12/17/14 - 12/22/14 Arts and Urbanism Roundup

Note: Weekly news again dominated by police brutality and abuse issues. Hopefully, this will not always be the case.

The Pittsburgh City Paper did an excellent 3 part story on problems with the city's unmarked. "99 cars".

Pittsburgh

99 problems: What public records reveal about the city's unmarked police units
 (Pittsburgh City Paper)

Police records show "99 units" lack department-wide mission, regulation, oversight (Pittsburgh City Paper)

Run-in with Jordan Miles wasn't first controversial incident for three 99-car cops (Pittsburgh City Paper)

Councilman seeks to prevent Pittsburgh police from acquiring surplus military equipment (Pittsburgh Tribune Review)

Oakmont's businesses, walkability gain notice of empty-nesters, downsizers (Pittsburgh Tribune Review)

Cleveland

Scenes from the Department of Justice investigation into the Cleveland Police Department (Belt Magazine)

Cleveland police officer accused of shoving girlfriend down stairs, knocking her unconscious (Cleveland.com)

Made in Cleveland: The rise of the maker economy in Cleveland (Cleveland Scene)

Why I left Los Angeles for this (Belt Magazine)

Fodor's names Cleveland a top 25 travel destination (Freshwater Cleveland)

Stepping up efforts to create a more livable, connected downtown (Freshwater Cleveland)

Ashtabula, Ohio

Couple moves from NYC, turns old meat market into dining destination (Cleveland Scene)

Other Ohio Urbanism, Arts and Transit news

Columbus, Ohio "complete streets" engineer and intern run over on downtown sidewalk (Streetsblog USA)

Other Pennsylvania Urbanism, Arts and Transit news

Pennsylvania police seize couple's $160,000 wine collection, want to destroy it all (Reason)

D.A. charges 2 Pennsylvania lawmakers with corruption in sting (Philly.com)

PA state legislators commonly engaged in jobs, investments that benefit from their office (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Recusals are rare in Pennsylvania Legislature (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

West Virginia and Appalachia

Appalachian Christmas traditions are still alive (Wilkes Journal-Patriot)

Parade will bring Appalachian dancing to Brooklyn (The Brooklyn Paper)

Other Urbanism and Transit news

Perth Amboy, New Jersey police chief charged with theft, suspended without pay (NJ.com)

Former Louisiana police officer indicted for multiple incidents of assault (US Department of Justice)

Oregon State Police detective pleads guilty to forgery, destroying evidence in major case (KATU.com)

NYC, cop accused of stealing and pawning jewelry stolen from boyfriend's mom

NYPD cop suspended after video shows brutality (The Chicago Tribune)

Former Saratoga County, NY Sheriff's deputy sentenced for dealing drugs (Albany Times Union)

Police killings increase calls for independent investigations (Times News)

Former suburban Chicago deputy police chief found guilty in brutality case (CBS Chicago)

Police violence sparks disability rights movement (Al Jazeera News)

Gunman executes 2 New York cops in "Garner Revenge" (New York Post)

How corrupt is your state government? (Acton Institute)

The rules of engagement: How militarized police units enforce the law around the world (Washington Post)

How far will cop unions go to halt reform? (Reason)

Millennials fleeing government employment (Reason)

Is Ann Arbor affordable? Nope. (And that's official) (SE-ME Start-Up)

Why the rent is too high, reason #239 (The Urbanophile)

High-end home sales surging in Southern California (Contra Costa Times)

A scary sign that more colleges may be forced to shut down football programs (Business Insider)

The simple change to truck design that could save lives (Streetsblog NYC)

To build safer streets, cities have to challenge state departments of transportation (Streetsblog)

Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct (elevated highway) must come down

The importance of driving to the US economy started waning in the 1970's (Streetsblog)

Other Arts and Archeology news

Brazil's most popular film is about militarized police

After outcry, Flickr stops selling prints of creative commons photos (Hyperallergic)

The Tate Museum digitizes 52,000 artifacts from the lives of British artists (Hyperallergic)

The lost histories of women at war: photo essay (Hyperallergic)

The physics of Pollock (Hyperallergic)

Mexican museum overwhelmed by popularity of Yayoi Kusama retrospective (The Art Newspaper)

Syria and Iraq's neighbors can help contain the looting (The Art Newspaper)

Uzbekistan museum staff replaced collection with forgeries, then sold originals (Artnet News)