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1865 Cancelled Check from First National Bank of Pontiac
This and 100 other checks fell from the ceiling of 33 N Saginaw, Pontiac in 2016 as we renovated this old jewelry store building. It was...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Box Builders
My day as a welder in the Box Studio was not a long day. The heat, fumes and lack of skill made it clear that banking might be a better...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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This is a Good Sign
This mural was painted with $35 in spray paint, to cover up some 'bad words' and a skull and cross bones. It has lasted for over 5 years,...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Get Over Your Historic T-111 siding
This shit hole, foreclosed home was, well, a money pit. We bought it off Fannie Mae and poured in sweat and money until it looked like...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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M1 Concourse: Car Lover's Disneyland
I'm proud to have met Brad Oleshansky early in 2013. He was looking for a land site to build DisneyWorld for car lovers, and I got it...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Politics When People Spoke Civilly
This is US Congressman David Trott, and Israeli Knesset member Orin Hasan speaking in the Indian Hill Wine Cellar in 2015. Tzvi Koslowe...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Red Dawn - Chinese paid to make The Koreans the enemy
The original Red Dawn Film (circa 1984) was about the Russians invading America. It was a pivotal movie in my childhood fears. In 2012 it...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Iceland Urbanism and Daylight at Midnight
A National Geographic film crew arrived just as we landed in Iceland. Their adventure would be more interesting than our stop-over, but...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Urban Excavating
In 2012 we discovered a tunnel under the street in the bowels of an old building at 31 N Saginaw, Pontiac. Below what today is a wine...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Why Goat Scaping Should be the Norm
Goats eat garbage, and they like it. Goats eat poison ivy, all the way down to the roots, and they like it. Goats fertilize your grass...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Innovation Does Not Come From Following Rules
There once was a one-way street in downtown Pontiac. It no longer exists. No one has ever complained. How the street became two-way and...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Searching in Asian Backwaters for Pontiac's Next Act
Deputy Economic Director Matthew Gibb of Oakland County, Michigan invited me on a trade mission to China which would change my world view...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Pop-Up Retail
At the former United Way office building at 50 Wayne, Pontiac MI in 2012 we popped up this amazing art gallery in 24 hours for the...
bob waun
Sep 16, 20201 min read
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Destruction is Progress...
Flint, MI coined this phrase when it under took an aggressive de-urbanization, blight removal and demolition program. Hundreds of...
bob waun
Sep 8, 20201 min read
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Remapping a city when you can't start from scratch
"Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat the mistakes of the past." As statues topple in our cities, is history being...
bob waun
May 2, 20201 min read
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Getting High(er)
Vast. On a cross country flight, America is vast. The cities dot the greenery below. As night falls the lights resemble the map on the...
bob waun
May 2, 20201 min read
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Start with Art
Artist see what other people don't. That's art. We've watched this trend in urban renewal. The area gets 'run down', becomes super cheap,...
bob waun
May 2, 20201 min read
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