The Mom & Pop Stores Are Dead. Long Live The Mom & Pop Stores.

We’re constantly being told that the age of Amazon has arrived, and mom-and-pop hardware stores are dead, forever. There are elements of truth to this. But there is an eternal flame burning within the model of small, independent business– that is unlikely to ever be extinguished, no matter how big companies like Amazon or Home Depot may become.

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Will California Get Out Of Its Own Way?

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

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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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Right-To-Renew, And Other Things

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?

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Christmas 2022: Handbuilt City’s Naughty or Nice List

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

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Age of Incompatibility: Fixing Smart Home Tech

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

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Matterport 101 – Three Unusual Use Cases

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

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Wielka Woda: Climate Future Through Historical Fiction

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?

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

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

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

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.

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