MyWHaT

Spotting Social Trails

Social trail along Fair St. looking north towards NMC’s entrance.

This social trail caught my eye for the little bend towards the road. On this busy neighborhood street, most people are resistant to walk in what we assume are people’s front yards. So, they take to the streets. However, just because there is no sidewalk present doesn’t mean that the public right of way doesn’t exist. On a busier street, the view south at this point would still have a social trail as people would refuse to walk in the street. South to 8th Street there is no sidewalk.

The view south. Nice lawns, but it remains the public right of way.

This sidewalk is obviously well-traveled. The school, restaurant, church and civic center are all attractions. What we aren’t seeing when we accept this lack of infrastructure is the inequality that it promotes. Imagine traversing this with crutches, a wheel chair, as an 8 or 80-year-old. Or, with your shoes tied together. Then, going the rest of the way to 8th Street along the street. In this case, it’s not what makes for a walkable city.

The adjacent property owners may not initially like it, but this goes on my ‘priority sidewalk‘ list.

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ATTENTION: Are you seeing social trails in Traverse City? The city engineer is currently collecting data on the existing sidewalk network (or lack thereof) and has asked for help in spotting social trails. The social trails will help prioritize where the city constructs sidewalks for the coming decade. I’ve started to collect some (Flickr photo Set) and have written about a few, but I know there are more out there. If you want to send comment with a location, I will get an image and send it on to the city engineer. Or, send an image and description to him and the city planner directly (copy MyWHaT as well so we can keep a running list).

It should be noted, the criteria for prioritization will also consider the size and volumes of streets and whether the proposed sidewalk would fill a missing link, not just social trail placement.

sidewalks won’

Happy spotting and shooting.

Monday’s Quote

Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots.”

– Peter Senge, Pattern of Behavior

It’s a complex world and our choices have consequences beyond the immediate. I’m trying to see those patterns in our community. Frequently on this website, we discuss the problems of today without always fully realizing that those problems were yesterday’s solutions; at least, for someone.

Today those ‘someones‘ are all of us. Neighbors. Our actions are driving status quo as well as change; nothing stands still. Is what’s to come in the future what we intend? For example, we may fully intend to calm traffic along Division St., but our actions (unnecessary driving), preferences (NIMBY, speeding), perceptions (cut-through traffic is bad) may be getting in the way of present solutions and creating future problems.

Participating in and watching several community meetings lately has me slightly worried about the ability for Traverse City to improve its use of public space, in particularly improving our worst streets. Too often, we enter discussions with our position made-up, our perspective set, our preferences un-bendable and our assumptions solidified. I’m often guilty of it myself. What brings me around is stepping back and throwing out The Answer, and letting a solution present itself.

Answers aren’t acquired & collected, but heard, explored and implemented with open minds.