September 8: Relatively unglamorous ghosts | Amazing, dangerous, and frightening | Amazon HQ2

Amazing, dangerous, and frightening: Stu Bykofsky writes about the intersection of youth and bike culture on Philly streets. Byko speaks with youth bicyclists and bewildered onlookers who are concerned that these tricks could lead to trouble. For those who want to get hip with it, he provides a glossary of what the young people are saying these days, including rideout, the nose wheelie, and the bunny hop.

Philly and Pittsburgh have thrown their hats in the ring in the mad bid for Amazon’s second headquarters, writes literally everyone. Amazon dropped the news Thursday, saying it would give preference to metro areas with 1 million residents or more. Said a Philadelphia official: “obviously, this is going to be a very competitive process.”

Ghost (building) tour of the Parkway: in 1907, the city purchased and began ceremoniously demolishing rowhomes, schools, churches, and industrial buildings, boldly slicing William Penn’s grid plan to create the dramatic diagonal promenade and urban park we know today, writes Karen Chernick, contributing to Curbed. Chernick goes over ten of the guesstimated 1,300 to 2,000 “relatively unglamorous, mixed-industrial and residential” structures that we shan’t see again.

Which takes us to present day. Some of the city’s most revered cultural institutions begin the 14-month celebration honoring 100 years of Parkway Friday. Hidden City Philadelphia shares their top six picks for tonight’s Parkway 100 We Are Connected kick-off festivities.

Want a better handle on the economic assets available to your community group? Meet fellow Philadelphians who are working on similar neighborhood challenges? Practical tools to take back to your peoples to better engage in planning issues on equal footing with other stakeholders? Citizens Planning Institute, the education and outreach arm of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, is accepting applications for Fall 2017 until September 20th.