Michigan
Proposal N, on the ballot for Detroit voters next week, will provide $160 million in bond funding for demolitions and $90 million to mothball homes for future rehab, but, according to this opinion, it won't solve the city's blight challenges.
Detroit Free Press
The city of Detroit said it would halt a demolition program after a report revealed the amount of lead released by demolitions into the environment, risking the health of children and other local residents.
Detroit Free Press
Detroit officials have been trying to find a new life for the former site of the Michigan State Fair for a long time. Amazon will fill the void, according to a redevelopment proposal announced last week.
Detroit Free Press
Urban planning decisions about highway placement in Detroit damaged Black communities. Nithin Vejendla shares an opinion about how to address this legacy and move toward justice.
Detroit Free Press
A tide that began to rise in 2019 hasn't receded, according to local sources along Lake Michigan.
Detroit Free Press
The search for new road funding continues in Michigan.
Detroit Free Press
Separate coronavirus studies from the University of California at Berkeley and Imperial College London published June 8 in the journal Nature show the life and health-saving value of domestic stay-at-home orders, global lockdowns, and other measures.
The Washington Post
After a series of failures last week sent flood waters spilling into Midland County, Michigan, property owners in the area are filing class action lawsuits to recoup their losses.
Detroit Free Press
The dam failures that sent residents of Michigan scrambling last week can be connected to the extreme weather events created by climate change, according to experts.
Inside Climate News
Reports of catastrophic infrastructure failure today in Michigan, a state already facing some of the worst consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
CNN
The planner who wrote the book on the emerging practice of scenario planning offers advice on how the tool can be helpful in planning for the pandemic.
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
After a 22% drop in housing starts in March, municipalities and state governments continue to assess whether or not housing construction is essential, weighing factors like workforce safety and availability of construction materials.
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University
Five historic projects encapsulate a transit-oriented version of Southeastern Michigan that almost could have been.
Curbed Detroit
A report by the Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) shows a decrease in environmental enforcement in six Midwest states. The ELPC calls for increased funding. The EPA states the claims errors in data reporting are responsible for the drop.
Urban Milwaukee
As some governors open nonessential businesses, subjecting workers and customers to potential viral infection, others move beyond social distancing to the next steps, boxing in the coronavirus with testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine.
The Washington Post
The Ann Arbor City Council wants a more specific consideration of expenses before it will hold a final vote on the A2Zero carbon neutrality plan.
MLive
Communities have demanded access to clean water for decades, in some cases. The coronavirus pandemic is compounding the struggle and illustrating the inadequacy of most local government responses.
Vox
After initially saying that he had total authority on how and when to reopen the economy, Trump handed the responsibility to the 50 governors to make their own decisions and offered guidance in the form of a three-phase plan that relies on testing.
The New York Times
Public health experts were pleased that Trump extended his coronavirus guidelines, but they remain advisory, left to state and local governments to implement. Nine states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders, leaving the nation vulnerable to COVID.
The Hill
All eyes are fixed on New York City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak with its skyrocketing deaths, but the six counties with the highest number of coronavirus deaths per capita are in two Southern states as of April 1. Manhattan is #7.
The Washington Post
