what makes a walkable block?
Malchik and Loerzel would say that where you live influences how you live greatly. Malchik writes that “our most basic access to health comes from walking… and walking is a complex interconnection of cognitive processes and sensory inputs”. Walking is an incredible activity for your mind and body, yet in certain neighborhoods, specifically those with lower income and populated with minority groups, don’t get this chance. Loerzel writes that when a huge highway was built, the neighborhood it was built on was “…sliced in two and essentially destroyed…the walk to the newsstand for the Sunday morning paper? Forget about it; what used to be a peaceful stroll now entailed eight lanes of traffic”. The way that these neighborhoods’ infrastructure is set up is with no regard for the residents of the neighborhood walking purposes, and thus, denies them, as Malchik said “our most basic access to health”. Busy streets and highways preventing walkability can pose a literal danger to people who are just trying to move around on foot. This is a huge problem that needs attention. Malchik says that it is possible to reclaim streets, blocks, and cities- we must start encouraging people to move by foot through how we build environments, rather than accommodating cars above all else. The School of Life narrator adds that being mindful of your cities design and beauty is important to reclaiming a city- something that a place designed for cars often lacks. I walked down Lincoln Square this weekend- it is one of the most walkable and pretty blocks I’ve ever seen because of its shops, quaint buildings, and square with benches and a fountain in the middle.
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Malchik writes in A Walking Life that “infrastructure is essential to building that social capital. While some forms of urban development can encourage social capital, others don’t, and the main difference lies in whether they facilitate physical interactions among people: pedestrian-oriented designs such as accessible public spaces, sidewalks, and houses with front porches, among other features that bring people in contact with one another, contribute highly to a communities social capital” (Malchik 46). Malchik is talking about what we can do with our cities to build social capital, which he argues is extremely important to any space. I think that this quote correlates directly with what I want to explore in my paper, which is the walkability/public space in different neighborhoods and how this is used.
Patrick Sisson and Alissa Walker write while listing 101 things you can do to improve your city “…don’t despair; depave. Working under the banner “free your soil,” the Portland, Oregon-based group Depave has been kicking asphalt for decades, turning unused parking and abandoned lots into community gardens and parks…an opportunity to literally reclaim your streets.” (Sisson & Walker 1). I think that this quote goes well with the topic of social capital and walkability in neighborhoods.
Rebecca Solnit writes about a walk in San Francisco, saying “…I sauntered over to nearby Golden Gate Park, which… has given me many compensatory pleasures: musicians practicing in the reverberant pedestrian underpasses, old Chinese women doing martial arts in formation, strolling Russian émigrés murmuring to each other in the velvet slurp of their mother tongue, dog walkers being yanked into the primeval world of canine joys, and access by foot to the shores of the Pacific.” (Solnit 183). Her talking about the beauty and connection she finds in public spaces such as Golden Gate Park factors into how public spaces do wonders for social capital in a city.
