Cities & Urban Planning Archives - The Handbuilt City

midjourney ai image of neon illuminated district heating plant

Sustainability Cities & Urban Planning Energy Utilities

New Ideas For Utility Policy (Idea No. 2)

March 16, 2023March 15, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ASHRAE, district cooling, district energy, district heating, energy, glycol loop, magic-pak, PTAC, steam heat, utilities

In my last article, I looked at this question of “dig once” and how it might influence utility affordability and

stock market crash electronic image midjourney ai

Business & Economics Finance Urban Planning Finance Tech

The Collapse Of SVB Is A Big Deal. It’s Not a Catastrophic Big Deal.

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1929, charles perrow, FDIC, federal deposit insurance corporation, federal reserve bank, glass-steagall, Great Depression, investment banking, matterport, mehrsa baradaran, NASDAQ, normal accidents, QQQ, savings and loan, silicon valley bank, svb, tech banks, tech bubble, tech crash, the color of money

The tech world and the finance world are both abuzz this week over the nearly overnight collapse of Silicon Valley

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

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?

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.

canfield-street-detroit-qline-ddot-bus-service-stop-woodward

Handbuilt Votes 2022: Urbanism At The Ballot Box

November 2, 2022November 2, 2022 Guest 0 Comments ballot measure, ballotpedia, boulder county, california, charlie leduff, detroit news, fresno county, funding buses, Gretchen Whitmer, gulf coast, hillsborough county, infrastructure funding, karen jaroch, kristina karamo, new hanover county, orange county florida, orlando, qanon, san francisco, smart cities dive, southeast michigan, suburbs, tampa, transit, transit funding, transit millage, transit vote, transportation, vote on transit funding

Three counties in Southeast Michigan will vote on transit funding next week. There are also a number of other transit and infrastructure-related votes around the country.

immokalee-rd-streetmix-naples-florida

How To Find Nonpartisan Consensus in Sustainable Urbanism

November 1, 2022October 31, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments andy wells-bean, bike grid, bike infrastructure, bike lane, bike lanes, bike pathways, florida, induced demand, infrastructure, mobility, naples florida, naples pathways coalition, nonmotorized infrastructure, oak & stone, paradise coast, public safety, reflection isles, ron desantis, safe streets, safety, sharrow, southwest florida, sunshine state, swf, swfl, traffic jams, transportation infrastructure

In an era when political discourse seems so fragmented, polarized, and toxic, is it possible to find consensus on any issue? A recent trip to Southwest Florida featured an interesting conversation on the subject– around transportation infrastructure that can make South Florida’s cities safer and more attractive for the large number of tourists and residents alike.

house-halloween-spooky-window

Our Top Ten Scariest Things In Urbanism This Halloween

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments accessibility, amy coney barrett, angie schmitt, brett kavanaugh, clarence thomas, climate change, dave staudt, department of transportation, dot, emergency management, epa, epa ruling on carbon dioxide, fossil fuel crunch, fossil fuels, Gretchen Whitmer, halloween, halloween party, itaetwon, itaetwon tragedy, jeff bezos, matt maddock, media platforms, meshawn maddock, michigan proposal 3, neil gorsuch, noah balanda, oakland county gop, pedestrian fatalities, pedestrian safety, safe streets, safety, seoul, shane trejo, smart millage, supreme court, twitter, white supremacists

Halloween is a spooky time of year. Know what else is spooky? Well, we have a list of ten things– which we meticulously compiled while wearing our costumes in the war room of Handbuilt Heavy Industries, Ltd.

The Oakland County GOP Is Courting Literal Nazis To Fight Infrastructure Funding

October 20, 2022October 20, 2022 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments brooks patterson, dave coulter, dave staudt, fix the damn roads, Gretchen Whitmer, infrastructure, l brooks patterson, lyft, novi, road maintenance, roads, shane trejo, southeast michigan, TNC, transit, transportation, transportation infrastructure, Uber

For reasons that don’t seem to make any sense but were probably completely predictable, a nonprofit advocacy group in the northern suburbs of Detroit has enlisted a prominent Nazi sympathizer to fight against the real scourge of America: modern transportation infrastructure!

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