Hello, hello!
Last time, I griped about cars, but the biggest culprit is the fact that cities and towns expanded, a lot, to make room for cars.
Before they became more standard, communities would have a big cluster of businesses, government buildings, and residences fairly close together within an easily walkable distance from each other. Having to add space for roads in all of those areas made walking a less viable option.
In 1912 (the year before cars became affordable to the average American), Carl Fisher proposed a project initially called the Coast to Coast Rock Highway, a transcontinental road that would cost $10 million to construct. Like many wealthy entrepreneurs of old, he devised a plan for automotive industrialists to pitch in some of their profits to pay for it as a philanthropic endeavor. Fisher got plenty on board for the project, renamed the Lincoln Highway Association, except the one he needed: Henry flippin’ Ford.
Instead, Ford insisted that the government needed to build and maintain the system that eventually led to the necessity of his now affordable product, but that’s neither here nor there. Greed from the wealthy isn’t surprising. These little moments turn the tides of history, and now we continue them if we never take the time to re-examine and make an effort to change them.
Zoning laws break up a community into districts to make hypothetically better use of land to ease things like overcrowding and the health effects from industrial pollution. As it relates to this specific topic (I’m trying so hard to stay on point), this separation into districts made urban sprawl even worse. Now if you have to work, you need to travel likely further than walking distance, if you want to grab groceries after work you likely have to travel further than walking distance again, all to travel likely further than walking distance back home to make dinner. And that’s just accounting for a job and one of your most basic needs.
All that time spent commuting, isolated, in traffic stressing and making sure the other people on the road in their isolated steel boxes are driving safely, is really, really bad for our mental health. And it takes away time from being able to establish community bonds.
Luckily, Alamogordo is not actually that big of a city compared to other places in the US. However, that doesn’t mean this hasn’t affected us. Again, as someone who physically cannot operate a vehicle safely, it’s pretty glaring how much pedestrian safety and well-being has been neglected here. Like, thank our lucky stars we already have places like the path along Oregon Park, and decent walking trails and natural spaces near Scenic already, because we probably wouldn’t get that now. Road upkeep hasn’t been great for a while, and now the city is catching up largely at the expense of sidewalks and green spaces.
For this specific problem, luckily, there is a bit of a solution. Apparently there is a fund that hasn’t been touched in a while, set aside to help improve walkability. We just need to contact our city commissioners about it. Homework.
Until next time,
Salud!
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