The Handbuilt City - Dispatches from the Rust Belt

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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Canada Movements & Organizing

Shutting Down Trade With Our Largest Trade Partner To Own The Libs

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments alberta, ambassador bridge, big truck, black lives matter, canadian truckers, detroit international bridge company, DIBC, erin o'toole, gordie howe bridge, infrastructure, justin trudeau, land of the rising timbit, matty moroun, semi, south asian, tractor-trailer, truck, trucks, US-Canada border, US-Canadian Border, war on cars, western alienation, wexit, windsor, windsor-detroit border

Though mostly vaccinated, Canadian truckers have been protesting a new vaccine mandate that affects cross-border truckers. The protests, which have clogged the Canadian capital for weeks, have now come to Windsor, where they are blocking the entrance to the Ambassador Bridge. And for what?

Business & Economics

Everyone And Their Mom Is Making An Electric Car. Few Will Prevail.

January 12, 2022January 12, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments apple car, auto show, autonomous car, car culture, car dealerships, car parc, cars, carvana, ces, ces las vegas, chrysler, customer service, dyson, electric car, Electric cars, fisker karma, Ford, frothy markets, general motors, handbuilt mba, hybrid, lordstown, lucid, naias, next big thing, nikola, nissan, polestar, range rover, self-driving car, sony, sony ev, stellantis, Tesla, volvo, volvo xc40 recharge, vroom

Sony makes great headphones and great gaming consoles. Will they be able to make a great EV? Will everyone wading into the increasingly muddy waters of the “blue” ocean of electric vehicles be able to compete? Probably not.

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Detroit Labor Public transit

Recharging the Aquifer Underneath Detroit’s Transit Desert

January 5, 2022January 5, 2022 Martha Connell 0 Comments DDOT, ddot cuts, ddot detroit, ddot driver shortage, ddot funding, ddot routes, Detroit, duggan, duggan administration, economic development, labor, metro detroit, michigan, QLINE, regional transit authority, regioonal transit authority, RTA, rta michigan, rta millage, SMART, transit, transit service, wages

Martha Connell looks at some hard questions about the future of Detroit’s transit.

Culture & Language Public transit

“You’re Entitled For Suggesting People Take Public Transportation Instead Of Stranding Themselves On I-95” – Midatlantic Liberals

January 4, 2022January 4, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amtrak, Amtrak NEC, blizzard, dc blizzard, disaster capitalism, dominion, dominion energy, Fairfax, Fairfax County, fredericksburg, fredericksburg virginia, i-95, i-95 corridor, i-95 virginia, infrastructure, interstate 95, king george county, national guard, nec, northeast corridor, northern virginia, Prince William County, public transit, snowstorm, Stafford County, transit, transit between dc and fredericksburg, transit between dc and virginia, transportation, twitter, VDOT, Vienna, virginia, virginia blizzard, Virginia Railway Express, VRE, VREx, waffle house index, weather, wmata

A rare, intense blizzard in the Midatlantic US snarled traffic on I-95, leading us to wonder: how is the car obsession even so engrained on the East Coast that people can’t imagine not driving cars?

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