Axios Cities

The rise of pedestrian deaths in the U.S. has triggered a scramble to improve the design of urban crosswalks — ideally, using technology.

Why it matters: Crosswalks are a growing site of preventable deaths — often with distracted driving to blame — and urban planners are envisioning various types of facelifts that could make a difference.

• The development of better crosswalks could be a big leap forward for "smart cities" technology, which has sputtered in recent months over privacy issues.

Driving the news: A report released Tuesday by the Governor's Highway Safety Association says the pedestrian fatality rate rose 20% in the first six months of 2020 "as speeding, distracted and impaired driving, and other dangerous driving behaviors increased during the COVID-19 pandemic."

• The Vision Zero Network, a national initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries, has been opening chapters in cities across the country. (Here's a map of their 45+ communities.)

What's happening: Startups like Sensol Systems, which has developed a light-up crosswalk that illuminates when people (and bikes and pets) are in it, are talking to cities and campuses about cost-effective designs.

• "We are creating a buffer of light," Janie Bube, founder and CEO of Sensol Systems, tells Axios.
• "When somebody is on the sidewalk and steps onto the crosswalk, it will activate and illuminate, but that same effect does not happen if there's a car going over it."
• Her crosswalk — which will cost less than $45,000 per intersection, and is still being shopped to potential clients and venture capitalists — is able to collect the data (on pedestrian counts, etc.) that cities crave.

The big picture: While most pedestrian crosswalks have minimal markings, some are painted with zebra stripes — seen as a good first step — and some are equipped with rectangular rapid-flashing beacons.

• The latter, known as RRFBs, use high-intensity LED lights that flash to improve driver visibility and yield rates at crosswalks.

During the pandemic, some cities tried blocking traffic in pedestrian-friendly ways to create "slow streets," but success has been mixed.

• Washington, D.C., is ending its program in May.

Flashback: Modern crosswalk design got started in the U.K. (Remember the cover of the Beatles' album "Abbey Road"? That's a zebra crossing.)

• Marked crosswalks were introduced in the U.K. in the 1930s, accompanied by flashing amber globes known as "Belisha beacons." (Named for Minister of Transport Leslie Hore-Belisha.)
• Painted "zebra stripes" emerged in the 1940s.

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Pandemic-induced fear, economic hardship, domestic discord, racial strife and an influx of guns helped propel the urban homicide rate by a record amount last year, a new report says.

Why it matters: A drumbeat of dire reports about rising crime has left city dwellers justifiably scared — and policymakers should be addressing the pandemic and violent crime at the same time, the reports' authors say.

• Anti-violence programs should be a priority, according to a report released by Arnold Ventures — a philanthropy focused on solving societal problems — and the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice.
• Relations between communities and the police should be mended, the authors say, and street outreach workers should be deployed to help defuse tensions.

Driving the news: "In a sample of 34 cities, homicide rates were almost 30% higher in 2020 than in 2019, a jump that claimed an additional 1,268 lives," per the report.

• While the three largest cities — New York, LA and Chicago — accounted for a disproportionate amount of the rise, higher homicide numbers were seen in cities large and small.
• Aggravated assaults and gun assaults rose as well.

The silver lining: Residential burglary rates dropped by 24%, the report found, and drug offenses by 30%.

• Motor vehicle theft rose by 13%.

The bottom line: The elevated murder rate has carried into 2021, the New York Times reports.

• A tally of homicides by the FBI — which looked at different data from Arnold Ventures — found a 25% rise in 2020, which would "mean the United States surpassed 20,000 murders in a year for the first time since 1995," the NYT said.
• Possible reasons include "the various stresses of the pandemic; the surge in gun sales during the crisis; and less belief in police legitimacy related to protests over police brutality."

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With people adopting pandemic puppies in droves, "emotional support" dogs are suddenly everywhere they're not supposed to be — like restaurants, supermarkets and retail stores.

Why it matters: The rule-flouting is a strain on merchants, who fear lawsuits from certificate-waving dog owners, and on people with actual service dogs — which, unlike emotional support animals, are trained to perform vital tasks for their owners.

Where it stands: Although the Department of Transportation ruled in December that airlines no longer have to let emotional support animals (ESAs) on planes, HUD still considers them "assistance animals" — which means that landlords have to permit them in no-pets apartment buildings.

• But ESAs are not service animals — and aren't covered under the ADA.
• Nevertheless, lots of websites help pet lovers get doctors' notes that they can use to flout the rules.
• People are snapping up official-looking "service dog" vests on Amazon and using them to trot their puppies anywhere they like.

Driving the news: Landlords, desperate to fill apartments that have emptied during the pandemic, are being more lenient about allowing emotional support dogs — setting up clashes among residents.

• Readers have been writing to me about unfortunate encounters with ill-behaved ESAs and their indignant owners.
• Although ESAs aren't allowed in supermarkets or restaurants, shopkeepers are reluctant to kick out patrons' dogs for fear of making a scene or getting sued.
• "I really want to advocate for business owners — they feel trapped and like they’re unable to protect themselves," says Sarah Schaff of Can Do Canines of Minnesota, which trains service dogs for people with disabilities.
• There are two questions that merchants can ask to suss out legitimacy, Schaff tells Axios: "Is this a service dog?" and "What task is the dog trained to help you to do?"

How it works: The growing prevalence of ESAs is distracting for legitimate service dogs — and difficult for people who have allergies or dog phobias, or who come from cultures with aversions to dogs.

• "This really delegitimizes highly trained service animals and makes things difficult for the people who rely on them," says Cassandra L. Boness, a clinical psychology intern at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who published a paper saying tighter ESA rules are needed.
• "People see these dogs parading around in vests acting foolish or getting into trouble," Boness tells Axios. "It's a mess."

What's next: More college students are demanding to keep ESAs in their dorm rooms — and, as people return to their workplaces, some seek to bring their emotional support doggies with them.

My thought bubble: There were perhaps zero dogs in my no-pets apartment building in Manhattan until a year or so ago, when the floodgates opened.

• Some neighbors — including the owners of Oscar, the barky beagle mix downstairs — admit freely that, wink-wink, he's just a cherished family pet.

Located in a sublime pocket of Manhattan's Upper East Side, the mansion formerly occupied by Jeffrey Epstein was sold to a departing Goldman Sachs exec for $51M.

What they're saying: "Michael D. Daffey bought the seven-story, 40-room property at 9 E. 71st St. at far below its original $88 million asking price," per the New York Post.

• Daffey and his wife are planning "a complete makeover."
• Proceeds of the sale will go to the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program, per Fox Business.

Context: Epstein, the financier and sex trafficker, died in jail in 2019, but the fallout from his crimes continues.

• Leon Black just quit his firm, Apollo Global Management, over his Epstein ties.

Of note: The mansion was built by an heir to the Macy's fortune, occupied for decades by the Birch Wathen School, and sold to Epstein associate Les Wexner for $13.2 million in 1989.

• It's around the corner from the flagship Ralph Lauren store — which, when I was growing up in the 70s, was occupied by a neighborhood florist and a Baskin-Robbins.

Llama owners are uniting to overturn a ban by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on llamas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Why it matters: Llamas are increasingly popular as hiking companions — they'll carry your gear uncomplainingly, with a calm and contemplative gaze — and owners say the move could have broad-reaching implications on the animals' use in the lower 48.

Driving the news: As of Aug. 31, Fish & Wildlife prohibited "domestic sheep, goat, and camelid pack animals on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," arguing that they posed a disease threat to Dall sheep, which are native to the Alaska mountains.

• Llama owners protested and filed a lawsuit in D.C. Circuit Court, saying the move was based on bad science.
• A major concern is that Fish & Wildlife — which issued a "no comment" to Axios on the matter — will try to widen the ban, imposing economic hardship on the growing number of people who rent pack llamas to wildlife lovers.

What they're saying: "The idea was to try to build a bit of a war chest, because if they're banning them in Alaska and it holds — and hopefully it doesn't — who's to say it's not going to spread to other states and parks?" said Paige McGrath, who helped organize the GoFundMe.

• McGrath — who raises champion llamas at Lower Sherwood Farm in Charlottesville, Virginia — offers nature walks with herd members like Tucamon, Chewy, Gryffindor and Teriyaki.
• "A lot of us do llama hiking on a commercial level, and that's a big threat to us, to have all of a sudden have some doors closed on us where we can't take our animals," she tells Axios.

What's next: The two sides have a court-mandated schedule of meetings in April.

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