12/23/14 - 12/31/14 Arts and Urbanism Roundup

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

Pittsburgh

Theft count upheld against Pittsburgh police detective (Action 4 News)

Western Pennsylvania police chief gets lucrative buyout, despite scathing report (Pennsylvania Independent)

Fights close Monroeville Mall (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Pittsburgh based bike Magazine, Urban Vello shuts down (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Penn Avenue in Garfield reopens to two way traffic after years of construction (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Beaver County, Pennsylvania

Ohioville borough's former police chief falsified and forged records to increase state aid (Pennsylvania Independent)

Cleveland

Cleveland NAACP calls emergency meeting of lawyers to address police misconduct, protect protestors (Cleveland.com)

Evaluation of officer who killed 12 year old, Tamir Rice, raised many red flags

Cleveland's "I can't breath" police case happened four years ago (Cleveland.com)

Cleveland police union defends fired cop, saying others did far worse (Cleveland.com)

East Cleveland cell phone service provider cuts off service for non-payment as city considers bankruptcy (Kentucky.com)

Operator of Cincinnati and Cleveland casinos on the brink of bankruptcy (Cincinnati.com)

Filmmakers launch Kickstarter for documentary about Cleveland's Swingo's Celebrity Inn (Cleveland Scene)

Review: Kirk Mangus/ Things Love survey show of the late Ohio ceramicist @ MOCA Cleveland (Art Hopper)

Other Pennsylvania Urbanism and Transit news

10 charged in major PennDOT corruption probe (Philly.com)

Pennsylvania legislator  used taxpayer dollars to advance his acting career (The Morning Call)

Pennsylvania considers handing York School District to charter operator (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Other Police Abuse, Corruption and Civil Liberties news

Rand Paul will bring up police militarization in Senate next year (BuzzFeed News)

Horrifying civil liberties predictions for 2015 (Washington Post)

Two architects of "broken widows" policing go on the defensive (CityLab)

Tension rises after police shoot another black teen near Ferguson, Missouri (Reuters)

Off duty, black cops in NY feel threat from fellow police (Reuters)

No charges against Lodi California police in killing of mentally ill man (CBS Sacramento)

New Mexico cop arrested for Christmas Eve sexual assault (New York Daily News)

Alleged towing kickbacks land Miami cops in hot water (Miami Herald)

Ex-Baltimore cop alleges retaliation for reporting police brutality  (Reason)

In Brooklyn gun cases, suspicion turns to the police (The New York Times)

Family of toddler injured in Georgia Swat raid faces over $1 million in medical bills (Think Progress)

Washington state police gain more military firepower (Seattle Times)

Want to cut down on police brutality? Make police pay for their own misbehavior (The Week)

The NYC police union has a long history of bullying City Hall (CityLab)

E-Cig users and vapers need to join anti-drug war movement (Huffington Post)

Drug War fuels rather than fights crime (StandardSpeaker.com)

Law enforcement now inspecting sewage for clues about community drug use

Other Urbanism and Transit news

New Jersey is a terrible place for small businesses, analysis finds (NJ.com)

"Social urbanism" experiment breaths new life into Columbia's Medellin (The Globe and Mail)

The smartest cities rely on citizen cunning and unglamorous technology (The Guardian)

Rise in loans linked to cars is hurting poor (The New York Times)

Florida passes New York to become the 3rd most populous state (US Census Bureau)

San Diego urbanism took a beating in 2014 (Opinion) (Voice of San Diego)

2014's dumbest local ordinances (CityLab)

How the San Diego suburb of Vista, California became the capitol of craft beer (CityLab)

Other Arts, Architecture and Archeology news

Deaccessioning crisis has UK museums group contemplating stricter guidelines (Hyperallergic)

A new book argues quilts are art  (Hyperallergic)

Dizzying dioramas of the world's major cities (Hyperallergic)

Tim Burton's "Big Eyes" takes a look at art fraud (The Art Newspaper)

Year of record sales but at what cost to the art? (The Art Newspaper)

Cuba's art scene awaits a travel boom  (The New York Times)

Hello! Exploring the superweird world of Hello Kitty (Boing Boing)

20 years of street photography shows people around the world are pretty boring (CityLab)

It's been a big year for outrage in public art (CityLab)

The art world's patron satan (The New York Times Magazine)

The 15 weirdest and wildest art stories of 2014 (Artnet News)

Japanese "vagina kayak" artist indicted, faces up to two years in prison (Artnet News)

Son of former Beatles manager wins $1 million art lawsuit (Artnet News)