Link dump on municipal consolidations underway in Michigan
Several communities around the state are having conversations about mergers between municipalities, ranging from Onekama Village and Township (total population 24th largest city in the United States,...
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Ypsi (city) foreclosure rate curving downwards
A few posts ago, I suggested that sale prices of houses in Ypsilanti are starting to swing up over the last few months. How about the other popular metric of the housing market--the...
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Ypsilanti: consider cash bounties for vacant/foreclosed home rehab
I'm going to make a suggestion that sounds absurd on its face, in Ypsilanti's current heated battle over cutting costs vs. raising taxes: the city should hand out $10,000 cash grants to people who...
View ArticleHouseone history: the Schellinger family, 1940
Records from the 1940 Census were released earlier this month, 72 years after the Census was taken, and you can find full, house-by-house data online via the National Archives, in the form of scanned...
View ArticleEconomic development benefits of street trees
Over on MarkMaynard.com, there's an interview with Ypsilanti City Planner Teresa on all things street tree: the trees added to West Cross as part of the recent streetscaping project, the city's tree...
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Ypsi area home prices, 2006-2012
Just realized it's been a year since I posted a compilation and chart of Ypsi-area home sales prices from the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors monthly reports. Here's the updated chart, with the latest...
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W(h)ither the electoral college?
All this is available elsewhere, but as a trusted source, I'll oblige an election night party request for a math-with-murph explaining the electoral college, the short form is that the EC exists...
View ArticleWhat's this RTA thing I'm suddenly hearing about, and what does it mean for...
This past week, the Michigan legislature passed bills to create a Regional Transit Authority for metro Detroit—Oakland, Wayne, Macomb and Washtenaw Counties. This long-overdue legislation has been...
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Family Dollar on E. Michigan Ave?
Ypsi has had a lot of discussion lately about whether it would be appropriate to sell an acre of city-owned land on East Michigan to a developer to build a standalone "Family Dollar" dollar store. Much...
View Article"Affordable housing" for Water Street, and Ypsilanti's dreams of gentrification
I was asked for my thoughts on this proposal for Ypsilanti's Water Street property, which would put a 76 apartment development on a 3 acre chunk (pdf) at the rear of the site. The piece of ground in...
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