The Handbuilt City - Dispatches from the Rust Belt

Real Estate Urban Planning Washington, DC

Exploring the New Washington, DC: Edge Urbanism in Edgewood/Brookland

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments brookland, catholic university of america, CUA, dc metro, district of columbia, ebike, eckington, edgewood, electric scooter, forman mills, fort totten, Gentrification, lime, northeast dc, periurban, red line, redeveloping surface parking, redevelopment, rhode island avenue, rock creek, rowhouse, silver spring, streetscaping, supermarket sushi, surface parking, takoma, townhouse, walkable, wardman, wardman rowhouse, washington, Washington DC, washington gas and light

Walking, biking, scootering around northeast DC for a couple of weeks, thinking about the past, present, and future of the neighborhood.

Business & Economics Tech Rural Issues

Amazon, Lifeline or Scourge For Retail-Starved, Rural Communities?

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amazon, amazon prime, Amazon Web Services, distribution facilities, economic development, fedex, free shipping, georgetown maine, jeff bezos, jeff bezos blue origin, logistics, rural, rural economic development, rural juror, sagadahoc county, shipping, ups, USPS, usps dejoy, warehouseing, westport maine, why is fedex so bad

Amazon is committed to a money-losing strategy to try and cop rural market share. But it’s not exactly a great deal for consumers, either. Looking at some examples from Maine and an example from California, we can learn a bit about the challenges facing retail in rural communities as well as how Amazon is (maybe) thinking about this issue.

Business & Economics Policy Mobility

Is It Time For A New Standard For Measuring EV Fuel Efficiency?

September 14, 2021September 14, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments cafe standards, cars, Electric cars, energy policy, epa, epa fuel economy standards, epa fuel standards, fuel, Honda, honda crv, hybrid cars, hybrids, kilowatt, kwh, phev, plug-in electric vehicle, plug-in hybid, rav4, Toyota, toyota rav4, transportation policy, watts

While I was glad to ditch my personal car in August, our household has a new-used car, which we were

edgewood-dc-rowhouses-mixed-income-housing-units-efficiency

Energy Efficiency Poverty Energy Utilities

Energy Burden: How To Measure? How To Reduce?

September 10, 2021September 10, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments air source heat pump, analytics, CDD, census, census tracts, cooling climate, cooling degree days, decarbonization, EIA, energy, energy efficiency, energy poverty, energy waste reduction, federal poverty line, first energy, HDD, heat pumps, heating climate, heating degree days, LMI, low to moderate income, low-income, metrics, mini-split, pepco, potomac edison, potomac electric power company, program evaluation, red states, reducing energy burden, Rust Belt, smeco, statistics, Tony Reames, urban energy justice lab, utilities, wgl

Measuring energy burden is relatively straightforward. Figuring out how to create robust metrics for it, though– and how to address it- is much more challenging.

Burgerbanism Transit infrastructure

Burgerbanism No. 3: Take Indy’s BRT to Delectable Southern Cuisine at Root & Bone

September 7, 2021September 5, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ajvar, BRT, burgerbanism, chicken & waffles, circle city, fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, Indiana, indianapolis, indygo, ketchup, midwest, outdoor dining, red states, sidewalk dining, southern food, sweet tea, transit infrastructure, walkable

In town for a long weekend that involved a multi-part wedding extravaganza, I headed down south, as it were, to

Culture & Language Tech

Flashback: Jump Raven, A Forgotten 1994 Video Game, Predicts 2021.

September 3, 2021September 14, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1994, biodiversity, climate change, cyborg, cyborgs, disaster, doom, duke nukem, dystopia, dystopian, dystopian future, freeware, hurricane ida, hypercard, james cameron, jump raven, lunicus, moxy fruvous, new york city flooding, new york city subway flooding, quake, robots, rush limbaugh, sea level rise, shareware, storms, supercard, titanic adventure out of time, video games, william appleton

Battling techno-nazis in the climate change-flooded streets of New York City in this largely forgotten 1994 video game, and remembering the glory days of 90’s optimism and shareware.

coal-ship-dock-fossil-fuels-energy

Energy Efficiency Urban Planning Poverty Affordable housing Energy

MDHHS and LIHEAP: We’ll Pay For Fossil Fuels. Weatherization, Not So Much.

September 2, 2021September 2, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments Brad Banks, cardi b, CMS energy, coal, coal power, Consumers Energy, DTE, DTE Energy, EE&C, energy efficiency, energy efficiency & conservation, energy waste reduction, fossil fuels, fossil gas, Gretchen Whitmer, LIHEAP, LMI, low to moderate income, low-income, maddy kamalay, michigan, michigan department of health and human services, michigan public service commission, MPSC, Nat Zorach, natural gas, the war on coal, WAP, weatherization assistance program, why is DTE so bad

At an MPSC workgroup meeting this morning on Energy Waste Reduction specifically for the low to moderate income (LMI) market

Urban Planning Mobility Cycling

Google Maps Needs To Do A Better Job Showing Pedestrian Infrastructure.

September 1, 2021September 1, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments bicycle, bike, bike infrastructure, brookland, cycling infrastructure, cyclist fatalities, dc metro, dc metropolitan branch trail, edgewood, jeff speck, mobility, nonmotorized transportation infrastructure, pedestrian bridges, pedestrian fatalities, pedestrian infrastructure, rhode island, safe streets, walkability, walking, Washington DC, wmata

Cars take center stage on Google Maps, even when you’re not looking for a driving route. It raises some interesting questions about how maps depict nonmotorized transportation infrastructure.

Policy Mobility Sustainability Transit infrastructure Government

MDOT: “Making VMT Reduction A Mobility Goal Is Punitive, Combative, And Might Hurt People’s Feelings”

August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments AASHTO, aashto green book, brad sharlow, carbon footprint, climate change, congestion, department of transportation, green book, highway design standards, infrastructure, judd herzer, level-of-service, LoS, mdot, MEDC, michigan, michigan department of transportation, Michigan DOT, michigan economic development corporation, mobility, niles annelin, public transit, state law, state policy, toll roads, traffic, transit, transportation, transportation engineering, transportation planning, trevor pawl, vehicle hours traveled, vehicle miles traveled, VHT, vmt, vmt reduction

Representatives of Michigan’s Department of Transportation have, at two recent public meetings, firmly pushed back on the proposal that the agency must tie a reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to funding considerations for new projects– using a dubious rationale.

Business & Economics Mobility Consumer Products

Libert-e-bikes: Marketing Mobility As Freedom

August 25, 2021August 25, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments behavioral economics, bicycle, bicycles, bike infrastructure, bikes, cars, CAYMC, cycling, cycling infrastructure, e-bikes, ebikes, economics, electric bicycles, electric bikes, electrification, entfremdung, freedom, liberty, liberty machines, marketing, marx theory of alienation, michael robertson, perceived value, safe streets

Michael Robertson, who founded a peer platform of the ill-fated Napster in 1997, once referred to cars as “liberty machines.” It’s a dominant belief among many car owners. Are eBike companies challenging that assumption in their marketing material?

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