Last year I completed a research project on evictions in Michigan, conducted in collaboration with attorney Libby Benton and others at the Michigan Advocacy Project, a legal aid organization. This page summarizes the project, which resulted in a report and policy brief, released in May 2020. Today the academic paper produced by this project, “Eviction […]
MIT Dissertation on Planning Support Systems and Return to Michigan
I have a couple personal announcements I thought I should make here. On May 22nd I successfully defended my dissertation, and last week I graduated from the PhD program at the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. The complete 271-page document will be available on MIT’s DSpace in several months, and I will post […]
Lights Out For Free Public Goods?
Most American local governments and transit agencies are struggling to balance their finances. In addition to the economic downturn, revenues are often limited by property tax limits or political resistance to tax or fee increases. Meanwhile, costs have been ballooning. Many fixed costs, such as the price of energy, health care, and other employee benefits […]
Announcements
I’m long overdue posting here about a couple big announcements in my life. First and most importantly, last December, Libby and I got engaged. Longtime readers will know her from her occasional cameos among the wonkyness, or of course from real life! When we met at Michigan, we bonded over a shared interest in upside-down […]
Watching the Results Online
I’ll be using CNN’s Election Center to tract results tonight, they let you drill down to the county level as well as pre-select your races to watch. Google has this map. 6:59 PM: The New York Times county-level national presidential map includes historical data back to 1992. 7:25 PM: Here’s my favorite poll closing time […]
Green Gas?
One of the most interesting things that happened on my recent trip to the west coast occurred looking for a restroom. After pulling off I-5 south of Portland, Oregon, I missed the turn-in for a name brand gas station. I noticed another up ahead. My girlfriend Libby was skeptical. I peered ahead. “It has a […]
Jaywalking … to Jail?
About a month ago I was walking around the city on a Saturday with my girlfriend Libby. We were walking east on P Street and approached the intersection with 22nd. Traffic was light, and the street is one way. We stopped, and looked to the right — no cars were coming. I looked to the […]