Urban Technology at University of Michigan Week -20
Pausing to celebrate the high school students who are almost done with their senior year + 3 questions for Marc Norman
Monday was a big day for us because it marked the close of the admissions window for our very first cohort of undergraduates! Congratulations to all of the high school seniors who are finishing up their studies and thinking about the future.
We’re processing application materials now and for those who are curious about how such a process works, here’s actual footage:
If you need a break from whatever you’re doing, find the full length copy of Fischli & Weiss’s video The Way Things Go at your local library or rent it here.
Yes, lots of moving parts and a good amount of hustle and then we’ll have answers, we stuff them into envelopes and emails, and shoot them off to our applicants. Once that’s done, this whole endeavor becomes extra real. The minute we send acceptance letters is when this changes from a thought experiment to a promise—a very important promise to our students that, while we may have experience and expertise, we will grow as they grow, and question as they question.
Hello! I’m Bryan Boyer, Director of the Urban Technology degree at University of Michigan that will welcome its first students in the 2021-2022 academic year. If you’re new here, try this 90 second video introduction. While we launch the program, we’re using this venue to explore themes and ideas related to our studies. Thanks for reading. Have questions about any of this? Hit reply and let us know.
🏢 3 Questions for Marc Norman
Marc specializes in affordable housing and community development and teaches in Urban Planning at Michigan. With deep experience at major financial institutions, he has helped put together the financing for some $400 million dollars of affordable housing. What does that have to do with urban technology? Innovations in how urban projects are financed; how they’re operated and how those costs are accounted for; and the self-governance of communities within buildings, districts, and neighborhoods are prime areas of opportunity to carefully employ technology. How much strength do you think it took to resist asking Marc about blockchain? A lot!
Q. What’s your favorite city and why?
Hands down, The city of Fez in Morocco. It has two distinct parts, the "old" city which dates to 9th century and the "Nouvelle Ville" which was an expansion in the 20th century. What I love is that it is easy to get lost in its maze like medina, but every street and alley is alive and surprising and bustling with activity. Most of the city's paths are too small for cars, but it is a modern and thriving place. In the U.S. we have separated our activities meaning we many times have to travel for each different task. In Fez the factory, market, home and school are snuggled up next to each other.
Q. Should people who study urban technology learn about real estate also?
Technology can take the form of abstract concepts such as formulas, algorithms and theories, but urban technology has to touch down on the places where we live, work, travel or play. Once technology hits the ground, it has to interact with land, property, and markets. If you understand the ways land and buildings are built, financed, owned, rented or leased you can have a greater impact on how technology can create better, more equitable places. Technologists don't have to be real estate experts, but they should definitely understand the field’s concepts and vocabulary.
Q. You’re an expert on affordable housing. Is there any way that technology can help make housing more affordable?
To be frank, policy makes housing more affordable, not technology. If we look at the places where housing is decent, safe and affordable, it is in places where policy creates these outcomes. This could be providing funds to fill the gap between the cost of building a dwelling unit and what a family can afford, or creating the flexibility to build a variety of different housing types for different incomes and household configurations. If the right policies are in place technology can expand affordability or help to create a bigger impact. I'll give you one example. Many cities won't let you create an additional small unit for grandparents who need assistance or for young people just starting their careers. Where it is allowed, technology has been deployed to create new housing types, cheaper energy solutions and innovative materials to lower costs and expand opportunity. Editor’s note: Detroit is poised to revise its zoning later this year to allow Additional Dwelling Units!
🧱 Builds
🛴 In week -43 we posted Kevin Webb’s epic read on policing and data. This would also be a good companion piece for last week’s thinking about algo-NIMBYism inspired by r/wallstreetbets.
🐚 In week -24 we looked at Google’s plans for downtown San Jose. Compare and contrast with Amazon’s HQ2 announcement from this week. Not much urban tech mentioned here either, though it’s almost certainly coming. Will Amazon-owned Zoox vehicles, designed specifically for ride-hail services in dense urban environments, be part of the plan? BTW, Aicha Evans is the first African American female CEO of an AV company.
Links
🗺 City Roads draws the road network of a city and let’s you download it as a customizable image or… get it printed on a mug?!? Here’s Fez. Enrich your powerpoints, urbanists!
🌳 Paris is planning to dramatically reconfigure the Champs-Élysées into an “extraordinary garden.” Yes, more rethinking real estate like this, please.
💰 Urban Us is a venture fund that was one of the first (maybe the actual first?) to focus on urban tech. In this essay they open up about how they make investments.
🤖 You may have seen GM commit to going electric by 2035 and release a new (unfortunate) logo, but did you also see that they will be making an “electric pallet” and a rapid load delivery vehicle? The video here shows an end to end system for moving goods from factory to—umm—factory? Rather than try to own the last mile like Starship, they appear to be working on making the middle miles of the supply chain more seamless. GM also seems to be picking a fight with 🇳🇴?
🛒 In most places delivery robots are just robots, but in Pennsylvania the same equipment will be classified as pedestrians. The city of Pittsburgh, a center of AV research, is not too happy about being pre-empted by the state though. Cities are still figuring out how to regulate these things.
This week: Lots of reply-all emails. Some scheduling. Five inches of snow on the ground in Detroit. 🏃♂️