Category: Detroit
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Gauche
Read more: GaucheWill someone please teach Michigan drivers how to make a left-hand turn at an intersection? As reference for everyone in every other state, and every other country, Michigan uniquely has a traffic tactic for left-hand turns called, of course, a Michigan left. Instead of turning left at the intersection, it requires you to go through…
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What’s Wrong with Detroit’s Proposed Airbnb Regulation
Read more: What’s Wrong with Detroit’s Proposed Airbnb RegulationThere are issues with how the implementation of Airbnb has evolved. Those issues should be addressed. But the regulation, as proposed, achieves little of that. In fact, what it mostly achieves is robbing those who arguably are the best examples of the model, while rewarding those who are the almost exclusive problem. I rent a…
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The Elephant in the CNU (Art 1)
Read more: The Elephant in the CNU (Art 1)Recently, I was privileged to receive a registration waiver for the CNU27 conference in Louisville. I was delighted to be able to go, delighted to explore Louisville, and variably delighted to participate in some of the sessions. But there are a lot of elephants we need to talk about – in the microcosm of New…
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Engage the Terrain
Read more: Engage the TerrainIn my final semester of a dual graduate degree, I am engaged in two planning activities which are not quite real projects, but also not completely thought-exercises. They are also not quite professional practice, nor completely academic. These categories matter more than you might imagine. There have been many interesting observations about how these categories…
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Urbanist Series – Blood and Soil
Read more: Urbanist Series – Blood and SoilOne of the advantages in looking at community organizing and development through the field of social work is that it consistently invites you to dilate the lens from micro to macro. I am always intrigued, for example, by how communities act collectively in ways which reflect certain psychological types. Drawing from the strength of interdisciplinary…
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Just Whip It
Read more: Just Whip ItI moved to Detroit partly in response to a subconscious nudge which can never genuinely be broken down in rational terms: these nudges are Gestalt. But mentally, I expected Detroit to present every form of social questioning, and so it does. Daily, in just the small sphere of my particular neighborhood, sweeping issues of fundamental…
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The City Corner, a Crux and Axis
Read more: The City Corner, a Crux and AxisDetroit is a unique city in that, aesthetically, it’s not a city at all. It looks, to an eye trained for urban markers, like a suburb which has a size problem and unusual industrial impact. Few commercial corridors exist in relation to the sprawling expanse of yarded homes; of those which do exist, even fewer…
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My Airbnb: Hostess with the Someness
Read more: My Airbnb: Hostess with the SomenessI lived in diaspora from 2011-2014, traveling extensively while working internationally and engaging in barter agreements for housing while I went through my first post-bac program. When I entered my current graduate degree program and finally settled into my own place again, I decided that I would enjoy visitors through Airbnb, and it would additionally…
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The Master’s Tools: Subversive Planning in the Self-Help Revolution
Read more: The Master’s Tools: Subversive Planning in the Self-Help RevolutionNobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a [hu]man, you take it.-Malcolm X Introduction There is no planning that is separate from the essential function to make the human experience better: this inherently requires equity and justice. There are many divergent beliefs in how “better” may…
