The Handbuilt City - Dispatches from the Rust Belt

End of an Era: Fall of the Last Holdout Against the Little Caesars Arena

August 9, 2022August 9, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amy fisher price, cass corridor, Detroit, ilitch family, little caesars, Little Caesars Arena, midtown, mike illitch, olympia, olympia development, scheherazade, shell companies, terrible illitches

A “mysterious” fire gutted what was perhaps the last holdout against a parking lot empire on which the sun will never set.

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Urban Planning Mobility Michigan Midwest

Infrastructure: Think Outside The Smartphone-Driven Profit Motive

July 1, 2022July 1, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments autonomous vehicles, CASE, chip shortage, connected autonomous shared electric, effects of covid on transit, effects of covid19 on transit, Electric cars, elon musk, farebox recovery ratio, Ford, ford f-150, Ford F150, ford motor company, FRR, future of mobility, general motors, GM, mary barra, MEDC, midwest, new mobility, semiconductor shortage, smart cities, smart city, smartcities, smartcitiesworld, Tesla, transit, trevor pawl, triple zero, zero emissions vehicles

One of Michigan’s most visible mobility spokespeople recently said in a webinar that smartphone ownership and profitable markets were the two hindrances to developing sustainable mobility solutions in the state. It’s a politically horrific, functionally dubious, but baffling thing to say.

Urban Planning Mobility Public Safety

Washington, DC’s Big Car Tax Is A Novel, Necessary Approach To Traffic Fatalities.

June 7, 2022June 7, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments angie schmitt, automobiles, bloomberg, cars, complete streets, cyclist fatalities, david zipper, dc vision zero, department of transportation, district of columbia, dmv, dot, florida, high and mighty, keith bradsher, mdot, muriel bowser, pedestrian fatalities, public safety, rate of pedestrian fatalities, right of way, safe streets, street safety, streets, vision zero, warshington, warshington dc, Washington DC, we've got a delegation, why is food in dc so expensive

Pedestrian and cyclist safety has a new potential ally in the form of an annual registration tax for huge, heavy cars.

Idle Thoughts And Prayers: Why I’m Not Attending The CHARGE Energy Branding Conference in Texas

June 2, 2022June 2, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments charge energy conference, conferences, defund the police, firearms, greg abbott, gun control, gun safety, houston, ken paxton, ken paxton investigation, lone star, lone star state, mass shootings, police, police abolition, police budgets, police reform, police spending, public safety, texas, texas state police, uvalde, uvalde police, uvalde police response, uvalde school shooting, uvalde texas

Nat has, for better or worse, cancelled his trip to an energy conference in the Lone Star State.

Burgerbanism No. 10 – The Angry Jerk in Silver Spring, Maryland

May 26, 2022May 26, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments angry jerk, burgerbanism, caribbean, caribbean food, coworking silver spring, customer service, DC, downtown silver spring, eastern ave, i/o spaces, i/o spaces silver spring, maryland, silver spring, silver spring maryland, tucker carlson, washington, Washington DC, white replacement theory, yelp, yelp elite

After a somewhat less than illustrious gastronomic experience at Underground Pizza, I felt it was time to give another spot

Detroit Book Reviews Mobility Sustainability Climate Michigan

Book Review: Women Driven Mobility by Katelyn Davis and Kristin Shaw

April 26, 2022April 25, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments climate change, decarbonization, Detroit, Electric cars, electric vehicles, electrification, emily wasley, fisker, Gretchen Whitmer, jessica robinson, karma, katelyn davis, kristin shaw, lordstown, michigan, mobility, nikola, Tesla, transportation decarbonization, transportation electrification, TSLA, women-driven mobility, wsp

Nat looks at a new book by Katelyn Davis and Kristin Shaw about women in the mobility and transportation space, and asks whether a politics of benevolent incrementalism is going to help us solve the climate crisis.

Urban Planning Burgerbanism

Burgerbanism – Underground Pizza in Downtown Silver Spring

April 25, 2022April 25, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments abject cuisine, billion dollar hot and ready, buddys pizza, burgerbanism, cheesy bread, dc suburbs, detroit style, detroit style pizza, dmv, downtown silver spring, dtss, eastern avenue dc, enriched bleached wheat flour, hot and ready, jets pizza, little caesars, Little Caesars Arena, Mike Ilitch, mikes pizza, new restaurants in silver spring, silver spring, terrible pizza, what is detroit style pizza, wheaton, white bread

Nat and friends check out the newest spot in downtown Silver Spring, which serves Detroit Style Pizza, a Midwestern varietal of cheesy bread slathered in marinara sauce.

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Urban Planning Transit infrastructure

Into Exurban Oblivion: Auburn Hills Mulls Ditching Transit Service

February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 Guest 0 Comments auburn hills, bus, bus ridership, buses, calley wang, chrysler, DaimlerChrysler, DDOT, Detroit, divergent diamond, diverging diamond, editorial, farebox recovery ratio, fca, FCAU, fiat chrysler, Flint MTA, Ford, general motors, great lakes crossing, how is transit funded, mdot, michigan department of road engineering, michigan department of transportation, Nat Zorach, nimbyism, public transit, retrofitting the suburbs, ridership, RTA, rta michigan, SMART, stellantis, suburban transit, the handbuilt city, transit, transit funding, transit millage, transportation, Urban planning

In one of the farthest-north suburbs of Detroit, a municipality’s elected representatives are discussing the possibility of eliminating fixed-route transit, which has the support of an overwhelming percentage of the electorate, to save around $800,000 per year. In this guest co-editorial, Calley Wang and Nat Zorach argue that this is a really, really terrible idea.

Follow The Sharrow To My Heart: An Urbanist Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments affection, covid-19, detroit park city, last mile, love, missing middle, mobility, modeshare, parking theory, relationships, romance, transportation, urbanist valentine's day, urbanist valentine's day activities, valentine, valentine's day

Love comes in many typologies and densities. This Valentine’s Day, you can celebrate by thinking about some parallels between relationships and cities!

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Urban Planning Mobility Public Safety

“Bike Lanes Are Against My Morals,” Says Ohio Woman

February 9, 2022February 9, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments bexley, bexley ohio, bike, bike lanes, columbus, columbus ohio, livability, ohio, protected bike lanes, retrofitting the suburbs, roads, sharrow, sharrows, street, streets, suburban sprawl, suburbs, the profoundly disappointing gesturalism of the sharrow, walkability

The economics of parking are simple. Convincing community members, though? Sometimes not so much.

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