Word is starting to get out that my wife and I are moving to Ethiopia to run the orphanage I keep mentioning here on the blog. We simply could not sit by while children were being killed over there without stepping up and doing something about it. So sometime in the next month we are going to be moving our family to Jinka Ethiopia for a Sabbatical.

But before you jump out of your seats… Don’t worry, LJ Urban is still going to keep rolling here with Micah at the helm but at a much slower pace. As I am sure you all know the market has slowed significantly and its a good time to slow things down and wait out the storm. I will be explaining all the details as well as keeping you all up to date on our progress as we wind up our American life here to embark on something completely new. As for the blog we are going to keep posting updates from Ethiopia and so it will be a sort of developer – orphanage blog for a while. Sound fun?

The thing with blogs is that there really are no rules and so we just kind of do what feels best and with this change in our lives it feels to good to keep blogging here. It’s been quite a ride for those of you who have been with LJ Urban since we started and I hope you will all stay tuned as we go on the biggest adventure yet!

In the mean time head over and check out the site for the orphanage and see what we are up to.

Levi Benkert

Ok I know its been a while. We have been running around like mad the last week and have not posted much here on the blog. Stay tuned, more good things coming your way.

Levi

Today marks a big occasion for the LJ Urban blog. This post you are reading is our 600th bringing a total of 1627 comments. I know that may not mean a lot to you but to us who started this thing not knowing where it would take us and why we were even doing this its a huge deal. The first post was on October 3rd 2006 and was done by Jason Presley. Jason was an incredible writer and spent months leading up to the launch of the blog deciding what our message would be. Once we did launch Jason tirelessly tweaked and retweaked the design with EMRL ultimately landing on the site you see today. He liked to call it a “playground” every component of the site is interchangeable and always in motion.

Anyway, I know its sappy to hear someone write about looking back and how far they have come. But I am darn proud of what the site here has become and can not wait to see what the next 600 posts bring.

And since we are getting all sentimental here are a few of my favorite posts out of the last 600.

- The 800 Pound Gorilla
- Optimism
- The Myth of Quantity over Quality
- Alice in wonderland

There are lots more good ones I am sure but that is all I can seem to dig up that is resonating with me right now…

Levi Benkert

I know its been an unusually long stream of small posts. I have several big ones I have been noodling on that are not quite ready for the sunlight yet. In the meantime I have been finding lots of little things to post about. Like this sign…What do you think about this going up on the Good site? We have some new flyers we are putting up on site and wanted to put them on a neat sign.

Do you like it?

We got this comment yesterday and it made my day. I thought I would post it in case you may have missed it.

So I’m wandering around the web – kind of web 1.0 (because my sis tells me there is 2.0, but I don’t get it yet) looking for work, or opportunity or maybe even optimism. And I find this website and I am intrigued and encouraged by the optimism, the honesty, and the work.

So my comment is about “real estate development 2.0″ – the comment by someone named Levi I think – and its a great description. I’m a real estate developer, and nobody knows what I do – my friends, my parents, even the consultants that do so much to make projects happen. I love the comment about the S being a dollar sign….

So, in my world, a real estate developer is a creative, maker, doer, dreamer, and promoter of new, improved, land, living, using, walking past stuff. Its about passion and trying and then doing it all again.

THEN he gets sued by a neighbor who tries to extort money by stopping a project, then he gets sued by a contractor who refuses to live up to an honest contract…then the banks fold up and walk away…

And the real estate developer wonders where the optimism and the satisfaction went? Well, I found a little here, a little optimism and honesty and not much ego, and I am encouraged again.

Thanks guys!

Levi Benkert

Found this guy today and spent some time poking around his site, now I am starting to get some ideas running around in my head…. Anyone want to plan a midnight attack with me?

Found this video today on Oak Park Now. It’s an interesting explanation of where information will come from in the future…Makes you think a little about what will happen with the big American corporation (if any of them survive this mess).

Before I start I need to break a rule I read once about blogging. The rule went something like this. “Never open a blog post with, I am sorry I have not written in a while.” You all have most likely noticed that it has indeed been a while and despite the rules I am going to say I am sorry.

If you are signed up on the LJ Urban email list you got an email from us yesterday about the progress we are making on the good project. That is exactly what has been keeping me so busy. Since January 1st when word got out that we had another phase available people started blowing up my phone with calls to get in contract, which is very good news. So anyway. I am sorry for neglecting the blog here, even though I am not supposed to say that. But at the same time I am not sorry because I have such a good excuse. More people living in Good is a very good excuse right?

Anyhow. More posts to come I promise.

Levi Benkert

Another great post today by Alexis Madrigal on urban civic spaces and our constant misunderstanding of how to put them to good use.

I know, I know, so cheap of me to just post about another post but its the weekend and I am not feeling all that creative myself. Trust me anything that I would write today would not be nearly as good as what Alexis wrote. So head over and check it out.

I have been digging this blog the last few days, the author Alexis Madrigal takes you on a journey through the last 100 years of green technology. I know 100 years, crazy right? Who knew that in 1901 people were already thinking about solar power. I got hooked right from the first post and am now making my way through all the archives. Very cool stuff.  Head over and check it out.

Levi Benkert