Dustin 🚌🚶‍♂️🚲

Spent some time walking around downtown Detroit this afternoon. Most of the 2010s projects that were ongoing when I left in 2022 are complete (Hudson’s Site, Book Tower, a few smaller buildings) but it doesn’t seem that there’s much that’s new, which is a crazy contrast to my first time here in 2019 whew every block seemed to have something going on. The UM building and the convention center hotel are the only new construction going up, it seems, and all the buildings that were vacant when I left are still vacant. My old office tower, the Michigan Building, looks like it might be totally empty now too. Retail vacancies are about the same, maybe slightly down at best. The qline hasn’t upgraded its ROW and the cars are already aging fast. It’s a bit of whiplash for me after spending last week in Austin where the 2020s have had explosive physical growth downtown & everything was both new and packed. I don’t know if the pandemic just crushed office occupancy and made downtown less desirable to live in, or if the low hanging fruit has been plucked and now Gilbert has pulled back, or what, but the vibrancy and promise of the 2010s seems to have slacked off.

15 Chicago wards experienced zero traffic fatalities in 2025 under Mayor Brandon Johnson's Complete Streets initiative.

American city parks have a SERIOUS deficiency of vendors selling tasty treats, so it's cool to see a new place popping up in Central Park to grab a pastry and a coffee.

Should’ve kept this as a public space . Would’ve been the perfect place for teens to hangout downtown .

This is crazy American worker “I've been working in Chicago for a while now. I've only heard stories of the wooden water mains, but today I finally found one” “Check that out. All wood crazy” Chicago has had public water delivered by wooden water mains…. These mains have been being slowly decommissioned and replaced with modern ones, some just being replaced as early as 2020

Hey New York, no one likes unnecessary scaffolding. Thankfully, we have a plan — and John Wilson is here to help break it down.

What is stopping humanity from living peacefully together?

There's a pavement near me which the tree roots have seriously raised up. One has to step over it. Many councils would consider chopping the tree down. Instead, why not fill the area with bountiful planting and create a pavement bypass. More function and more beauty.

neighborhood locals have used a street construction closure as an opportunity for pop up street party with DJ and drinks

Splendid streetware! An electrical distribution cabinet of 1926.

The trick to reducing roadway deaths is actually very simple: slow down the cars. It's the reason densely populated cities like Hoboken and Helsinki have so few traffic fatalities and injuries. Freeways aren't the danger; high speed surface streets are.