Recent Work
The Urbanist’s Mexico City
Less grime and crime means more greenery and revelry.
New York Magazine - January 29, 2012
It’s like a tornado passed and now everything is calm and clean,” says urban planner and restaurateur Pablo Aboumrad of Mexico City’s Centro neighborhood and its $382 million face-lift. That assessment also applies to other swaths of the city that were, until recently, derelict and dangerous and are now comparatively scrubbed and safe. Yes, the metropolis around Distrito Federal (D.F.) is still a teeming hive of 20 million people, where, on bad days, the air settles like a dirty blanket. 
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36 Hours: Oaxaca, Mexico
New York Times - January 12, 2012
WITH Oaxaca’s imposing Baroque churches, plant-filled courtyards and shady plazas perfect for people-watching, it’s tempting to see the city as a photogenic relic of Mexico’s colonial past. But Oaxaca City, the capital of one of the country’s poorest states and a college town teeming with students, isn’t quaint or stagnant; it’s a small but dynamic city, still emerging economically from the social unrest that put it in the international spotlight, and crippled its tourism industry, in 2006. That uprising — a protest by striking teachers that was met with police violence and led to a protracted conflict — is now history, but its legacy is everywhere in a streetscape of politically inspired stencil art, which has turned adobe walls and concrete sidewalks into a public gallery. Combined with the city’s long-established studio art scene, a vibrant cafe culture, a mescal-fueled night life and one of Mexico’s most exciting regional cuisines, Oaxaca is as cosmopolitan as it is architecturally stunning. (Continued) 
36 Hours: Cambridge, Mass.
New York Times - December 22, 2011
WHEN the leaves have fallen and the winter chill has set in, many small cities slip into a prolonged hibernation. But Cambridge barely misses a beat. During the holidays, tree branches are strung with tiny white lights, and local theater productions celebrate the season. A city of bookstores and coffeehouses, art-house cinemas and eclectic neighborhood bars, the People’s Republic of Cambridge has traded its Puritan past for a dynamic, cosmopolitan present. Spread out along the tree-lined shore of the Charles River, the city is a dense collection of grand Federal and Greek Revival mansions and modest century-old bungalows, modern office towers and brick dormitories. Nicknamed Boston’s Left Bank for its bohemian image, Cambridge is easy to caricature, but hard to dislike. (Continued) 
OVERNIGHTER: An Old-World Escape Near Mexico City
New York Times - November 23, 2011
I ARRIVED in Tlaxcala, the small capital of Mexico’s smallest state, on the Sunday before Mexican Independence Day, Sept. 16. The town was overlaid with banners and lights in the red, green and white of the national flag. At dusk, there were celebratory firecrackers and, in the morning, the cloudless sky was a piercing aquamarine. Compared with the hazy-brown air surrounding Mexico City, just two hours to the west, Tlaxcala’s palette is almost kaleidoscopic. The low colonial-era buildings are painted in burnt umber, salmon pink and mustard yellow, and the domes of the tangerine-toned cathedral are covered with cobalt blue talavera ceramic tiles. (Continued) 
Delicious patriotism: Chiles en nogada is as red, white and green as the Mexican flag
The Daily - September 17, 2011
Mexico has been born and reborn many times, from Moctezuma to Cortez to Zapata. But the Mexico we know — a country with its own flag, divorced from its Spanish padres — was screamed into being on Sept. 16, 1810, when Father Miguel Hidalgo wailed el grito, the “Cry of Independence,” and launched an 11-year war that ended in a newborn nation. 
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36 Hours on the Mendocino Coast
New York Times - Travel - September 1, 2011
SINCE the ’60s and ’70s, when a flood of artists, hippies and back-to-the-landers brought the cosmopolitan counterculture to this corner of Northern California, the Mendocino coast has made appearances on too many television shows (“Murder, She Wrote,” most notably) and movies (“Overboard,” for one) to mention. Once a collection of working-class logging, fishing and ranching communities, the Coast — as it’s called by residents — has become a stand-in for California’s left-coast eccentricities. This series of hamlets, small towns and rural ridges is now widely known for its intoxicants — its celebrated wine, beer and marijuana. But what makes this stretch of oceanfront real estate so stirring is its profound natural beauty and fierce independence. . (Continued)
36 Hours in Portland, Ore.
New York Times - Travel - August 25, 2011
WITH its celebrated bike culture and obsession with all things independent and artisan, Portland is a small-scale metropolis with an outsize cultural footprint. Spread across the twin banks of the Willamette River, this provincial hub of the Pacific Northwest has more than its share of natural beauty and an earnest, outdoorsy reputation. But in recent years, the city has emerged as the capital of West Coast urban cool, earning it a television series, IFC’s “Portlandia,” devoted to satirizing its aesthetic and progressive social bent. Indeed, Portland — whose nicknames include Beervana and Soccer City, USA — is easy to poke fun at. It’s also hard to resist. (Continued)
In Panama, a Respite for People and Pelicans
The New York Times - Travel - June 17, 2011
WITH its celebrated bike culture and obsession with all things independent and artisan, Portland is a small-scale metropolis with an outsize cultural footprint. Spread across the twin banks of the Willamette River, this provincial hub of the Pacific Northwest has more than its share of natural beauty and an earnest, outdoorsy reputation. But in recent years, the city has emerged as the capital of West Coast urban cool, earning it a television series, IFC’s “Portlandia,” devoted to satirizing its aesthetic and progressive social bent. Indeed, Portland — whose nicknames include Beervana and Soccer City, USA — is easy to poke fun at. It’s also hard to resist. (Continued)
36 Hours in Newport, Rhode Island
The New York Times - Travel - June 16, 2011
WITH its summer cottages the size of palaces and its century-old status as a yachting capital, Newport is the quintessential playground of American aristocracy. Still, this harbor town is more than model ships and mansions. The waterfront — with views of wide, tentacled Narragansett Bay — is still Newport’s soul, and the estates along Bellevue Avenue haven’t lost their Gilded Age glamour. But in a town that seems, on the surface, so untouched by time, there’s an undercurrent of youthful rebelliousness. Ambitious upstart restaurants, a boisterous night life and a beachy surf culture belie Newport’s staid reputation. (Continued)
36 Hours in Panama City, Panama
The New York Times - Travel - April 21, 2011
AT the crossroads of two oceans and two continents, Panama City is a dynamic metropolis. That’s never been truer than it is today. Everywhere in this steamy, tropical town are foreign investors talking shop in upscale cafes, expat fortune-seekers toasting their fates in wine bars, cranes stalking the rooftops of a skyline that seems to grow before your eyes and — on the downside — traffic that puts even the most congested American city to shame. Central America’s capital of international finance is in the midst of a prolonged boomtown fever. Right now, there are more than 30 skyscrapers under construction — among them the Trump Ocean Club and The Panamera, which will be Latin America’s first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (both are set to open later this year). All of this building and hype has local residents calling Panama City the “Dubai of the Americas.” They’re only half-joking. (Continued)
Astoria, Oregon, Discovers a Waterfront Chic
The New York Times - Travel - March 25, 2011
IT was a damp, wind-whipped Thursday night in Astoria, Ore., but inside the Fort George Brewery & Public House an eclectic, standing-room-only crowd kept warm and dry. Ol’ Danny Barnes, a Washington State-based singer and banjoist, twanged and crooned before a hooting audience of Astorians who had poured into the space on their way home from work. In the crowd were Coast Guard officers, marine biologists, nursing students — and the waitress who had served me lunch earlier that day. (Continued)
The Five-Point Weekend Escape Plan - Chow Down in Puebla, Mexico
New York Magazine - Travel - March 3, 2011
Have a small breakfast at your hotel before heading out for a day of architecture gazing and museum hopping. Start at the city’s Municipal Tourist Office on the east side of the central square, where you can get oriented by picking up a free map and checking out the bronze bas-relief of Puebla’s downtown area. Then, duck into the nearly 500-year-old Puebla Cathedral, which is depicted on Mexico’s 500-peso note, for a glimpse of its ornate chapels and frescoes. Two blocks away, visit Museo Amparo ($2.90), housed in two linked sixteenth- and seventeenth-century colonial buildings, where eight rooms are loaded with precolonial artifacts, like Mesoamerican ceramics and carved stone. Stop into vegetarian restaurant La Zanahoria (Av 5 Ote 206; 222- 232-4813) for a twist on the classic Mexican three-course prix fixe lunch ($4.60), which here might include salad, soup, mushroom-stuffed cactus paddles, and fresh fruit juice (the menu changes daily). (Continued)
Valle de Bravo, an Upscale Refuge Near Mexico City
New York Times - Travel - February 18, 2011
A band of tubas, trumpets and saxophones played as a lone, wide-grinning inebriate swayed to the wailing horns. There were balloons, popcorn stands and roasted-peanut vendors. Children on scooters whipped through the crowd, chased by a scrawny, yapping mutt. Teenage girls danced among themselves while young men sipped micheladas — beer spiked with lime, salt and chili — from one-liter Styrofoam cups. The smell of cotton candy and churros was everywhere.
It was 8 p.m. on a recent Sunday in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, and nearly every stretch of bench, brick wall or stone step had been claimed. Families, couples, kids and dogs — they were all there, listening to music beneath ash trees, African tulips and jacarandas in the town’s leafy central plaza. (Continued)
Where the Wild Foods Are: A Master Class in the Art of Foraging
Details - February 2, 2011
With his side-swept hair, skinny jeans, and rakish fedora, Tyler Gray doesn't look like the kind
of guy you'd expect to find doing the hard, dirty work of mushroom hunting. But then Gray isn't your typical back-to-the-lander. Last November, he could be spotted hauling a nondescript insulated suitcase through the streets of New York City, inside of which were $60,000 worth of white truffles bound for a special Thanksgiving event at Eataly, Mario Batali's new food emporium. "It was a big, smelly affair, but the best kind, of course," says Gray,
33, who cofounded Mikuni Wild Harvest, a sustainable wild-foods company that supplies an ever-lengthening list of top chefs (Thomas Keller, David Chang) with rare foraged edibles. "Every movement has a bell curve," he says. "With foraged food, we're on the way up."(Continued)
Revisit the Past in Long Beach
New York Magazine - Travel- December 16, 2010
Start your day at Retro Row’s Porfolio Coffeehouse with a chocolate croissant ($2.25) and an ice-blended peanut butter mocha (from $3.20). Drive twenty minutes to Rancho Estates, a mid-century-modern subdivision, where all 700 Cliff May–designed homes offer a flash-frozen glimpse of fifties Southern California. Bordering the subdivision on two sides is El Dorado East Regional Park, where you’ll find miles of paved biking and hiking trails. Navigate back to 4th Street for lunch at Taqueria La Mexicana. Order choose-your-own-meat tacos with onion, cilantro, and hot sauce ($1.10 each) to go, then drive three minutes to Bluff Park and grab a bench to eat by the beach. Drive two miles to the Museum of Latin American Art, the country’s only museum devoted to modern and contemporary Latin American art, to see a permanent collection including work by more than 350 artists from twenty countries. (Continued)
Fort Bragg: You can go home again
Los Angeles Times - Travel- November 19, 2010
Reporting from Fort Bragg, Calif. — Fifteen years ago, the century-old redwood train trestle at the north end of Fort Bragg, on the Mendocino coast, was where teenagers went to smoke cigarettes and make out. The towering bridge — gorgeous even at the height of its decay — was closed to pedestrians because of rotting beams and gaping holes. But the view, high above Pudding Creek and out over the churning Pacific, was irresistible for romance and rebellion, the wire fence at the bridge's mouth a feeble barrier against young, bored Fort Braggers. I know. I was one of them. (Continued)
OVERNIGHTER: California Farmland, Known for Its Drinks
New York Times - Travel- October 17, 2010
EVEN before the first sip of wine, I was drunk on the smell of baked earth and California bay leaves. It was August and the air was hot and dry, and specked with tiny white butterflies. The hills were shrouded in straw, with green vineyards creeping up their sides. The scene was intoxicating.
Cradled between ridges of coastal redwoods and inland oaks, and laced by the narrow, meandering Navarro River, Anderson Valley is a two-hour drive from San Francisco in Mendocino County’s under-appreciated interior. Lumber mills and apple orchards once did brisk business here, but now grapevine-draped hills surround the series of outposts that dot the valley floor — the largest town is Boonville, population 715. (Continued)
FOOTSTEPS: Twain’s Nicaragua, 144 Years Later
New York Times - Travel- September 19, 2010
IT was June, the height of the Nicaraguan rainy season, and the sky was thick with clouds. Our small boat cut south through the wind-churned Pacific, rounding one bend, then another. The looming hills were green with shrubby trees and coastal grasses; where they met the water, layers of rock folded like cake frosting into the ocean. Soon a wide bay opened up and the surf-and-sand boomtown of San Juan del Sur came into view. Structures lined the beach in Jolly Rancher shades: apple green, lemon yellow, watermelon pink. At the bay’s northern edge, large houses climbed a steep hillside toward a towering statue of Jesus.
It was from this vantage, in December 1866, that Samuel Langhorne Clemens — now known by his pen name, Mark Twain — first laid eyes on San Juan del Sur. America’s great author and adventurer was on his way from San Francisco to New York City, where he would set sail for Europe and the Middle East, a trip captured in Twain’s first best seller, “Innocents Abroad.” (Continued)
Get Cerv'd
Budget Travel Magazine - June, 2010
There's a pint-size revolution sweeping Mexico, with a wave of 
microbreweries introducing tasty new ways to fill your glass. From the bars of Baja to Mexico City, look out for these local-hero labels.
Read about Minerva (Guadalajara), Cucapa (Mexicali) and Primus (Mexico City) brewing companies in the June issue of Budget Travel magazine, on shelves now.(Continued)
IN BOOKSTORES - Lonely Planet Mexico, 12th Edition
I recently wandered into a neighborhood bookshop and was excited to see Lonely Planet's Mexico (October, 2010) stashed among the trave guidesl. My contribution to the book is the product of two months researching the "Around Mexico City" region of Mexico's central highlands. Beyond that, it's the result of a year spent dodging potholes and avoiding animals on Mexico's infamously treacherous free roads. This thrilling, but decidedly non-luxurious post-wedding romp, consisted mainly of hunting for hot springs, isolated beaches and irresistable taco stands. It was a good year.
The newest culinary cult
San Francisco Magazine - May, 2010
You knew it had to happen: Sooner or later, someone was going to mount a challenge to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Marketo yuppie mamas with toddlers in tow—flocked this past March to a SoMa warehouse for the third installment of San Francisco’s new Underground Farmers Market, a monthly event organized by Iso Rabins, the charismatic leader of the city’s clandestine food scene (he also runs ForageSF). Apart from some unusual homemade treats, like acorn-flour brownies and Rabins’ own pork-belly buns, the offerings (and the prices) didn’t look all that different from those you’d find at most “aboveground” farmers’ markets. So what made this event worthy of the “underground” moniker? (Continued)
California Goes Bust, Embraces Bud
GQ.com - The Q Blog - March 25, 2010
While almost everything that falls from the mouth of California's square-skulled Governator has the potential for humor, few aspects of the state's ongoing fiscal collapse are, in fact, funny. But one unexpected byproduct of California's impending economic doom is, at least, darkly comic: It's beginning to seem that the state's budgetary troubles may lead California to become the first state in the country to legalize the recreational use of pot.
Yesterday, Tax Cannabis 2010—the organization behind California's marijuana legalization drive—submitted the last of the 433,971 signatures necessary to put its initiative on the November ballot. The law would make it legal for drinking age adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. It would also allow for the taxation and regulation of pot by the local government. (Continued)
The Taylor-Gould Wrongful Conviction Case
Two years ago, while working as a staff writer at the New Haven Advocate in Connecticut, I got a call from the wife of a man serving a life sentence for murdering a bodega owner 15 years before. The woman, Mary Taylor, had been arguing her husband's innocence for years. But she'd been unable to get local news outlets to take notice. After hiring a former-police officer turned private investigator, Gerald O'Donnell, to look into her husband's case, she was armed with evidence, but was still unable to get the attention of the state's major papers. But the case had my attention. I wrote this cover story on the Ronald Taylor and his co-defendent in the case, George Gould, in January, 2008. This week, I learned that a Connecticut judge has thrown out the convictions of Taylor and Gould. In his ruling, the judge said the two men were "actually innocent." (Continued)
