Michigan
There's good but guarded news on drinking water. Lead levels are lower, below the federal action threshold, but residents are advised not to drink it without using filters. A federal state of emergency in effect since January was lifted Sunday.
Michigan Radio
Detroit is looking for ideas to make it easier to revitalize neighborhood main streets.
The Detroit News
The San Francisco Transformation Agency is tired of watching cyclists and pedestrians die while the city promises more Vision Zero improvements.
KQED
The board of the Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority found a compromise and managed to get a regional transit plan onto the ballot for voters to consider in November.
Detroit Free Press
A $4.7 billion regional transportation plan died at the hands of suburban interests around Detroit last week. An op-ed describes the action as the same kind of racial disharmony that defined the mid- and late-20 century.
Detroit Free Press
From St. Louis to Baltimore, the Rustbelt Cities are seeing a growing population of millennials as a possible cure to shrinking populations and stagnating economies.
Stateline
The idea behind the "Racial Equity Here" initiative: dismantle systematic racial inequality.
Next City
A recent spate of articles has pondered the concepts and planning strategies at work in the region of the country described as the Rust Belt.
Notes from the Underground
Feature
It has been 20 years since the city of Birmingham, Michigan approved the Birmingham 2016 Master Plan. Robert J. Gibbs, one of the planners on a team that included Andrés Duany, describes the decisions and process that contributed to the plan.
Where they are, what they're like, and what they mean for the city.
WDET
Operated by Canadian oil giant Enbridge, Line 5 is an underwater pipeline running beneath the Mackinac Straits, which connect Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. A rupture in the aging pipes could mean catastrophe.
Pacific Standard
If Detroit needs to be "rebuilt" or "reimagined," why not do so around a walkable, convenient ideal? A compact Motor City where essential goods and services are available within a 20-minute walk?
Detroit Free Press
Five U.S. cities will examine how their government operations impact people of color, and come up with solutions to advance racial equity.
Living Cities
A volunteer organization called The Mission Continues connects veterans with volunteer work around the country. The healing power of their efforts goes both ways.
Fox 2
Five of the nine experienced cyclists who were mowed down by a pickup truck on a rural road in Kalamazoo on June 7 died. While most bike crashes occur on urban roads, there are hidden dangers in biking in uncongested rural areas.
The Huffington Post
Inside big redevelopment plans for Brush Park in Detroit—one of the neighborhoods attracting investment attention from Dan Gilbert.
The Architect's Newspaper
A pilot project combining the brain power and political will of the Detroit’s water department, Land Bank Authority, and the University of Michigan recently completed the first of four vacant lots into beautiful and functional bioretention gardens.
The Detroit News
A new report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration documents the increasing frequency of nuisance floods and "clear-sky flooding."
USA Today
A web tool that helped Detroit develop a housing plan may ultimately provide public data on every parcel in the country.
The Washington Post
Stony Island, located next to Grosse Ile in the Detroit River, is the location for an ongoing habitat restoration effort.
Detroit Free Press
