Sometimes you just need to move around a bit, you know that itchy ‘I have to move’ feeling you get but ignore because your stuff and life is so organized. I think I may have found the solution to your problems while searching internet today. It’s the modern train car house!

Now moving is easy, simply get the kids and dog into the house and hitch up to the nearest engine and head on out. Does the train car house have you interested? Well it could be yours for a mere $225,000. Finished by a group of designers in Portland the house is now on the market. What other home boasts no property taxes or lawn maintenance?

Levi Benkert

We recently had the idea of putting our current office space to better use and we have two choices: (1) to have two new tenants come into the space and share it with, or (2) Open up the space to many of you who value the ability to work alongside people with shared values to work in a green space — along with us and our friends at Green Sacramento — that encourages collaboration and creativity. And, let’s face it: the second option sounds like a lot more fun.

The co-working model is nothing new — okay, it’s pretty new — and we have mentioned what Citizen Space is doing before. When done correctly, a co-working space will “have many of the advantages of a coffee house environment (social, energetic, creative) without sacrificing the best elements of an office environment (productive and functional) and gives indie professional an affordable and collaborative environment to work in”.

Okay, we are a bit biased, but we really do think our workspace is one of the coolest in Midtown Sacramento. For those of you who haven’t visited, we are located in a 1930s brick warehouse with 20′ (ish) ceilings and brick walls that has a modern/industrial feel with concrete floors and hand-made steel desks and tables. No, this is not your father’s office space. There is a conference room (with a gigantic steel conference table) and a brainstorming room (basically, a smaller conference room) that will be available for our members. Our members would also be free to organize evening events in the space, for their clients, partners, etc.

We are looking to rent out desks (part-time and full-time) and entire personal offices, as well as offer low-cost memberships to the occasional user and stopper-by-er. The building has free wireless internet throughout (as well as hard-wired internet) and a ridiculously expensive fax/copy machine (don’t ask how much it cost) that members can use. We plan on having coffee and tea always available.

We aim to officially open in June, but will be accepting applications for membership before then for early-adopters (and will be giving the first passionate handful their first month free as we “beta” test the idea). The space is located at 1931 H Street. If you are interested, leave a comment, email Brandon at Brandon[at]LJUrban[dot]com, or call us at 916-930-9400 ext.0.

Should we do this? Do you want to share an eco-urban space with us? We would love to get your feedback. Our decision whether or not to move forward with this will in large part be determined by the level of interest we receive.

I like good simple design especially when its done with an eye towards sustainability. The best designs disappear into your surroundings and subtly make things easier. I recently heard about a movie that the local designer Matthew Lechowick is working on getting The Crest to show – its called Objectified and by the looks of the trailer its a really well done look at the people behind the products. The thing is, Matthew needs our help convincing the Crest to show the film. So… want to help out? All you need to do is send an email to Sid Heberger over at the Crest to let him know you want to see it. Sid’s email is Sid@thecrest.com.

Every few months I get the idea that I should buy a scooter to get around town on. There are three of us at LJ Urban that share a little car. The idea is that we leave it at the office and ride our bikes in and use it for meetings if we need to. Although I have to admit (so as to not risk someone else exposing me instead) that I kind of hog the car. My excuse is that I have more away from the office meetings but somehow it ends up at my house more than it should. So every once in a while I get a hankering for a scooter. I do enjoy bike riding, its just the times when I have to get across town in 5 minutes because one meeting went long and another has already started where it would be nice to have the option. Once a few years ago I actually got one. It was just about the smallest Honda scooter you could buy but it was really fun to ride. But apparently when you are on the phone with the insurance company and you tell them you want all the coverages, you could not possibly mean all of them, like the one where when you get your scooter stolen it would get replaced. So yeah…Only 4 months after I bought it someone stole it and my insurance company told me that I had not chosen the theft option (which was only $3 more). If you are sensing a bit of left over frustration in my voice its because there is.

Anyhow I think if I did go for it again I would have to get something like this little hot rod. It was built by Portuguese craftsman Carlos Alberto who took an old Vespa and took apart the body and crafted himself a pretty cool machine. Even the seat is made of solid wood. Apparently the wood weighs considerably more than the original but for as neat as this thing looks the slower speeds are forgivable.

Yesterday I was driving home and about a block from our house there were several kids crossing the road. They looked like they were playing follow the leader because everyone had the same swing to their arms while they marched in a sort of formation. I watched them for a minute then had this strange thought. What if that were a bunch of adults instead? What if we all decided to play follow the leader around town on our lunch breaks? Sounds a little off, you might even have a few people staring at you thinking you were a crazy. But why not? What is it in us that makes us loose our sense of play when we get older? I am sure it has something to do with the fact that we start to understand more about responsibility and the gravity of what we have to take care of in our lives weighs heavy on us and makes play seem impossible. It’s like we were told that growing up makes it so that we need to spend a lot of money to have fun.

I still have not been snowboarding this year but normally try and go once every year. When I do go there is almost no way to get away from spending at least 150 bucks between gas food and what seems to be the ever climbing price of a lift ticket. I don’t know about you but that is a lot of money to me. But yet when someone asks me what I like to do for fun I would most likely say that I like to snowboard. So think about that for a second, once a year I get to go spend a bunch of money and an entire day on my grown up fun. Next time someone asks me I think I am going to say that I like to play follow the leader. You can play it all year, there is no planning and driving involved, it’s free and best of all if you cut loose and allow yourself to enjoy I bet it would be pretty fun. I am going to try it today. Anyone up for a game of follow the leader?

I have been watching Monk for the past year or so and am really impressed with his work. Kyle is a freelance photographer and his work frequently appears in the Sacramento News and Review. What I like about his work is that he seems to capture so much more in his lens than you normally would see. His pictures keep your attention for a minute longer than they should and make you wonder what was going on in the mind of the person he was shooting.  Today I got a link to his new website and am even more impressed than before. Good work Kyle!

Levi Benkert

A funny thing happens this time of year between Christmas and New Years, our traffic here on the blog drops down significantly. What that tells me is that most of you are visiting during work hours, which may or may not be a problem depending on your line of work. If you work say at a accounting firm there might not be any real work reasons for you to be spending your time here, but if you work at a homebuilder or something like that than I guess you get a pass.

Anyway, I want to reward those of you who are staying around and reading. So here goes! The first 10 (Update: 15) people to comment below with the title of their favorite shirt and an idea of another shirt we should make will get a free one in the mail. No strings or anything attached. You just have to comment with a real email address and live somewhere in the US (so we are not paying to ship shirts to Madagascar which I am sure is not cheap). Your idea does not have to be amazing or never heard of before, just an idea.

I will email the first 10 15 people and get your size and address and before you know it you will be wearing something you can believe in.

Ready? Go.

Levi Benkert

Update: There are some repeat comments in there so a few shirts are left… Keep the ideas flowing!

Ok we did it. After getting all the little bugs out and adding new layers to the LJ Urban site we are finally able to launch our new toy. What is that toy you say? Well hmm, should I tell you or let you guess a little longer?

It would be really fun to poll all of you and see if anyone comes up with the right answer on what it actually is we are doing. Or I can just tell you, that is easier.

Alright here goes, we believe that eco-urbanism is not just a mindset but a conversation. It’s a dance between people who are trying to learn how to be more eco conscience while embracing the community around them. We thought of many different ways to start more conversations, big eco parties, community websites, congressional bills, you know basically anything that got people thinking and we finally came up with something really basic and simple. Wear your beliefs. Yeah,  that’s it…we are making T Shirts so you can tell the world what you believe. It’s a way for all of the readers here on the blog in Topeka, Kansas or Little Rock Arkansas to get in on what LJ Urban is trying to do. Enough of you told us that you believed in what we were doing and wanted to see us in your city building houses (someday I promise) and we thought in the meantime it was best to give you a way to do something now.

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Thanks to Jason Brown for sending me a few of these WWII pictures.  The one I posted yesterday was from him as well.

These pictures make me want to grab my camera and walk around a big city for a few days.

Levi