The Handbuilt City - Dispatches from the Rust Belt

drawing of a row of different houses

Real Estate Urban Planning Affordable housing Housing

Will California Get Out Of Its Own Way?

February 6, 2023February 5, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments Accessory dwelling unit, accessory dwelling units, ADU, adus, bay area, california, california housing crisis, california housing prices, cities, densification, Density, exclusionary zoning, granny flats, housing, housing development, population density, san jose, sb9, subdivision, Urban planning

Zoning reform has become a flashpoint for political debate in the United States. While it intuitively seems like it would

Energy Efficiency Energy Midwest Science & Research

Remembering George Crabtree (1944-2023)

January 25, 2023January 25, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments argonne, argonne national lab, chicagoland, dr. george crabtree, energy, enrico fermi, george crabtree, illinois, JCESR, joint center for energy storage research, science, scientific research, SISE, summer institute on climate and the environment, thomas alaan, UIC, university of illinois, university of illinois chicago

The energy sector lost a giant this week in the passing of Dr. George Crabtree, who was one of the

cocoa brown dog cavalier king charles spaniel in corktown detroit lying on the back porch.

Policy Poverty Affordable housing Housing

Right-To-Renew, And Other Things

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ann arbor, ann arbor michigan, ann arbor right to renew ordinance, corktown, detroit housing, detroit housing policy, housing in detroit, right to renew, right-to-renew

Gentrification and predatory housing practices led policymakers in Ann Arbor to create a new “right-to-renew” ordinance. Could it be a valuable tool in the fight for tenant protections?

decorated christmas tree with presents in southwest detroit

Culture & Language Lifestyle

Christmas 2022: Handbuilt City’s Naughty or Nice List

December 23, 2022December 23, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments cars, christmas, christmas 2022, corporate management, DOE GSL lighting standards 2022, elon musk, exelon, led controllers, metro detroit transit, michigan democrats, michigan public service commission, midjourney ai, MPSC, national museum of the great lakes, pepco, right-wing extremism, sam bankman-fried, scotus, supreme court, tech crash, trevor pawl, twitter, volodymyr zelenskyy

It’s time for the annual tradition of pointing out the winners and losers of the year in terms of who’s

old-light-switch-incandescent-light-bulb

Energy Efficiency Home Improvement & DIY Construction Energy

Age of Incompatibility: Fixing Smart Home Tech

December 13, 2022December 11, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments alexa, amazon alexa, amazon echo, amperes, amps, asbestos wire, ballast, dimmer, dimmer switch, dumb home, echo dot, electroluminescence, gosund, halogen, home rehab, home renovation, how to install a dimmer switch, incandescent, knob and tube, knob and tube wire, LED, LED bulb, LED bulbs, led compatible dimmer, led lights, Leviton, light emitting diode, light switches, light-emitting diode, lutron, rehab, rewiring an old house, smart home

A minor saga involving a dysfunctional lightswitch led me to thinking about some of the challenges of integrating smart home technology.

Historic preservation Construction Energy Tech

Matterport 101 – Three Unusual Use Cases

December 9, 2022December 9, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments afro deli, afro deli st. paul, dubuque, ford motor company, ilitch, matterport, matterport camera, matterport pro 2, mattertag, Michigan Central Station, moten, saturday night building detroit, use cases for matterport

The Matterport platform offers plenty of opportunities well outside the realm of simply creating virtual tours for real estate listings.

wielka-woda-netflix-polish-series

Culture & Language Climate

Wielka Woda: Climate Future Through Historical Fiction

December 7, 2022December 7, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments Agnieszka Żulewska, climate, climate change, climate fiction, doomsday glacier, Erin Brockovich, film, how high we go in the dark, Jakub Marczak, Jaśmina Tremer, mckinsey, poland, rocky mountain institute, sequoia nagamatsu, solarpunk, streaming services, thwaites glacier, Tomasz Schuchardt, wielka woda, Wroclaw, you forgot about poland

A new Polish-language Netflix series explores the catastrophic 1997 floods of Central Europe through a tightly-crafted, intense drama. Is it just fiction? Or is it cautionary?

power grid substations transmission infrastructure isometric view

Energy Infrastructure Utilities

Terrorists Blew Up Power Infrastructure This Weekend. The Media Barely Noticed.

December 5, 2022December 5, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments andrew wilkins, charlotte clymer, colorado nightclub shooting, discourse, downtown divas, drag, drag queens, drag shows, duke energy, elon musk, emily rainey, far left democrats, fox news, godwin's law, investor-owned utilities, lgbt, LGBTQ, LGBTx, moore county nc, north carolina, north carolina sandhills, power, power grid, public utilities, public utility, religious freedom, sandhills, sandhills north carolina, stochastic terrorism, substation, us army

To be fair, there’s a lot of weird stuff going on these days. The wealthiest man in the world, with

A screenshot of a tweet of a Local WDIV Channel 4 news van blocking the two-way bike lanes on Bagley Avenue in Southwest Detroit near the MIchigan Central Station project on a chilly and overcast fall evening.

Mobility Parking

What, Me Block A Bike Lane? Trouble at Ford’s Ziggurat of Mobility

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments bagley st., bike lane, bike lanes, detroit police, detroit police department, economic development, Ford, ford motor company, liberty sheet metal, mannik smith, mcs, michigan central, Michigan Central Station, protected bike lanes, public safety, safe streets, sharrow, sharrows, street safety, traffic control devices, traffic enforcement

The Blue Oval scores another kind of big, fat, blue oval, rotated 90°, for its commitment to walkability and bikeability in the new Michigan Central Station project.

fema-flood-map-southwest-florida-fort-myers-naples-lee-county-climate-change-hurricane-ian

Real Estate Urban Planning Climate Environment

Sprawlhaven, Florida: Suburbs In The Age Of Climate Change

November 10, 2022November 18, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments arcade theater fort myers, caloosahatchee, cape coral, charlotte county, climate, climate change in florida, collier county, duke energy, florida, florida climate change, florida department of community affairs, ford's garage fort myers, hurricane ian, immokalee, insurance, insurance and climate change, lee county, miami-dade county, miami-dade urban growth boundary, monroe county, naples, naples florida, punta gorda, rick scott, storm damage florida, ugb, urban growth boundary, wesley marx

Fort Myers, Florida, is a flashpoint for the Sunshine State’s battle against climate change. It’s a battle that the state isn’t exactly winning. Part of that is coming from the self-inflicted wounds of eviscerating public sector oversight of real estate development. We’ve got photos of the traffic jams and storm damage to prove it.

← Previous