27. AI Wrangler Jobs Are Already Real, Rat Cars, & More
  28. Fantastical Adaptive Reuse: The Story of Fu Ren University, Beijing, China.
  29. No One Wants to Be the Internet Town Square, 16th Century Faculty Salaries, & More
  30. The US Needs a New Space Race
  31. Dispatches from CIES, BTS at Howard University, & More
  32. Is Hoppers a NIMBY Movie? & More
  33. What China Has Planned For Higher Ed By 2030
  34. Higher Ed Age of Conquest, Deleted Bluesky, & More
  35. Stop Blaming Boomers, Restaurant Sameness, & More
  36. The Dashboard That Cried Wolf
  37. Senior Driver Debate, Winter Olympic Students, & More
  38. Waymo Hits a Kid Walking to School: Crash Analysis
  39. Where Super Bowl LX Coaches Went to College, New Urbanists Tools, & More
  40. Higher Ed Media Tastes, Vancouver's Dull Skyline & More
  41. The Education and Urbanism of Breaking Away
  42. Is Academia Only a Job? End of Class Reunions, & More
  43. Study Abroad in Venezuela!, Worst College Towns, & More

2025 93

  1. We Still Need Google Skills in 2026, SimParking, & More
  2. Buying a Dying College Isn't a Real Estate Investment
  3. Shame Bad Drivers Like Seinfeld Christmas Episode, Physical: Asia Education, & More
  4. Why Parents Tolerate Terrible School Car Pickup Lines
  5. Best College Sports Movie Ranking, Black Friday Parking, & More
  6. China Will Gladly Take Our International Students, Bad Gen Z Survey, & More
  7. College Becomes Zillow Gone Wild, Halal Guy Mayor, & More
  8. Best of Times or Worst of Times to do a PhD, Substack Halloween, & More
  9. Where Have All the Trick-or-Treaters Gone on Halloween? Destination Neighborhoods
  10. From Rails to Trails Doc Blurs NIMBY-YIMBY Divide & More
  11. What is Home Depot University?, The Office Townhouse Sells, & More
  12. Happy 1st Birthday to College Towns
  13. Grokipedia Will Be Misinformation Encyclopedia, Amazon’s Micromobility Fleet, & More
  14. No, International Students Are Not Stealing Spots from American Undergraduates
  15. The Mullet House, Happy Birthday Excel, & More
  16. Why Finland, Norway, & Sweden Are the Least Happiest Countries in this Ranking
  17. More Like Zillow Gone Mild, Cool Hometown Signs, & More
  18. Impact of $100K H-1B Fee on International Students and US Higher Ed
  19. Favorite Eco-region, Best Tram Driver, Uni Merger Questions & More
  20. Too Much Money in College Football? It’s Always Been America's Favorite Big Business
  21. Grappling With the Gravity of Urbanism and Higher Ed This Week & More
  22. US Higher Ed is in the Age of Conquest
  23. Kowloon Walled Dormitory, Summer's Over, & More
  24. The Education of the 'King of the Hill' Reboot
  25. Education of Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Engagement, Bad Travel Advice, & More
  26. The Urbanism of the 'King of the Hill' Reboot
  27. Million Dollar Dump, Hot Take on Shorts, & More
  28. What Even is a College Town?
  29. Senior Drivers Not The Onion, Unsafe NYC & More
  30. Service Vehicle Size Shouldn't Dictate Our Streets: Lessons From East Asia
  31. West Coast Road Trip Reflection, Too Big for Japan, & More
  32. College Towns, Strong Towns, YIMBY, NIMBY
  33. Teamsters vs. Waymo, Subway Takes Annoys Urbanists, & More
  34. My Review of the New LAX/Metro Transit Center
  35. In-N-Out Exodus Over Housing, Submit to College Towns, & More
  36. Crisis by Design: Student Housing and the Hidden Cost of Higher Education
  37. Brightline Killer Train Framing, $300K College Tour, & More
  38. Why Seoul's College Town High Line Rivals NYC's
  39. Anthony Bourdain Hotel Burns, Sad Gen Z House Party Question, & More
  40. The Brand of LA, California, USA From East Asian Megacities
  41. Terrible Train Take, Scary Dog Fireworks, & More
  42. Innovation Rooted in Death: Universities Survived by Discovering What They Were Not
  43. Best or Worst Week Ever for Self-Driving Cars?, Vegas Blandness, & More
  44. College Football Cow Town Becomes NBA Champion City: Celebrating the Thunder in OKC
  45. Free Buses Divide Urbanists, Pixar's New NIMBY Movie, & More
  46. Reviving Dead Malls and Dying Colleges: 2 Successful Cases of Adaptive Reuse
  47. No More Fake Nonprofit for College Admissions, NYC High Line Before Pics, & More
  48. What Happens When a Dead College Cannot Find a Reuse?
  49. Musk Dodges International Student Question, No Anthony Bourdain Slander Allowed, & More
  50. Why College Towns Get Transit Right
  51. California Tourism Bust, Foreign Student Disarray, Dog Graduation & More
  52. The Education and Urbanism of 'Dazed and Confused'
  53. Arkansas College Town Blocks Student Housing, Another New AI Job, & More
  54. RIP OC Flex or: How Difficult Public Micromobility is in Suburbia
  55. Tintin Not in Public Domain?, Town v Gown in New Orleans, & More
  56. Introducing the Papal Ranking of World Universities
  57. New Streetcar Arrives, RIP Soft Power Legend, Lost Bet Walk to Work, & More
  58. Elon Musk Would Have Been Deported if Trump Were President When He Was an International Student
  59. Losing Lone Amtrak Route, Americans Confused By Urbanism Meme, & More
  60. AI Wrangler: Job of the Future Combines Tech and Humanities
  61. The American Kei Truck, Write For College Towns, Coyote on Campus, & More
  62. Universities Are Job Centers For the Entire Country
  63. International Students Rethink US, Greenest MLB Stadium, Newest Retirement Destination & More
  64. 8 Life Lessons From RedFin's Chief Economist
  65. More Places Should Be Like the Masters, Fights Over Dorms in College Towns, & More
  66. Deporting International Students for Social Media Posts is Un-American
  67. Handsome and New Branch Campus Closes, Free Food at College Stadium, & More
  68. Making School More Walkable One Intersection at a Time
  69. Columbia’s Controversial Response, Uplifting (Or Sad) Suburban Parenting Goal, & More
  70. That One Day LA Was a Real City for the Dodgers' World Series Parade
  71. Viral AI College Cheating Vid Is Fake, Beautiful Art Deco From 1940s Cartoon, & More
  72. Severance Is an Allegory for Returning to the Office After Working From Home
  73. 5 Years Since COVID, Disappearing Seoul, My New Celeb Colleague, & More
  74. Solution to the Student Housing Crisis? My Review of BOXABL
  75. School Phone Ban, Architecture Nobel Prize, Real Urbanist Train Fantasy, & More
  76. Rick Steves Is a Secret Teacher
  77. Freezing PhDs, Robot Dogs for Seniors, History GeoGuessr, & More
  78. No, You and a Couple of Friends Shouldn't Buy a Dead College
  79. Nook and Cranny Urbanism, How Cold to Cancel Class?, Mall Into School & More
  80. The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment
  81. Everyone's an R1, Subway Baby Names, Disney Transit, & More
  82. Remembering Professors Donald Shoup & Michael Burawoy: Academic Legacies, Urbanism, and Career Reflections
  83. Where Super Bowl LIX Coaches Went to College Might Surprise You
  84. Where Did the DeepSeek Team Go to University? Not in the US.
  85. RIP Starbucks Bathroom, Classroom for Boys, Dunk City U Dorms, & More
  86. Rise of RedNote Shows Americans Need to Study Abroad in China
  87. Southern Universities Get Snow Day, Reddit Bans X, Good Ugly Dorms, & More
  88. TikTok Ban and Gen Z: Dying Social Media is New Generational Rite of Passage
  89. Nat Geo Birthday, German Uni X Exodus, UCLA Fire App Extinguished, & More
  90. Making an Intersection Unsafe for Pedestrians to Save Seconds for Drivers
  91. Campuses Impacted by LA Fires, City Gets University BRT, & More
  92. Celebrating the Timeless Allure of Tintin's Aesthetics
  93. Professors Shouldn't Live in Apartments?, Absurd Student Housing Fights, & More

2024 26

  1. Trading Places Is a New Year’s Movie With an Urbanist and Modern Message
  2. Home Alone: Euro Trip, Party's Over Party City, From PhD to OF, & More
  3. 9 Things I Noticed About NYC After Being Gone Since Pre-COVID
  4. Ivy League in College Football Playoff, Why Restaurants are So Loud, & More.
  5. What Studying Abroad Did For Me
  6. AI-Generated Class, RIP Trailer Dorm, 'Woke' 90s College Movie & More
  7. The Search for Old Twitter: Is Bluesky the Next Internet Town Square?
  8. High School Fantasy Camp, Brothel Student Housing, President Lives in Dorms, & More
  9. My Interview With The 'Homeless' Professor From UCLA
  10. Roosevelt's Franksgiving, Thanksgiving Abroad, Americana Tradition & More
  11. My Review of the Cyberpunk Exhibition at the Academy Museum
  12. Urbanists Overreact to Students, #1 Study Abroad Spot, & More - Around the College Town
  13. Mike Tyson’s Loss To Jake Paul Warns Generation To Do Intramurals While We Still Can
  14. Non-Helicopter Parenting Illegal, Dorm Slounge, & More - Around the College Town
  15. Making Sense of the 2024 Presidential Election Through Dave Chappelle's Racial Draft
  16. Nuclear Powered Campus, Red Red Colleges, and More - Around the College Town
  17. 7 Reasons Why You Should Actually Move Abroad if Your Presidential Candidate Loses
  18. Dead College Road Trip, Donna Tartt’s Campus Inspiration, and More - Around the College Town
  19. Defending Derision of Trunk-or-Treat Halloween
  20. Tiny Harvard Dorms, Black Mirror Grad School, & More - Around the College Town
  21. Parking? Where We're Going, We Don't Need Parking.
  22. UCLA vs VA, Bad PowerPoints, and More - Around the College Town
  23. UCLA Professor 'Homeless', Can't Afford to Live Near Campus
  24. Bat Dorms, Sorority Bunks, Student Neighbors - Around the College Town
  25. Finally Admitting Twitter is Dead
  26. Coming soon