August 11: New Camden waterfront park | Pedestrian death map | Wm Penn High School sale blocked | Direct Tesla sales in PA

Governing Magazine stays on on the pedestrian deaths issue with an interactive map of pedestrian deaths across the United States. Notice how there are more pedestrian deaths in the more suburban areas where people can drive faster, and fewer deaths in the more central areas where people have to drive slower. This is not because there are fewer pedestrian crashes in the core.

Big win for electric cars in Pennsylvania: this past budget season, state lawmakers quietly opened the door for electric car maker Tesla Motors to sell directly to customers. Like some of our neighboring states where regulatory battles between Tesla and traditional car dealerships have been playing out, PA had a law on the books prohibiting car companies from selling directly to consumers. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Maryland recently opted to keep in the middleman after heavy lobbying from car dealerships.

Baltimore has some fun new bus stop seating shaped like the word BUS outside the Creative Alliance’s headquarters. More and better bus shelters remain one of the unrealized action items on Next Great City coalition’s 2007 wishlist, and one of the political problems for moving this proposal forward is that not everyone knows bus shelters are city government’s responsibility – not SEPTA’s.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people to use the term ‘urban sprawl’ when they mean ‘suburban sprawl.‘”

A five-acre industrial site on the southern Camden waterfront will become Phoenix Park this spring. “Plans for the park include a kayak launch, green space, a pier, and a connecting pathway to nearby landlocked Liney Ditch Park.”

William Penn Development Coalition successfully blocked the sale of William Penn High School to Temple University by filing a lis pendens with the state Supreme Court.