Remember the small stuff
About the Crow's Nest
"My grandfather Bob McCracken began writing the Crow's Nest in 1935. He was 25 years old.
"After a judge threw my grandfather in jail in 1945 for writing a Crow's Nest column criticizing the judge's conduct in a trial, my grandfather and the paper appealed all the way to the Supreme Court - and won. (Read More »)
Achieving the vision of what a great American city can be starts at home.
Where do kids ride their Big Wheel when there is no sidewalk?
When my son Ford was born in 2004, I learned what it meant to live in a neighborhood with no sidewalks and no park.
Pushing Ford’s stroller in the street with cars whizzing by was a little unnerving. That was nothing compared to taking him for rides in his red wagon.
From the moment he received it on his first birthday, Ford loved riding in the wagon. He would waddle to the living room window and point at the wagon, his pacifier bobbing excitedly.
But after a few white-knuckle walks with oncoming traffic, his wagon trips were reduced to riding in circles on the driveway.
Then there was the Big Wheel.
I was excited to get Ford his own Big Wheel. When my brother and I were kids, we loved riding our Big Wheels on Southern Street’s sidewalk. For a 4-year-old, it had been a taste of freedom.
But where does a kid learn to ride a Big Wheel when he lives in a neighborhood without sidewalks? On weekends, I would load Ford and his Big Wheel in the car, drive to the empty Doss Elementary parking lot and let him ride his Big Wheel on the sidewalk in front of Doss. Ford acted like he was being punished.
As I experienced this challenge in my own life, I became aware of the problem everywhere. I witnessed a man pushing his wheelchair in traffic along S. Lamar because there wasn’t a sidewalk. I saw young parents carrying their infant along a rut in the grass on W. 38th Street – again, no sidewalk.
Parents in my neighborhood would come up to me and ask if we could get sidewalks and a neighborhood park with a playground. If you don’t have sidewalks and a park, then kids are left to play by themselves in their backyards.
“You think that it’s tough raising a young child with no park or sidewalk?” parents of older kids would ask. “Wait until your kid starts playing soccer.” Or baseball. Or swimming.
Parents tell me stories of long afternoons and weekends battling traffic to transport their children to remote locations for soccer games and swim meets. Austin is growing. And we are falling behind when it comes to soccer fields, swimming pools and baseball fields. In the city that carries a self-image of being fit, it is becoming a growing challenge for Austin kids (and their parents) to find places to get in shape and just play.
It’s time for a renewed focus on improving the livability of Austin neighborhoods.
In 2012, Austin is scheduled to have a bond election. Past bond elections have focused on large, high profile, expensive projects. And we created some great places. But as I experienced in my own neighborhood when Ford was born, we overlooked the small stuff.
I think it’s time to turn our attention back to the small stuff… neighborhood sidewalks… small neighborhood parks… trails and bike paths… youth soccer and athletic fields and swimming pools…
I want to do this by focusing the 2012 bond election on quality of life investments in Austin neighborhoods. Instead of three big bond projects, we should do 300 little projects.
For neighborhoods that have neighborhood plans, we should implement the quality of life improvements in those plans. For neighborhoods that don’t yet, we will need to spend the next three years planning. The goal would be to ensure that you would see things better in your own neighborhood when you walked out your door - no matter where you live in the city.
It’s the basics – but basics that reflect a vision of what a great American city should be.
Recently, I became frustrated with the Parks Department when I felt they resisted planning for neighborhood parks (we patched things up). Folks who come before the City Council know that I focus a lot on sidewalks. Some of my colleagues laugh about my sidewalk fixation.
Now you know why.
Oh, the places you’ll go!
We live at the Triangle now. I love living there. I can walk to the dry cleaners, the coffee shop, the gym… and the park. All on sidewalks.
Ford loves living at the Triangle, too. He loves going for walks in the park, playing soccer on the Bocce ball court and throwing rocks in the pond (he is going to be right-handed, much to his left-handed dad’s disappointment).
Most of all, Ford loves riding his tricycle. He rides his tricycle to the park. He rides it when he accompanies me to the dry cleaners. He rides his tricycle to dinner at Galaxy Café and Mandola’s. He even rides his tricycle inside the restaurants.
It turns out there are no rules against a 4-year-old riding his tricycle into a restaurant. After all, they’ve never seen it before.
Download a printable version of this week’s Crow’s Nest (pdf file).
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