Take a Walk on the Wide Side

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Take a Walk on the Wide Side

Submitted by Crenshaw Sepulveda on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 8:18am.

[Bumped to the front by Rick]

If I have a complaint about downtown Olympia (and actually I have more than one) it would be that the sidewalks are too narrow. This is not because there are people I need to step over, because I never have to step over people (what an insulting concept). It is not because the sidewalks are covered with feces and I can not find a feces free spot to walk. The sidewalks are too narrow because they do not adequately function in their intended manner.

Sidewalks are a public space. Their nature is to provide the zone where people can mingle and converse in a public place. People seem to think that the sidewalk is the zone that protects the buildings from the cars in the street. Others view the sidewalk as the arterial on which people travel. Travel on a sidewalk is really not common as one thinks. Think of the people you know that will get in a car to drive two blocks to buy a qallon of milk.

A side walk is a public place. There should be room for outdoor cafes, push cart vendors, peoples making and selling art. There should be benches and improvised furniture on which people can relax. A sidewalk should be what the users can make of it. Getting from point A to point B is just one function of the sidewalk, and probably the least used and least important function of the sidewalk. Lacking a town square, or similar feature, the sidewalk, in its natural functioning, will take over the role of the town square.

Some might begrudge the homeless and young their space on the sidewalk and this is sad. We have to insist that the sidewalk is a public place to be used for a variety of purposes. The purposes are defined by the users. I'm not saying that the sidewalks are intended for illegal purposes but they are intended for people to live part of their public life. I can not say what defines living a public life. It might mean hanging around, chatting with friends, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, reading a newspaper, talking on the phone, watching people, napping, resting, shopping, running into friends and people that become friends. Our sidewalks need to be wider, there is too much going on there.

Most cities will make sidewalks narrower as to accomodate more cars on the streets. Sidewalks are sacrificed to provide more lanes for cars to travel. A place dominated by automobile travel will cease to be public places. Good examples are the so called sidewalks around our strip malls and big box stores. If you can find side walks at all in those locations you will never see people using the sidewalk as a public place, indeed it is usually impossible at a strip mall or big box store to use the sidewalk to get from point A to point B.

I understand that buildings can not be moved when roads are widened. Again, the sidewalk is sacrificed. But the sidewalk is the lifeblood of a neighborhood, in many ways it is the sidewalk and the life on the sidewalk that creates the safety in the neighborhood. Make the sidewalks narrow enough and our neighborhoods become strip malls and the functional equivilents of big box stores. Cars can prowl and people on foot will no longer exist or be provided for. Maybe this is the intent of the civic planners. Continue to serve the automobiles (which by their very nature are private spaces using public facilities) and make certain that public lives can not exist. Why a city would want to eliminate sidewalks as public places will take up another huge block of space so I will address that at another time.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^

Crenshaw Sepulveda's blog
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An exciting prospect

Submitted by enpen on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 8:43am.

Louis Kahn created a plan for Philadelphia's Urban Renewal Project in the 1960's that was, I'm sad to say, left unrealized. A short description is that it envisioned commuters parking at various city lots located at the edges of the downtown while the downtown itself was to be traversed by public transportation, foot, bike, board, etc. Unfortunately I cannot find any of the plans online, so the only way I know of to see it is in the movie My Architect (well worth seeing). It was a truly visionary approach to modern urban living that harkened back to the ideals of the Greek Agora. Maybe it'll take gas being over $5/gallon before city planners begin to think outside of the automobile, or maybe it'd be possible with an informed and impassioned public. It does seem, though, that given the smallness of Olympia's commercial downtown that such a vision would be far easier to implement here than in a large metropolitan center.

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!"

This is happening, but not the way you thing it is happening

Submitted by Crenshaw Sepulveda on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 8:58am.

At this very moment, all over America this is starting to happen, Louis Kahn's vison. It is happening, but with an important exception. It does not include the poor and the minorities. It is being designed for the upper middle class and above, apparently the lower middle classes are just too financially insecure to not hover closely to the ranks of the poor. What we have here is Kahn's vision reimagineereed by Disney. The clean safe main streets of yesterday. Streets brimming with commerce and nostolgia and devoid of anything that resembles freedom or originality. Main streets as the bastard children of government and business will always be like this. We need the free thinkers, the dreamers, and yes the poor and the minority populations to make certain we have the downtowns which are real and nuturing instead of synthetic and exploitative.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^

like this

Submitted by enpen on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 9:02am.

for example?

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!"

like that and worse

Submitted by Crenshaw Sepulveda on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 9:24am.

That is one particularly horrifying example of what can be done in the private sector. Now just imagine what is being planned for the public sector vis a vis public spaces, freedom, and diverse communities. It is not enough to have these abominations on the outskirts of towns and far flung suburbs, now they want to bring this into the very heart of our urban areas and downtown areas. I'm telling you this is not a good trend and it will not play out the way the planners imagine.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^

I am a choir

Submitted by enpen on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 9:58am.

to whom you preach. I read your word and I nod in agreement.

Perhaps urban planning should be a topic of the next townhall meeting. Specifically, inclusive sustainable urban planning.

"If you are a dreamer, come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!"

Amen. Jade

Submitted by Jade on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 10:14am.

Amen.

Jade

Yesterday, I loitered

Submitted by jlw on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 2:28pm.

I was taking place in the loiter-in to protest the proposed no sidewalk sitting ordinance. I brought a book I'm reading for a class, but didn't get much studying done, because there were lots of fellow loiterers to talk to, and lots to watch and look at, as well. There really are a lot of shoppers downtown! It took sitting on the sidewalk for a few hours for me to notice that there were quite a few middle-class people strolling around, carrying bags, obviously spending money downtown. Something I found interesting was the reaction of acquaintances when I was sitting on the sidewalk. A few gave me funny, uncomfortable looks, less friendly than when I see them in, say, B&B buying a latte. And a few acquaintances were totally like they always are, and stopped to chat. It was very strange, to think that something as simple as sitting on the sidewalk could change the way some people think about me. However, overall, the experience was so positive, it made me wish there were better public spaces here, someplace a little more comfortable than the sidewalk, where I could spend some time sitting around and talking to people, without spending three bucks on a cup of coffee.

I know a great spot.

Submitted by Phil Owen on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 4:03pm.

There's this amazing group of folks... on some nights you can catch them playing guitars, shaking tamborines, and singing oldies tunes. They're... in front of the old burned out Griswolds building on 4th.

Park your caboose

Submitted by POLDF on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 11:48am.

1. You should be able to park your caboose on the sidewalk all day if you want. The city allows parking of one's car all day if someone wants.

2. You should demand some benches, couches and such to park your caboose in. The city provides parking spaces, parking lots and roads built to non-human scale.

But I guess cars rule city hall.

Great story

Submitted by Sarah on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 6:10pm.

Especially intriguing that some acquaintances looked at you differently.

Maybe a group of us OlyBloggers can do a planned loiter-in. I'm game.

Crenshaw Sepulveda quote

Submitted by Raina on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 6:29pm.

hey, i hope the text here turns out okay, i am not really sure how this works. i was wondering if i can quote you, crenshaw sepulveda, saying "We have to insist that the sidewalk is a public place to be used for a variety of purposes. The purposes are defined by the users." in a letter I am writing to city council members. i think that the new restictions on sidewalk sitting, etc. are disgraceful and will give olympia a bad name in time. they only serve to widen the gap between rich and poor and laws like these threaten to wipe out, or at least send completely underground, an entire culture of beautiful, minimulist, talanted individuals. what a tragedy. who is going to raise their voice outside this blog? we have to stop this proposed ordinance from becoming an irreversable law.

our voice, their voice

Submitted by Crenshaw Sepulveda on Sun, 10/01/2006 - 7:27pm.

Without a doubt you may quote me. I am also grateful to see your own voice on this subject. This attack on the poor is not without predicent, and is generally predictable. There is some critical mass of poverty (a rate of over 25 percent) that causes governments to legislate against the poor. Once poverty reaches the critical mass you see anti-loitering laws, panhandling laws, prohibitions against selling fortified wine and the like. I always hoped that Olympia would be better than this. Even to think of implementing such laws makes me lose some respect for her. Fortunately the government is not really Olympia, the people are Olympia.

I would encourage your voice to be loud during the debates of these punitive laws. I would encourage you to encourage others, including those being impacted by these laws, to bring their voices to the table. Just because one is poor doesn't mean one is stupid. Just because one is homeless doesn't mean one doesn't have thoughts. Just because one might have drug or substance issues doesn't mean they can't see what is going on around them and come up with appropriate solutions. Indeed, I find that the exact people the laws are targeting can bring the most profound wisdom and understanding to those that would blindly legislate against them.

Don't get me wrong, what is going on, this war against the poor, is a travasty. The forces brought upon the poor are serious and determined. Our government is blind to the value of each individual. So long as people are considered as problems we have our work cut out for us. People are not the problem. How government and societies treat them is the problem. Bring your voice to this, encourage others to bring their voice to this. We would not want to live in a town that would legislate against the poor.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^

"FAMILY LOITER DAY"

Submitted by bubbaz (not verified) on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 11:04am.

*FAMILY LOITER DAY*

I like the sound of that..

Kinda sounds like labor day for Olympians...

We could maybe even make it a week long *CELEBRATION*, not unlike Lakefare, but with more loiterers and Wobblies, etc..

Keep the horses off the sidewalks

Submitted by POLDF on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 11:44am.

I was going to do like an academic masters degree thingy on the history of traffic laws as a political social struggle -- but then Asphalt Nation came out and I abandoned any idea that I could be a master of the subject.

Traffic laws come about only with the intermixing of new modes, with the exception of one law founded in christian morality that dates back to the 17th century in America: Under the colonial law sections related to gambling, it is illegal to race horses on Sunday. In urban areas in the late 18th century where there was a conflict between the modes of horses and pedestrians, it became illegal to ride horses on sidewalks. This had more to do with horses coming off the dirty and muddy roads and destroying the raised wooden sidewalks [really porches] in front of buildings. At this point the porches and any awnings were property of the building owner. This private benefit would change to public property as it became the role of government through taxes to build roads and sidewalks during the next century.

Although during the mid-1800s the first speeding law made was to protect the pedestrian from horses so horses could not run through densely populated urban areas, real speed limitations came with the introduction of railroads through urban areas. Another pre-industrial traffic law is still seen today: why the fuck do we drive on the right-side of the road - at least most of us? To regulate too many horses and carriages going over urban bridges that were built to human scale.

With industrialization in the late 1800s came the beginnings of non-dirt roads as people using those new fangled modes of transportation -- bicycles -- lobbied for better roads. So we got brick, cobble stone, granite slabs before the recipe for concrete and asphalt was developed. Olympia still has some stone and brick streets downtown, paved over though. It also became illegal to ride bicycles, like horses, on sidewalks [still wood]. I don't think it is illegal to race them though on Sundays. Personally, I think it is an antiquated law that doesn't fit downtown Oly because there is not the density here as evidenced by the frequent cops riding their bikes around without problems. [Oooo!, I remember once an OPD cop harassing some food not bombs people using a shopping cart and threatening to charge them with the long-standing law of stealing a cart. That law makes reference to a horse-drawn carriage and dates back to a time when you could essentially shoot someone for stealing your horse]. During this time too, urban areas required horse drawn carriages to carry bells and lanterns to warn pedestrians of their comings and goings. Trains too, and then cars.

At the beginning of the 19th century new laws were developed first to restrict automobiles and to protect pedestrians and horses from them. But the rich ended up having continued lobbying effect, roads and cities became paved and the car has won out and pushed away horses, marginalized bicycles and all but criminalized pedestrians in public spaces. The automobile industry also has a history of illegally controlling the development of other modes and destroying the existing ones in their favor. At least Ralph Nader pushed back.

But there was a brief moment in American history when the vast majority of people were by one definition poor and the few cars were just monstrous toys of the rich. Marketplace democracy prevailed for a while as the rich were heavily regulated to keep their cars out of sight and away from people [and horses]. Now we have lost that perspective and our pedestrian rights to the roads and public property.

Eat the rich.

POLDF: "Eat the rich."I

Submitted by Phil Owen on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 8:24pm.

POLDF: "Eat the rich."

I tried that once, but their damned jewelry was too crunchy and it hurt my teeth.

Thank you for starting this

Submitted by chaney on Mon, 10/02/2006 - 8:56pm.

Thank you for starting this thread. I live on the west side and in my opinion its problems are much bigger than downtown's. The sprawl is out of control, parking lots space the buildings so widely that no one wants to walk, wooded lots are being developed left and right, and the streets are packed with cars every day. It's much rarer that you'll meet eyes with someone on this side of town, because most people outside of businesses are driving and the people who are on foot are just as widely spaced as the buildings. Maybe some of the people who are uncomfortable downtown prefer it that way, but it drives me crazy. I'd really like to see parking garages (vertical development!) and public transportation take over some of the load so that some of the parking lots could be replaced with buildings. Also, just because I need to vent, the auto mall is the ugliest monstrosity every invented by man. There I said it!

West side woes

Submitted by Sarah on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 4:54pm.

Walking through the west side business developed areas is quite the experience, I think we could easily label it a dead zone too, especially for pedestrians.

Parking lots are extra dangerous for pedestrians, drivers seem to go berserk sometimes in them.

Crossing paths with someone else on a sidewalk can be unusual, especially on the busy roads. And by then, we all are so busy trying to avoid getting hit, most of us don't even have the energy for smiling. I try to say Hey or something friendly anyway.

West side residential neighborhoods can be fun to walk through, wonderful gardens, lots of cats, artwork and peace signs. Though sidewalks don't always exist and those that do, usually really need repair.

That auto mall curve is really really creepy. I hope I never get stuck walking around there again. By bus I can cope, safe as we cruise through another auto dead zone.

making it public

Submitted by Raina on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 12:43pm.

Thanks for the permission to quote you. Another question I should have asked before; Do you want me to use your username, keep it anonymous or what? I think the idea of a loiter-in is awesome, can we coordinate it to make it really big? Like, bigger than the last one, because as far as I know it wasnt even covered in the Olympian. Did anyone see it in there? And, does anyone have an estimation on how many people showed up or know what it was like? Does anyone care or have time to work on a campaign adressing this issue? I have been emailing around to some groups to try and form a coalition. If anyone knows any groups who might join in, please ask them and let us all know. If we do a sit/ loiter in it would be cool to do it as part of this campaign to convince the citycouncilmembers not to pass this law and maybe some other demands. If anyone is in for some campaigning lets set up a place and time to meet up and talk strategy! It doesn't seem as thougth anyone has jumped on the band wagon in any really visual way and I think this issue is important enough that it deserves (media and public) attention. Thanks all for keeping this issue alive...
raina

Because there are no benches

Submitted by Crenshaw Sepulveda on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 3:39pm.

By all means, quote me as Crenshaw Sepulveda. I don't mind going by my given name, but I'm thinking Crenshaw Sepulveda would be most appropriate. I've gone on before how there are almost no benches in downtown Olympia to rest our weary bones upon. I was then told that we had benches not long ago but the city took them out because people were using them. The wrong kind of people. Now I just can't believe that a people can be the wrong kind of people. We are all people, there is nothing wrong about being a people, and yet the city seems to think there is such a thing as a "wrong kind of people". We have to rid our city leaders of the notion that there is such a thing as "wrong kind of people". Actually there are such a thing as "wrong kind of people" and that would be people that believe in such a thing. Maybe we have to get rid of the "wrong kind of people" in civic government and business leadership.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^

You don't have to wait for the Olympian!

Submitted by Rick on Tue, 10/03/2006 - 9:42pm.

I hereby deputize you, Raina, as a Citizen Journalist. You can cover this "sit-in" without the big, stupid media. Bring your camera (still or video), write your impressions, and post it here. Many, many people will see it. People who care about downtown, and people who never go downtown will see it. If you need tech support, just say the word.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. -C.P. Snow

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