The Anatomy of a Power Outage in Michigan

The power went out. Then the ice melted. A few days later, the snow came, and the power went out– again. Now that the snow is gone, what’s next?

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Remembering George Crabtree (1944-2023)

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

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Infrastructure: Think Outside The Smartphone-Driven Profit Motive

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.

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

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.

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Recharging the Aquifer Underneath Detroit’s Transit Desert

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

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“Detroit: Become Livonia” – Mike Duggan

Detroit’s mayor has a vision for the city. It involves a lot of parking lots, and a lot of low-wage jobs. But there’s a better way.

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Mike Duggan’s Legacy of Austerity, Corporate Power, and State Violence

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is inevitably coasting to an easy reĆ«lection tomorrow. His legacy is a complex and a fraught one– that deserves a lot of critical scrutiny, in spite of the big moves that the city has made in the past decade.

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MDOT: Rebrand And Replace. Some Ideas From The MAP Conference.

Nat is attending the Michigan Association of Planning’s annual conference. It’s going great– especially with regard to figuring out new ways to refashion state agencies that aren’t doing their jobs.

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Biden’s Other Border Crisis: The US Canadian Border

The US-Canadian border remains closed– and it’s no longer really clear why.

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Better Utility Regulation: How We Can Get Out Of This Mess

Too much regulation restricts innovation. But too little regulation does the same, and this is what we see in the crumbling infrastructure of Michigan, where regulators are asleep at the wheel in the name of a “business-friendly regulatory” environment that, as it turns out, is neither terribly regulatory nor terribly business-friendly.

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