Brooklyn Banks in 2009, before New York City formally invested in the space as a public plaza by zombieite licensed under Creative Commons.

Major cities are embracing skating as a way to revitalize public spaces. How the cityhood movement may be reinforcing segregation in Lousiana and beyond. Amtrak and Brightline compete for service in Ohio.

Making new spaces for skateboarding: Cities around the world are rethinking skateboard infrastructure as a way to make empty plazas and neglected spaces more vibrant and welcoming for people. Officials in New York, San Francisco, and Paris are building skating-friendly public spaces as the sport becomes more accepted thanks to the X Games and the inclusion of skating at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Gary Moskowitz | Reasons to be Cheerful)

Morphing policies that allow segregation: The Louisiana Supreme Court recently opened the door for the creation of St. George, a city of 90,000 people who live in previously unincorporated areas near Baton Rouge. The ruling is a win for the cityhood movement, which Peter Saunders, the article’s author, describes as a practice where majority-white areas draw new boundaries to exert more local control amid an influx of Black residents. Saunders believes the creation of cityhood, as seen in St. George, is just a new way to entrench segregation. (Pete Saunders | Corner Side Yard)

Competing intercity rail ideas: Legacy intercity rail operator Amtrak and up-and-comer Brightline are competing for a chance to operate rail between major cities in Ohio. However, state officials there are reticent to build and operate a passenger rail system, which is required for Amtrak to provide service. Brightline, unlike Amtrak, can finance, build, and operate its rail lines, and may also lobby elected officials to build support. (Ken Prendergast | Neo-trans Blog)

How do I find my third place: Third places, gathering spots of friends and acquaintances that aren’t home or work, were made famous by a 1989 book, The Great Good Place, written by Ray Oldenburg. Third places were disappearing even before the pandemic, but an epidemic of loneliness is highlighting their importance now more than ever. As cities change and people gather in new ways, reimagining what third places can be could be essential to our collective wellbeing. (Allie Volpe | Vox)

‘Second Best’ traffic safety efforts: Much-needed traffic safety efforts are often frustrated by governments that are structurally biased against change. To make progress for safer streets, Gregory Shill, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, suggests that sidestepping big political obstacles to implement ‘second best’ changes can save lives by focusing on easy wins and low-hanging fruit. He highlights the installation of bollards and better streetlights as examples of easy-to-implement infrastructure. (Gregory Shill | Bloomberg CityLab)

Quote of the Week

“Travel behavior has a lot of inertia, it doesn’t change a lot. So when you find things that get it to the double-digits of shifts in travel behavior, it’s pretty remarkable.”

Alex Bigazzi in CTV News discusses a study showing a decrease in driving by 30 to 40% after buying an e-bike with local rebates.

This week on the podcast, we chat in two parts with Minneapolis developer Jim Kumon about development projects, zoning reform, and crowdfunding.