The Urban Diary as a City-Dweller's Tool

He describes alternate diary forms, from notebook, or scrapbook to a digital file displayed by computer or tablet that reflects changing views of the city over time. He explains how such "diaries" can be narrative or figurative; they might capture actual events or record internalized memories or intuitions. They can document details of the history, culture and climate of a particular urban place, and particular aspects of "place-engagement".  

Finally, Wolfe offers specific suggestions for various approaches to implementation of the urban diary tool, noting:

Creating an urban diary is a kind of archaeology that involves more than unearthing distinct artifacts from another era. While urban diaries can be figurative or memory-based, we are also tangibly recording our explorations with whatever tool we choose — a pen, keyboard, camera. As we make note of some building or object or underlying relationship, we are actively engaging with a place....

Documenting and contemplating the journey from place to space — crossing and intersecting and embracing the edges of the public and private realms — may be the best way to understand where we live, the choices we make and the choices that are made for us.