Child and adult walking on a sidewalk by Susan Jane Golding licensed under Creative Commons.

A new open-source tool to map sidewalks. How electric vehicle batteries can be repurposed for our cities. How red states preempt blue cities.

Mapping more sidewalks in cities: Researchers from multiple universities have created an open-source tool that maps sidewalks in cities using aerial photos and recognition software. Most cities don’t have comprehensive data on sidewalks, so this could be a welcome addition for planners and city officials seeking to repair or bolster sidewalks or focus their efforts on active transportation. (Peter Dizikes | MIT News)

Giving electric vehicle batteries a second life: Once electric car batteries outlive their useful life in electric cars, they are still useful in other ways and can keep about 80% of their charge. This allows them to be used for other applications such as solar storage or powering street lights and elevators. As more and more electric cars are manufactured, there’s a need to figure out what will happen to their batteries after their usefulness to cars is up. (Peter Yeung | Reasons to be Cheerful)

Red states’ preemption of blue cities is increasing: States with more Republican elected officials are clashing with cities that elect Democrats. Red states across the country are seeking to limit policies such as rent stabilization, minimum wage increases, and school curriculum. Many of the topics are tuned to politics and culture war issues but could also have a corrosive effect on democracy if people with more local issues feel their voices can’t be heard by legislators at higher levels of government. (Monica Potts | FiveThirtyEight)

LA transit challenged by drugs, homelessness: In Los Angeles, the transit system is suffering from low ridership and many are staying away, in part, because of worries about going into subway cars with people sleeping and using drugs like fentanyl. This isn’t a new phenomenon but with fewer people riding trains and buses, the visibility of problems is more pronounced. Officials want to make trains more inviting but are worried about the impacts of bringing more law enforcement to deal with social issues. (Rachel Uranga | Los Angeles Times)

Why didn’t Minneapolis gobble up its suburbs?: The Twin Cities metropolitan area is one of the largest in the country, but Minneapolis itself is smaller than many other similarly sized metropolitan center cities at just 450,000 people. If combined with sister city St. Paul, the city would be bigger, but ultimately, failed annexation efforts over the last 70 years and surveying systems over the last 150 years have limited boundary growth. (Eric Roper and MaryJo Webster | Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Quote of the Week

“We’re really good at responding and arresting somebody for drugs or assaults or thefts or burglaries, but of course, they get out of jail and recidivism happens. We think that through this process [of neighborhood design] we’ll be able to prevent crimes rather than just responding to crimes.”

Delta County Colorado Sheriff Mark Taylor in Rocky Mountain PBS talking about a new grant program funding city projects as a crime deterrent.

This week on the podcast, we’re joined by Dr. Diane Jones Allen, program director for Landscape Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.