Somebody needs to beat a path
I turned onto Shartel and headed south. She was running in the bicycle lane, and I passed her at about 38th. In an effort to make sure I didn’t do anything so crass as, for instance, to gawk, I deflected my concentration: I hit the AMB button on the A/C, which reported back 91° F. Way better than the 100s we were getting in July.
I pulled in at the Gazette office and got the next-to-last copy out of the rack. (Oh, and congratulations, Ogles.) A right on 36th, and there she was again. But this time, she was up and down, up and down, stretches of grass interrupted by high curbs and short driveways, and somewhere inside my head, So beautiful, this one was displaced by Why the hell isn’t there a sidewalk on this section of 36th?
Yeah, I know: way back when, 36th was the edge of town, and the ‘burbs just don’t do sidewalks. It’s time they did.
canadienne »
13 August 2009 · 11:22 am
I was going to say “I couldn’t possibly fail to disagree with you less” but trying to figure out whether that means “I couldn’t agree with you more” makes my head hurt. Totally agree! Cities should be walkable (and bikeable, come to think of it) I guess when the ‘burbs were built, we would drive everywhere, because gas was cheap, and the health issues hadn’t been considered. Most stores are not within walking distance of most suburbs, even by my “if I can get there in 45 minutes or less I will usually walk” rule. I’m fortunate to live in an older part of my city, which was ‘burbs probably 50 years ago but which is now considered fairly central, and I can get most of my daily needs within walking distance, and walking here is pretty safe. (We do have a car, for those trips to the big boxes.) And there are lots of places even in this neighborhood with no sidewalks, sadly.
I’m just trying to decide how motivated I would be to walk at 91F! Doesn’t get that hot very often here. My cutoff on the cold end of the range is -25C (-13F). Any colder than that, and I wimp out.
unimpressed »
13 August 2009 · 1:24 pm
Good lord. I wimp out before it gets down to +25F. I don’t -like- anything colder than the point where I can see my breath. I walk frequently at 100+.
canadienne »
13 August 2009 · 2:37 pm
I guess it is what you are used to – I melt into a sticky, whiny puddle at anything above about 90F. You can put more clothes on to keep warm, but there’s a limit to what you can take off.
There’s something very lovely about going for a walk (a _short_ walk, I admit) when it’s -40C – it’s usually very still, and the snow squeaks and crunches, and the air is crisp.
CGHill »
13 August 2009 · 5:20 pm
During the hottest three weeks of the summer, the average daily high in these parts is a semi-sizzling 94°F. This week in 1936 (Dust Bowl days) set the curve for heat: five consecutive days over 110, peaking at 113. Even calling it “45°C” doesn’t help. (Valentine’s Day that year, it dropped to 1. Big help. Record low around here is a mere -17.)
My part of town was developed right after WWII; there are two drug stores, a less-than-Super Target, a strip center, and about half a dozen eateries within half a mile. Go a mile the other way and there’s a big mall, a smaller mall, and a branch library. Not a bad place to be, really.
canadienne »
13 August 2009 · 8:30 pm
Your neighborhood seems wonderfully walkable. Takes me 45 minutes to walk to the nearest branch library.
Just occurred to me that the runner you were talking about in your original post probably wasn’t all that upset by the lack of sidewalks, as it’s a lot easier on the body to run on grass than cement, unless your knees don’t like the unevenness. The up and down on driveways and curbs is a bit hard on the knees.
94F is hot enough to make me cranky, although I assume it’s fairly dry there and that might make the heat more bearable. Hot and sticky is much worse. (Out here, we say, sure it’s -40, but it’s a DRY cold).
CGHill »
13 August 2009 · 8:56 pm
It’s a nice little neighborhood. We’re in what the city calls an Urban Conservation District: not really historic, but they want to preserve the look just the same. And it still has something of a late-Forties appearance to it, though the cars give it away. (Most of the houses on my block don’t have the obligatory garage up front; mine was built without a garage, but one was added in 1951.) I’ve been here almost six years now.
On the hottest of days, the humidity tends to be low: 25 to 35 percent. Makes it a little more bearable, if not exactly a dry heat.