austerity - The Handbuilt City

Policy Public Safety

Police Reform: Imagining New Roles For A Safer, More Functional Society

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments 1312, abolish the police, acab, angie schmitt, austerity, black lives matter, BSEED, budgets, building department, building inspections, building inspector, building officials, community engagement, community meetings, cycling, cycling safety, dave bell, defund the police, democracy, Detroit, detroit police chief james craig, detroit police department, detroit will breathe, fuck the police, james craig, jessica parker, legal aid, municipal budgets, municipal government, nonmotorized transportation, pedestrian fatalities, pedestrian safety, police, police abolition, police brutality, police brutality lawsuits, police departments, police reform, policing in the united states, prison abolition, prison reform, public funding, reform the police, safe mobility, safe streets, social justice, social safety net, social welfare, social work, social worker, social workers, traffic safety, traffic violence

We expect police to respond to, well, everything. And they’re not suited for it. Rethinking policing in the United States will require us to figure out alternatives for who is responding to what issue.

Business & Economics Transit infrastructure Infrastructure

Black Ocean Strategy? Private Firms Are Looking To Cut Themselves A Slice Of The Infrastructure Pie.

March 25, 2021March 25, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments ann arbor, anthony townsend, austerity, autonomous cars, BRT, CASE, cavnue, chicago parking meter deal, chicago parking meters, daley the lesser, diane cross, EVs, fast bus, finance 101, ford mustang mach-e, free market, google, highways, hudson yards, infrastructure, Infrastructure Partners, invisible hand, jeff cranson, LRT, mach-e, mark de la vergne, mdot, michael heller, morgan stanley infrastructure partners, MSIP, mustang mach-e, PAV, privatization, privatization of transportation infrastructure, privatized, richard j. daley, richard m. daley, roadways, Sidewalk, sidewalk labs, SMART, smart city, smart roadways, subways, transportation infrastructure

Wall Street and Silicon Valley are looking for access to infrastructure as they seek out new markets and sources of reliable revenue streams and growth potential. It’s good work … if you can get it.

Detroit Public transit Michigan Transit infrastructure

What If We Can’t Wait? Public-Private Partnership Solutions for Infrastructure

February 2, 2021February 2, 2021 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments amtrak, Amtrak NEC, augean stables, austerity, ben stupka, brooks patterson, BRT, bus, chicago parking meters, dave coulter, Detroit, economic development, FRR, l. brooks patterson, macomb county, MBA, mba capstone, megan owens, metro detroit, michigan, mikel oglesby, mobility infrastructure, new york fear city, oakland county, philanthropic capital, PPP, private sector, public sector, public transit, public-private partnership, regional infrastructure, regional planning, regional transit, regional transit authority, robert moses, RTA, ryan friedrichs, stephanie farmer, transit, transit infrastructure, transportation, transportation riders united, TRU, why is macomb county awful

The RTA is planning on returning in 2022– again- to revisit a ballot measure to fund regional infrastructure investment in Southeast Michigan. Can we wait for 2022? Should we explore alternatives in the meantime?

Real Estate Urban Planning

Stuck In A Fiscal Hole? Just Borrow Against The Future, Says Detroit’s Mayor

July 15, 2020July 15, 2020 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments austerity, blight, bond, bond issue, community development, economic development, green new deal, housing, municipal finance, real estate, real estate development

Mike Duggan wants to revisit his failed bond issue proposal to demolish derelict buildings. It’s a bad idea.

Ontario Public transit

Ford: Can’t Fund LRT, Can’t Close Budget Deficits

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019 Nat Zorach 0 Comments andrea horwath, austerity, doug ford, hamilton, kathleen wynne, LRT, ontario, public transit, rail, transit

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has had mixed results riding the Donald Trump pseudo-populist wave that has been sweeping the globe.

Business & Economics

Mood: “It’s The Austerity, Stupid!” or, “Are We Ever Gonna Straight Up Call Out The Failings Of Neoliberal Economic Policy?”

November 14, 2019November 15, 2019 Nat Zorach 0 Comments american enterprise institute, austerity, bowling alone, dan gilbert, discourse, infrastructure, jonathan rauch, public infrastructure, reaganomics, republican party, robert putnam, ryan streeter, social capital, transit, trickle-down economics

Loneliness. Failures of civic engagement. A lacking sense of place. These are things that are often not discussed together. They’re

Well, World, We Had A Good Run

August 22, 2019August 22, 2019 Nat M. Zorach 0 Comments alt right, amazon, austerity, bull market, corporate debt, debt, far right, interest, mass shootings, mexico border, neoliberalism, nihilism, stock market, trump, white supremacy, yield curve

I guess this is it. The Amazon, the globe’s largest carbon sink, is burning, the yield curve has inverted, there