After almost three years of working for my local municipality and choosing not to write here while a civil servant, I have moved back into the private sector. I am now reactivating Urban Afoot and broadening its brief to explore ways that we can help our municipalities become stronger through informed local engagement.
I am leaving my walking challenge below in place as I still believe that walking your community is a great way to meet people and to better understand where you live. I am also adding a new challenge, learn about your local government, how it operates, why it does the things it does, and how you can help it become its best self.
New Challenge: LEARN YOUR COMMUNITY.
It is easy to be an armchair City Manager, looking in from a distance at all the things that could so obviously be done better - fixing potholes, creating better parks, improving our downtowns. From inside city hall things get a little murkier, harder, slower to change. As residents we can help, hinder or do nothing about our local government processes, I say let's help!
Previous Challenge: WALK YOUR COMMUNITY.
In my case walking my community translates to walking every street in my home city of New Rochelle, New York. That's a do-able goal since New Rochelle is only 10.67 square miles. Your community may be defined differently and your purpose for walking will be your own. Because I am a planner my purpose for walking my community is to explore its walkability. I'm observing and blogging about the very act of walking.
Your purpose can be whatever excites you - walking to meet and talk to people in your community, walking for social and health reasons perhaps forming a walking group, or to explore the architecture, or parks, or your community's history, to build a photographic or film record of your community, or explore forgotten places. This last one appeals to me a lot. What goes on, or has gone on, in your community that has been forgotten or abandoned? Called Urban Exploration, this can include exploring drains, abandoned spaces, places not usually seen. This can sometimes border on trespass so judgement is needed. Charles Fleming explored public stairways in both Los Angeles and in the San Francisco Bay Area and has written books about them. Jane Jacob's love of walking her community in New York City has inspired an annual event: Jane's Walks. The options are endless.
Your challenge if you choose to accept it...is to WALK YOUR COMMUNITY. Define your community, choose your purpose and step to it!
I have set up a Walk Your Community page for you to share your experiences and look forward to seeing you there!
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I am leaving my walking challenge below in place as I still believe that walking your community is a great way to meet people and to better understand where you live. I am also adding a new challenge, learn about your local government, how it operates, why it does the things it does, and how you can help it become its best self.
New Challenge: LEARN YOUR COMMUNITY.
It is easy to be an armchair City Manager, looking in from a distance at all the things that could so obviously be done better - fixing potholes, creating better parks, improving our downtowns. From inside city hall things get a little murkier, harder, slower to change. As residents we can help, hinder or do nothing about our local government processes, I say let's help!
Previous Challenge: WALK YOUR COMMUNITY.
In my case walking my community translates to walking every street in my home city of New Rochelle, New York. That's a do-able goal since New Rochelle is only 10.67 square miles. Your community may be defined differently and your purpose for walking will be your own. Because I am a planner my purpose for walking my community is to explore its walkability. I'm observing and blogging about the very act of walking.
Your purpose can be whatever excites you - walking to meet and talk to people in your community, walking for social and health reasons perhaps forming a walking group, or to explore the architecture, or parks, or your community's history, to build a photographic or film record of your community, or explore forgotten places. This last one appeals to me a lot. What goes on, or has gone on, in your community that has been forgotten or abandoned? Called Urban Exploration, this can include exploring drains, abandoned spaces, places not usually seen. This can sometimes border on trespass so judgement is needed. Charles Fleming explored public stairways in both Los Angeles and in the San Francisco Bay Area and has written books about them. Jane Jacob's love of walking her community in New York City has inspired an annual event: Jane's Walks. The options are endless.
Your challenge if you choose to accept it...is to WALK YOUR COMMUNITY. Define your community, choose your purpose and step to it!
I have set up a Walk Your Community page for you to share your experiences and look forward to seeing you there!
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We have decided not to die*
* Courtesy of Madeleine Gins - Reversible Destiny Architect
I have chosen Madeleine's statement as my byline because walking around in the urban landscape is riskier than it needs to be and I intend to make it safer! Secondly walking is a great way to improve our health and I encourage everyone to build it into their daily routine to maintain, or regain, a happy, healthy life. I add happy because depression and walking just don't seem to go together. So walk yourself happy!
We are all pedestrians. At some point we leave our car, train, bus, plane and make our way on foot, in a wheel chair, stroller, stretcher or other non motorized mode of transport. It is so commonplace it is often ignored and yet as anyone who finds themselves less abled can attest, take away our ability to get around under our own steam and daily life becomes infinitely more complicated and difficult.
This site is dedicated to celebrating pedestrianism and to heightening awareness of issues that affect us when we are pedestrians.
Here's a few definitions to start:
Webster's Online Dictionary:
"Any person not in or upon a motor vehicle or other vehicle".
While I like this definition because it is broad, I don't like that it is about a lack, an absence of a vehicle. Not a very positive spin on the joys of walking! And it is also interesting that the Oxford dictionary below chooses to give negative examples of how to use the word both as a noun and an adjective. Are those of us who take joy and pleasure in walking really so out of step?
The Oxford Dictionary:
noun
a person walking rather than travelling in a vehicle:
the road is so dangerous pedestrians avoid it
We are all pedestrians. At some point we leave our car, train, bus, plane and make our way on foot, in a wheel chair, stroller, stretcher or other non motorized mode of transport. It is so commonplace it is often ignored and yet as anyone who finds themselves less abled can attest, take away our ability to get around under our own steam and daily life becomes infinitely more complicated and difficult.
This site is dedicated to celebrating pedestrianism and to heightening awareness of issues that affect us when we are pedestrians.
Here's a few definitions to start:
Webster's Online Dictionary:
"Any person not in or upon a motor vehicle or other vehicle".
While I like this definition because it is broad, I don't like that it is about a lack, an absence of a vehicle. Not a very positive spin on the joys of walking! And it is also interesting that the Oxford dictionary below chooses to give negative examples of how to use the word both as a noun and an adjective. Are those of us who take joy and pleasure in walking really so out of step?
The Oxford Dictionary:
noun
a person walking rather than travelling in a vehicle:
the road is so dangerous pedestrians avoid it
- adjective
- lacking inspiration or excitement; dull:
- disenchantment with their pedestrian lives
Any other (preferably more positive) definitions out there?
So let's talk walkability.
Wikipedia defines Walkability as "a measure of how friendly an area is to walking". Walk21 has a number of papers about walking and walkability on their site. No surprise considering Walk21 is an international organization devoted to walking. What Tools Work Best for Measuring Walkability? looks at two 'valuable tools' to help evaluate Walkability: LEED Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) and Walk Score
LEED-ND covers some categories important to creating sustainable neighborhood of which walkability is a major part. My favorite is that "principal functional entries" should be on public space NOT via car parks.
Walk Score looks at proximity to transit, shopping, restaurants and the ease of getting places. My zip code scores a respectable 77. Check it out, type in your neighborhood and find your score (if you are in the US, Canada, or Australia).
