Paul Pierce "shops small" in Brooklyn.

Personally, I shy away from the Small Business Saturday (November 30) because of the American Express connection, but it does not mean this isn't a valuable idea (and video).

Look at all those people out on the street. Walkability really is the key, isn't it?

Rusty by design.

CM CeeSaw would not approve. He likes his decay to be achieved the old-fashioned way, through abject neglect, rather like Bill "Community First" Allen does over on Main Street.

Constructing a Facade Both Rugged and Rusty ... The new Barclays Center uses 12,000 separate pieces of what is called weathering steel, deliberately covered by a layer of rust, by Elizabeth A. Harris (New York Times)

At the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues in Brooklyn, dozens of men and women in hardhats are scurrying about each day, hanging this and attaching that, preparing the Barclays Center for its opening, which is now just a few weeks away. The lights have come on inside, some treetops are visible along the arena’s edge, and some bright blue signage has gone up along the building’s facade, an undulating shell of brownish steel.

After years of building, and even more years of bickering, the arena is almost finished — but this is not immediately obvious to all those who wander by.

“Is it meant to be that way, with the rust?” one woman asked, squinting at the steel.

“I thought they were going to paint it,” said a man who stopped to stare.

No, they are not.