This morning I walked to work, walked to lunch and met my sister Susan at China Garden, and walked to a Neighborhood Conversation at First Baptist Church where we got to meet the incredibly talented landscape architect Kaizad Irani, who designed the Phoenix Park 9/11 memorial in New York City. And get this - he's going to do a project in Waukegan too. AND, I'll be able to walk to it.
It was a great night and I wish everyone in Waukegan could have come to be part of the conversation about what we love about where we live. I was really inspired, and really impressed by the number of people who talked about walkable neighborhoods or bicycling. Two of my friends who were there, Will G and David V, also live downtown and had walked to the meeting.
People get it. People like places that feel like real neighborhoods, and people like feeling safe in their neighborhoods. The best, easiest way to do that is to know your neighbors and love your neighbors. People like walkability even when they don't know the word for it. The Congress for the New Urbanism has this great post on why this type of design just performs better, and I couldn't agree more.
Tonight I was talking to somebody at the church and Lent came up, so I mentioned my giving up driving thing. At first this guy looked at me like I was crazy, but when I said that I just lived a few blocks from the church, he said, "oh, well it's not that much of a sacrifice then." He was totally right.
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