That is an interesting observation. When I grew up in the suburbs, we
played catch with the football in the streets, so did everybody else.
We moved aside for cars.
However, in the city, I get annoyed when kids play in the streets,
that's what all those parks are for, and in a pinch, the city
sidewalks. I rarely see grade school kids playing catch in their
backyards, even -- they go to the parks. Younger kids play catch with
each other and their parents in the back yards of course.
Maybe all those parks have a down side, never thought of it that way.
Hmmmm. Nice post, Russ.
Russell W Peterson wrote:
> There is a book out called, I think, Street Reclaiming. I
> think written by an Australian author. His underlying
> theory is that people need to claim the street in such a way
> that cars believe it is a pedestrian environment that they
> are driving through as opposed to a car thoroughfare that
> people walk across. Some if his ideas including taking out
> a street parking spot to put in table and chairs - kind of
> extending the cafe into the street or visually narrowing the
> street. Or painting large murals in the street or narrowing
> the perception of the street with pedestrian items. Now
> that I live in "no sidewalk land," I completely appreciate
> what "kids playing in the street" does to the environment.
> Because there are no sidewalks (nature paths galore
> although) people use and kids play in the street all the
> time. This has an amazing impact on cars. They move slowly
> and carefully through this entire area.
>
> I worked for a couple of years on speeding in our south
> Minneapolis neighborhood, but the requirements of the city
> are pretty strict, not very creative and quite onerous.
> Even if you are able to get funding to make more extensive
> improvements like speed humps or curb changes, getting the
> overwhelming neighborhood to agree on a specific solution is
> quite a different thing. This is something that I think is
> going to take some real City Council leadership in order to
> change the philosophy of street safety/environments and help
> move solutions along more quickly to create better streets
> in the city.
>
> Russ Peterson
> former Standish
> now St. Michael
>
> Russell W. Peterson, RA, CID
> Founder
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