No Cats on Catalpa

Cars, trees, construction, and houses. That’s all there is. Sounds pretty suburban, huh? I guess you can say that. From one ear to another, there are jackhammers hitting concrete in the distance; car engines being started by a battery; leaves rustling and branches swaying all around me. Through cornea and fovea, there are faint orange lights and signs that scream, “Move over a lane!” One cannot forget about the two-story, sometimes three-story, buildings that encapsulate my favorite street.

I grew up on this street; on the contrary, I’ve acted childish my entire life on this street. I hold many dear memories, whether it be chasing ice cream trucks down the block, racing my sister around the block (in preparation of keeping up our endurance for the ice cream trucks), and watching the environment change almost as fast as our minds would. When asked, “What makes a street walkable?”, I could only think of answering with another question — isn’t that the purpose of a street?

It took me a moment (approximately 90 seconds, according to Google) to realize that a street cannot be walkable without purpose. In other words, for it to not be walkable, it would need to lack purpose, and its purpose is for us to roam. To travel. Go places. Use these neglected things that we refer to as feet. Without us human beings, there is no purpose. Merely, streets would not even exist without us.

To conclude, I see that we are the purpose. We make a street walkable. We make a street period. Wow, look around you and see the greatness that mankind has created.

1. According to Jacobs, why are “punctuations” and “focal points” important to the life of the street and downtown? This so-called “life of the street” is made up of many little things that form a lively area. “Focal points” and “punctuations” can vary from individual memories to collective memories, a single person to a large group of confused tourists, one abandoned building to a outdoor mall with many well-known stores, and even more. They are important for two possible reasons: either they peak our interests, or they are familiar to us. By human nature, we are drawn to them.