I have touched on some of this stuff before, and even brushed up against it previous when i had 4 things i just touched upon.

So here we go, I’m writing from notes i took on a paper plate.  I almost prefer writing on unconventional things than on a legal pad of paper with a pen.  well, I generally always write with a pen.

I know when i initially came home from college and started looking to create my own community and find friends and people with common interest, it was difficult.  I was baffled at, when  i sat down and fully thought about it, where in the hell i was supposed to meet these "like minded people".  I thought about the old days of a small town and how you could run into people at the grocery store, and see them on the street later, and run into them at the bank or post office, and then see them again on sunday at church or at a friend’s party.  Now granted… this is a small western town idea that i have seen in TV shows and movies.  Lord only knows if it really existed, but i like to think it did.  And I like to believe that this sort of community also existed in cities.  People didn’t have the ability to cover as much geographical distance and so would stay within a certain radii as they went about their business.  *side note*  there are always pluses and minuses when it comes to innovation and new technology, the car/train/airplanes are great, but they separate us.  computers and cellphones are fabulous, but they isolate us.  But these are highly innovative and great advances… it’s the nature of the beast**  So to continue… I entered my suburban lifestyle living with my parents almost a year ago and struggled with the concept of where i was supposed to come up with people to have relationship and community with because as a human, that’s what i crave.  (which ties into a lot of what i’m learning and reading in Searching for God Knows What by donald Miller)  So i thought, well there’s bars and coffee shops, and church and my job… and my family.  But realistically, my job was very isolated, i don’t like the bar scene, I have no intention of approaching people at a coffee shop, and my family had limited connections, it was their friends from their interests…  so there really was no place to meet people except at church.  So that’s where i started.  But i think that is a sad sad state of affairs.  the ability to find community is slim and hard.  and making friends is a difficult task to begin with, and now we have gotten to a point where it is even harder.  Do you know your neighbors?

So that was one point.   another one is something i may have forgotten what i meant.  *looks at plate*  all i have written down is "the city community".  I’ll go with this one where i’m at right now.  I think there is a lot of potential for the city community.  I think there is so much benefit in investing in the area where you live, in getting to know your neighbors, being involved in your area.  It gives back to the city, it keeps areas in better repair, and it shows people that we care about the area around us, the public space and that it deserves respect.  I know it’s like throwing a stone in an ocean in hopes of creating a dam.  but i think it’s possible.  There’s something about seeing people on their porches, walking the streets, and hanging around outside that us suburban folk have forgotten.  These actions mean that the neighborhood is safe, it’s taken care of in whatever capacity the residents can.  When people are out and about thei’re looking after each other, they’re aware of the changes and happenings of their neighborhood and their outside of their own head.  Now granted this is very idealistic and not true for probably 25% of the people out.  and there’s the issue of loitering and "idle hands becoming devil’s tools" but there’s always a cost/benefit ratio that is present.  In the suburbs, people have enough yard space and that they’re more isolated and introverted.  they don’t have ot interact with people around them.  this affords some sense of security but it also isolates people.   so choose what’s more important to you and do it.    Yay for hitting two points in one.  my third point was the “porch monkey/ saftey” issue.  When i get my house, i’d love to hang out on the porch and watch my neighbors go by.  Because if they see you around and become accostom to you then they can watch your back persay.  When i go and visit the co-op, it makes me laugh and feel almost more comfortable, one of the neighbors knows me because my car is beat up like hell, and they’ve watched it get all beat up.  So they recognize me… i feel accepted almost.

My fourth point in this crisis was just an introspective look at how i would train myself to become an urbanite and become comfortable doing community and being around and involved in the neighborhood as a suburbanite.  How does this transition occur, is it easy?  I know initially i was apprehensive to tool around the area, but my friend, who introduced me to the co-op and got me comfortable in the area, doesn’t really have a cautious sense of feeling unsafe or truely worrying about it, so i was a little more willing to just move around and tool around with him, and then i grew comfortable in the neighborhood.  it’s curious watching boys’ security and comfort in an area vs. female security, caution and comfort in an area.

I also somewhat hit on the point of how technology is aiding in the creation and destruction of community.  I know a number of people that would have never found the co-op that i hang out at, without the internet and everything, and many people passing through using the co-op as a hostile would have never been introduced, met or helped out without technology.  But it also serves as a tool to isolate us and seperate us.

This point i’m stealing more from my friend who feels passionate about the crisis of community .  The rate of change in our socitey is soo fast and frequent that at this point, i don’t think we have time to process them or react to them with enough time and thought to process what the consequences might be and how this will affect the future of our lives etc.  I mean how is the construction of new office space in the city and outside of the city affecting our neighborhoods?  how is the continual vacant office and store fronts in our city coupled with the new construction affecting us.  and How is the destruction of vacant property affecting both pro/con the neighborhoods?  we need to stop and dialogue, assess some of the actions we’re taking.  even when there’s good consequences and when it’s the best route to take at a sepcific time, we need to conintually be coming back and check-pointing and seeing if we should change our courses of action…

there.  that’s what i have to say for now.

I will go back to the privacy, but i said pedestrians are next. so here we come.

I was taking a walk through my suburbian neighborhood of different neighborhoods with a friend not too many days ago. But there was no where to walk. I started thinking about where the sidewalks were and could think of one, that started after all the neighborhoods, as you near the WalMart, expressway off ramp and elementary school. these are all located off a 5 lane, 40 mph road with numerous parking lot entrances.

Are You Kidding Me???

How am I supposed to take a walk there? and what if i need to cross the road? that’s just a ridiculous question, you’ve got left turn lights, right on red, and 5 lanes of traffic moving through, and when it’s a 5 lane road, no one’s watching for pedestrians. The suburbs have not been made at a human scale. (thanks to Kunstler, i have terminology now) Seriously!! no human scale whatsoever.
So we ended up taking a walk in a near by housing track. No sidewalks, no street lights, (and because everyone is in their houses with the shades drawn at night, there’s no need to keep an outside light on) and no shoulders. just a laneless 2.5 car width wide slab of pavement curling and turning in front of us. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a nice walk. The company made it better, but I grew up biking around in those streets. I grew up on a dead-end street surrounded by 3 major traffic roads.

In quiet contrast (yes, i didn’t misspell it) I went out to coffee in the city with the same friend. We went for another walk. (he’s a walker as you can tell, i don’t complain) This time we went walking around all the sidewalks, from one main street to another main street to another via lots of grid-side streets. Because of our use of cars and the place they hold in everyone’s lives, some on the streets were still 4 laned streets. But the outside lanes were parking near some buildings, the speed limit was slower, the break up of streets by crossing streets slowed people down at a regular interval. And the houses weren’t 4 lots apart. each cute, adorable, historical, visually stimulating and interesting house sat close to the others, in community with the others. They all sat on streets with an old church on the corner, or a few restaurants, or an apartment, old beautiful apartment building near by. Now, what i’m hinting at here is Mixed Use. (another term from Kunstler) It makes it a functional area. You can walk places, you don’t have to drive. It creates a community. It was amazing.
It was an a Human Scale!! That’s what helped. The street lights were closer to use, there were benches on the sidewalks (some for the bus stop, but it wasn’t that weird hut). There were Trees. big, beautiful trees. and little new trees where old ones were replaced. AMAZING!!

See one of the things Kunstler says is that when there’s trees making that canopy like thing over a road, it creats an outside room. This creates a public space between your home and the shops or whatever you are walking to. This creates a space where people feel comfortable, or at least welcome being out on the streets. And there were big, beautiful trees in the yards of these houses.

That’s another heart breaking thing about suburban housing developments being built. I drove by one a month ago in the far reaches of my suburban town. The developers had completely cleared this foresty area of all trees (excpet the barrier between the wilderness and whatever houses may spring up in this dirtscape. There didn’t seem to be plans or work on houses even. They were still selling the lots, yet they cleared the whole damn area. Granted it’s more difficult to build around trees, but come on. Do we really have the power to just chop down these tree? What about our ethical responsibility to be caretakers of the earth? In some cases that warrents the removal or trees, nature whatever. But for a housing track, they’re going to plant trees anyways. Just save the old ones that have a habitat for the animals established and oh wait, SHADE! it really frusterates me.
I went to my grandparents house down south. They live on a man made lake that the army core of engineers “owns” There’s probably 25 feet from the waterside inland that the Core has jurisdiction over. They only allowed so many different areas for houses to be built and allow only a certain amount of docks for these houses, depending on the size of the cove, and if you want more than a trail from your house to the dock, you need to get a permit from the Core to put in a cement walk. it’s probably confusing, but that’s not the point. The point is, that there’s 25 feet of tall trees standing between my grandparents house and the lake, it’s beautiful. And their house was built within the trees. So much so that there was an Oak tree that stood at the front corner of the house between it and the garage. (Sadly, it just got removed due to it being diseased and what not).

I hope to have made a point in all of this. several in fact. Good luck in finding them. Off to the continuation of my thought