The Handbuilt City
@handbuiltcity
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Consulting on and writing about sustainable and equitable citycraft.
The Rust Belt ⚙️⚒️🧰🔥🏭🏚️
Joined January 2012
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Pinned Tweet
Good morning! We're trying to fix the housing market using industrialized construction. Come to our webinar with
@RockyMtnInst
on June 14th!
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A map from Matt Tucci in NUMTOT of car crashes per population, with color categories weighted by county population. I'm glad I'm not crazy in thinking that Michigan drivers are crazy.
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@Bradleyflowers7
you had me until "woke nonsense" which means that you're probably mad that they provide same-sex partner benefits to their employees
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Does anyone else wonder why it costs $217,000 to build a single unit of affordable housing in a city where land is essentially free?
Detroit
@MayorMikeDuggan
this morning announcing that the city has crossed the $1 billion threshold over five years for investment in affordable housing totaling 4,600 units
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Amtrak speed between Ann Arbor and Detroit, two of the most populous cities in the state, is about 50mph, for point of reference.
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The Joe Louis Greenway is the real deal. Kudos to
@CityofDetroit
for making the dream happen!
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Just around the corner, one of my favorite buildings in the Olympia/Ilitch empire. This one is not compliant with the city's vacant property ordinance, but you'd never know it, because the city doesn't issue tickets.
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@thedrive
I'm sorry but this is the automotive equivalent of saying, "a woman wearing a revealing dress is asking for it."
It absolves us of collective responsibility as consumers, but also places the onus of responsibility on the buyer of a smaller car.
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This is the kind of density we need more of in Detroit-- development on vacant lots, a four-story building that has an appropriate relationship to the street (zero lot line).
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ICYMI: MDOT wants to replace I-375 with a ten-lane boulevard. Let's figure out how to make that *not* happen.
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@EngineerDustin
It would be funny if you didn't work for an agency run by dinosaur climate denialists who actually believe this
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A map of all of the Detroit public library branches (yellow) and the ones that have been closed and/or demolished (red). The priorities of a city.
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@TonyClimate
@SpencerRiehl
@jenreneeshannon
@US_Stormwatch
The amount of mental gymnastics you guys go through to suggest that we shouldn't make common sense decisions to save Americans money and mitigate environmental impact at the same time is just... insane.
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@Eric_Erins
"blame inflation" a.k.a. "we must prolong the business cycle as long as possible even if it breaks the economy"
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this could be us, Detroit, but instead you're *squinting at PDF of master plan document on phone* demolishing historic office buildings to turn them into parking lots?
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People in Michigan really believe that parking makes a city a better place.
And this is one of the reasons why we can't have nice things.
This is a Lansing appreciation post from a mom who lives in Detroit. I can park near the state capitol for meetings because that's a thing you can do here. I'm having tacos for lunch. Then meetings at a world class research university
@michiganstateu
down the street.
#LoveLansing
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@samueljrob
When Midtown Detroit can double its population density instead of being half parking lots we can talk about that
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Detroit is not even in the top 100 or 200 American cities leading on climate and it is reflected in the way the mayor doesn't prioritize it personally-- focusing on on automotive infrastructure and corporate power rather than decarbonization and human-scale interventions.
But, that 10-year vision didn't stop there. A city built on a long-term vision would take a leadership role in fighting climate change!
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Detroit edition
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I am not an expert in this (I may well be an expert) but it seems to me that demolishing all of these buildings is just a stupid waste of money when they could easily be stabilized and renovated for new uses.
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@BryanDGriffin
@GovRonDeSantis
So, the state wants to dictate what Ron DeSantis wants, even if it means contravening the will of communities or the expertise of city planners? That's... interesting.
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Is your Michigan municipality a real city, or is it just six strip malls in a trenchcoat?
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At the
@MichiganDOT
public meeting on the Michigan Ave. redesign:
Me: I'm a little skeptical of this whole public engagement thing
MDOT: why
Me: because for the i-375 renovation, you guys just said "thanks for your opinion but we're definitely not doing that. must be 7 lanes."
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Does it strike anyone--
@MayorMikeDuggan
or
@gretchenwhitmer
, perhaps- that Detroit is bigger than a number of these cities but doesn't even make it onto the bottom of this list?
US bus systems continue to regain riders lost from the pandemic, with total US bus ridership up 10% over the same period in 2023.
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"The NFL Draft will be the biggest event in Detroit history, bringing 100,000 people into the city."
The state fair used to bring 1.2 million people into the city. Granted,
It was spread out over more time, but... still.
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This is an important piece, in part because it's by someone who is very much part of the automotive sector, as opposed to how these pieces are usually by local policy advocates or activists. That should indicate how serious this problem is.
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Wouldn't it be great if the governor cared about something other than cars
Whitmer back in Taiwan to pitch autos, manufacturing investment
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Got to hang out at Michigan Central Station all week and let me say that *June 6th is gonna be amazing*.
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we are going to get flying taxis before we get buses to show up on time, aren't we
MDOT and MI Central have partnered on Detroit's Advanced Aerial Innovation Region, aimed at expanding next-gen aerial mobility and drone technology to Detroit.
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When Ohio is running circles around Michigan on sustainability and urbanism, you know it's bad.
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Things we could have had: A train.
Things we got: The World's Most Sophisticated Roadway, Using Technology That Isn't Compatible With 99.9% Of Cars.
Construction of 'world's most sophisticated roadway' project on 1-94 nearly complete
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@FOX2News
Disappointed that the Big 2.5 can afford to pay out tens of millions of dollars in lavish executive compensation, receive billions in public subsidy, earn tens of billions in profits, and can't afford to pay people fairly.
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Reviewing a zoning proposal: six proposed townhouses proposed to be added on the rear of a few contiguous lots in Corktown. We could do these everywhere (if they could get approval).
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stuff we don't have in Michigan because all
@GovWhitmer
cares about is cars, sprawl, and things that facilitate cars and sprawl.
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The City of Detroit needs to start earning an excise tax on any product sold by a company with Detroit in the name that doesn't operate any part of its business within the city of Detroit.
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There's virtually no new housing supply in spite of the billion dollars from the Ford project. We are thousands of units behind in Corktown and the immediate vicinity and we just don't talk about it.
Corktown property values and rents have surged, but business owners still awaiting boom via
@freep
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A friendly reminder that we spent several billion dollars to get this, instead of spending less money to get fixed route public transit that people would actually use.
Going to a game or event Downtown? Carpool with your friends and utilize the HOV lane to get you there!
From Oakland County, save time and take I-75 downtown, use the HOV/carpool lanes of I-75.
(1/3)
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"why should Detroit ever in any way even consider following the best practices of more prosperous, healthy, safer, more sustainable, more equitable cities"
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The latest from
@nzorach
on why transit electrification is a huge step in modernizing power grids and decarbonizing the economy.
Shoutouts to
@Andy_Levin
@RashidaTlaib
and everyone else pushing for this.
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"I bought a $100,000, 7000-lb vehicle! Carbon crisis? Problem solved!"
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I am once again asking professionals to stop saying "mobility" when they mean "cars".
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Imagine West Vernor not as parking lots and single story storefronts but as six story mixed-use with a diversity of housing options.
A better way is possible.
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Detroit, as she was meant to be seen (on bicycle).
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Whitmer's approach is to subsidize car companies and car infrastructure.
Credible professionals including the handful of genuinely progressive Democrats in the legislature recognize that there are better options.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democratic state lawmakers rarely reveal their disagreements publicly.
But on Michigan’s approach to economic development, it appears there’s a divide.
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Detroit taxpayers are being asked-- again- to spend $300 million on a multi-billion dollar economic development project that includes few guarantees.
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@_CJPROS
We have a driving city because we built a driving city by unbuilding other infrastructure.
Detroit had one of the largest cycling scenes of any city in the world back in the day, and it had one of the best public transit networks of any city in the world at one point as well.
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@GovWhitmer
So, we get a few million out of how many billions spent on roads? Ok.
Remember that the most recent spending package cut the proposal for e-bike incentives to spend that money on a truck stop instead.
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Did you know? Detroit doesn't explicitly prohibit parking in bike lanes. This might explain why the city has such a big-- and completely disregarded, from an enforcement standpoint- problem with it.
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Those woke cities that do woke things like *squints at notes* contributing the majority of the state's GDP
@Sassafrass_84
Being from Michigan, it's Marquette, Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor and sadly Houghton that are the most populated areas of libtardism and that's why we are the way we are. The rest of the state, and it's big, (10 hour drive to Detroit for me) is Red as Red can be.
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"New pedestrian pathway on Belle Isle painted on today" post on /r/Detroit | See full thread and comments:
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Michigan Central: They had their pick of several hundred native plant species and this is the landscaping we get instead? Bro.
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It's wild how often municipal officials will say things that are just demonstrably untrue. "Residents are going to have a vehicle, maybe two"?
How many Detroiters *do not* own or have access to a car? It's gotta be a six-figure number.
“Developers are seeking to create walkable neighborhoods with less parking; that is a great concept but not totally aligned with the reality the usage,” Hutchings said. “(Residents) are going to have a vehicle, maybe two. We need to recalibrate our expectations about parking.”
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Brutal honesty opening day 2 of the planning conference, where 515 professionals are:
"Michigan's population is stagnant. We lost a congressional seat. Young people continue to move out of the state. Planners are at the forefront of this conversation [as we ask what's next]."
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Michigan is losing population; one of the solutions should be to ensure people can get around more affordably.
Instead of spending billions on highways, we could spend money on alternatives for the millions of people in the state who either don't drive or can't afford a car.
@handbuiltcity
Michigan is losing population , 65% of people live paycheck to paycheck. American's don't need more government spending. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Fiscal responsibility > whatever social movement is in vogue with academia.
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We are excited to promote a new grant program offered by
@SDBADET
that will provide $10,000 to property owners to renovate second-floor apartments in Southwest Detroit.
Read about a brief history of mixed-use development, and reach out to learn more!
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Downtown BRT stop with live arrival/departure times, across the street from a sports arena with virtually no surface parking. 😍 This could be us, Detroit.
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"Let's get infrastructure like they have on the east coast"
"We have infrastructure at home"
Left: Philadelphia 30th St. Station (peak population 2.07m)
Right, the infrastructure at home: Detroit Amshack (peak population 1.85m)
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Build what? Missing middle housing and infill? Or more single family sprawl?
From housing to childcare, our plan is simple: build, baby, build!
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Lazy answer: the building fell down because the building department is corrupt
Correct answer: the building fell down because of neglect, which could have been addressed by the building department, which is ineptly managed and underfunded, because it's not an executive priority
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@matthewmaddock
@MDOT_MetroDet
You realize you're the same guy who said that we don't need alternatives to cars because everyone can just take Uber, right?
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mysteriously this comes out only after demolishing all of the historic buildings
Detroit pursues first-ever citywide plan to save its historic buildings
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Michigan has 15% less population than Ohio but more lane miles of highway. That is the kind of thing you're unlikely to hear mainstream journalists talking about.
The land use in this state relative to its population growth is ridiculously inefficient.
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I like that Detroit has an official city historian.
I liked that Detroit had a city storyteller.
These things are important.
I don't like that these folks seem to typically spend an inordinate amount of time defending the mayoral administration from criticism.
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People in Southeast Michigan would rather spend $200,000 on a 867 square foot house built in 1947 in Madison Heights in the middle of a freeway interchange than go to therapy or fix the region's urbanism
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the insane thing is that all of the research shows that lower-income people are more likely to ride bikes, walk, or take the bus, but the farther left you get on the spectrum, any investment in infrastructure for these things is deemed "colonial" or "erasure" or something
So much of “city planning” in Minneapolis is privileged white people who “know best” making decisions and taking actions that actually make it harder for lower-income people and BIPOC people to live in this city. It’s such a deep sickness.
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Good excuse to build cities that aren't entirely reliant on cars!
It's hard to overstate what a crisis the surge in car insurance and car repair is.
Over 90% of US households own a car.
Vehicle insurance is up +22.2% in the past year -->The largest jump since 1976
Vehicle repair is up +11.6%
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Detroit awards development financing package to the dark lord Sauron
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It's not considered controversial to build new housing in cornfields-- it is disingenuous to paint this as controversial when all of a tiny handful of residents out of a whole city showed up to throw a tantrum.
Royal Oak OK’s controversial plan for low-cost apartments as residents rally against it
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Extremely normal for buildings to just collapse.
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The
@CityofDetroit
previously scoffed at the idea that there was some sort of secret MOU governing the relationship between BSEED and landowners like the Ilitches and Morouns-- shortly before admitting to the existence of such an MOU via protracted FOIA.
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We can talk about this being valuable when any Michigan Democrat has lifted a finger to invest in better transportation infrastructure or in decarbonization
ICYMI: Michigan has the second-slowest population growth in the US. Now, Whitmer's making a bet the state's progressive transformation - including major changes to LGBTQ+/abortion policies - could bring more people to the state.
+ the MEDC is advertising in red states to do it:
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This is what's left of the latest Ilitch demolition project in Midtown Detroit.
They are misting the entire site with water because of asbestos and lead dust, the former of which could easily be deposited into any nearby waterway. 🧵
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michiganders saying that the state isn't struggling with talent retention or attraction rn
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It's been all of about 2 days and I'm already sick of hearing about the self-charging electric roadway to charge cars that don't exist.
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@CityofDetroit
Has it struck anyone that it is perhaps inappropriate for the city's official social media account to be basically just a propaganda tool for billionaire developers?
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Americans are some of the most entitled people on the planet for thinking they deserve cheap gas
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And yet, it is still considered controversial to fund basic infrastructure in this state.
Michigan can either be serious about economic development and fund transit, or it can continue to spin its wheels, no pun intended, while the state continues to lose population.
Regarding the resistance to public transit funding and exoansion, Janet Geissler
@MichiganDOT
, is so right. Service workers who service you use transit. You have friends & relatives who use transit. Be more open to how important it is.
#DetroitMoves
#transit
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Remember when Brooks Patterson liken Detroit to an Indian reservation and casually joked about committing genocide against its residents?
"Her father was the late L. Brooks Patterson, a Republican who disparaged urban blight & opposed aid to cities. She's challenging a Democrat with a history of supporting aid to urban areas." This synopsis says it all.
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Love whatever is going on in Clio, SC
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trains and buses, famously, do not have motors
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I always find it impressive how few people are actually willing to publicly call stuff like this out as the vaporware that it is.
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@fox32news
WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE OPPRESSED-- hold up- *checks notes* AMERICANS OF WHITE EUROPEAN HERITAGE
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When
@RideDDOT
doesn't have it together and
@MayorMikeDuggan
would rather spend money on corporate welfare, the citizens of Detroit sometimes it take it upon themselves to install signage on bus stops.
@MotorCityFR
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@PAforAction
@GovernorShapiro
How about we fund public education instead of charter schools and private schools? Crazy, I know.
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Fellas, what's stopping you from looking like this?
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