Andrew Small
Andrew Small is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C., and author of the CityLab Daily newsletter (subscribe here). He was previously an editorial fellow at CityLab.
Also: Lyft’s legal battle over driver pay, and Barcelona faces a crime wave.
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What We’re Following
Lightning never strikes twice: This Sunday, thousands of football fans will watch Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Like many other cities hosting a mega event, Atlanta made way for the new stadium, demolishing the Georgia Dome in 2017. (You may remember a certain Marta bus blocking that implosion video?) A sign now commemorates where the Dome once stood—but even before that, the area was a historic black neighborhood called Lightning.
That neighborhood was razed to build the Georgia Dome, after the NFL created the Falcons franchise in 1965. Now former residents see the big game as an opportunity to ask for their own historic marker so their community won’t be forgotten. “There was this strange irony of happiness and pride with the city landing a football team,” said Jerome Banks, who lived in Lightning as a child and is now in his mid-60s, “compared to the unbelievable and silent destruction of [Lightning].”
Today on CityLab: Why Atlanta Should Honor the Community Destroyed In Its Super Bowl Quest
More on CityLab
Magic Carpet Ride
Here’s an archive you never knew you needed: The London Transport Museum has collected over 400 textile designs used on seats for London’s trains and buses since the 1930s. The archive of carpet-style seat covers includes recorded interviews with designers instrumental in creating them. CityLab contributor Feargus O’Sullivan writes that the result is a “rich and wonderfully nerdy archive” with work that millions of riders have sat on for years without a second thought. Take a glance: London’s Surprisingly Rich History of Transit Textile Design
Feargus has been collecting examples of unique fabrics used on public transportation on Twitter for a follow-up story. Send some of your favorite plush train and bus seat designs his way or email us at hello@citylab.com.
What We’re Reading
Chicago handles extreme cold like no other city (Curbed Chicago)
The Navy wants to build a wall to stave off climate change (Bloomberg)
How Minneapolis transitioned a homeless encampment into a shelter (Next City)
A former Starbucks barista on what Howard Schultz’s coffee order says about his presidential bid (Crosscut)
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About the Author
