"You are the dumb-est smart person I know."
It's what Will Smith's character, Del Spooner, says to Bridget Moynahan's stoic-hot Dr. Susan Calvin in one of my favorite movies, I, Robot.
I can be a dumbest smart person.
You decide if I am also Calvin's in-your-face response back at Smith: "You are the dumbest dumb person I know."
"Dumb" is not always bad. And dumb, I submit, should, be not be dealt with in a Spooner/Smith m.o.; "dumb" should be dealt with gently, with compassion. Compassion is not dumb or smart. Just good.
Saturday morning, whilst walking Mandy (for those keeping track? Our charge of her was to have first ended July; then October; now? January! Looks like my brother's stay in the UK is in-def-i-nite! Yay for us in continuing to house this hound!)... SAT-URDAY MORNING, whilst walking Mandy, I decided to do more than stroll our area's fetching sidewalks and venture beyond. We started at 11th Avenue and I Street, made our way to A, then veered North, into the semi-wild.
As we were rounding the corner? Saw a thirty-something couple, running up the same hill I was going to be descending. As I embarked on what my WHS XC son calls "The Horse Shoe" portion of the winding route to City Creek Canyon, I thought to myself of the attractive, fit, hip couple with kid--"Living the dream!" and decided to bark that out to them, when I realized I actually knew the trio.
[The couple: Kristin White Berry and Jason Berry, whom I had never met until last month, when they attended a Green Drinks event I hosted, and then, just last week, when I happened upon Vice President Kristin (the only woman with a window office at Sentry Financial). Kristin, running UPHILL and easily conversing, tells me it is good to see me out. (She knows of my recovering, post-campaign status.) Husband Jason, ever pleasant, ever wise, pushed the baby carriage. Good man. Admit to not knowing baby's name. :( ]
I continued along my way, on the "right" side of the "two-laned" street.
WIthin seconds, I met Willamarie Huelskamp and partner Ira Rubinfeld. Having known of her for years, (we both teach Yoga) and of her art renown, and having almost-known him for years longer (we both sweated vigorously and regularly @ Metro Sports Mall), I only recently connected their dots during my campaign, at an event in Park City: We all were attending the Burner-oriented tribute to All Hallows--SummerWeen. It was only then that I knew of my 11th Avenue neighbors being a couple; I saw Ira days later, for the first time in my 16 years in The Ave's, tending to a lawn.
Well, Saturday morn, I was the dumbest smart neighbor.
As the pair came into view, coming uphill and chatting, Ira's hands gesturing generously, I called out to them, indicating that there surely must be some "big ideas generating over there." (I was, again, on the "right" side of the "two-laned" road.) Ira, somehow, pointed out the allowance of the ped/biking lane, and that I was not in it, inviting me to come to the right side. Willamarie pointed out the painted images on the asphalt, indicating the ped-velo-friendly sphere.
Usually, when I traverse the area, it is late late at night, or early early a.m., or a bridge of both; as such, zero cars or perceptible life forms encounter me down or up. Although I have driven that stretch and encountered others walking/riding to the left and know it to not be drive-able from the other direction, I somehow never interpreted that data to me and my new-found walking habits with this dog-charge. I also don't usually look down.
The dumbest dumb neighbor.
Dealt with in kindness.
On the return walk, back up on 11th Avenue now, in encountering a few squares of dug-up concrete sidewalk and enjoying the yielding earth as opposed to the body-jarring concrete, the dumbest smart neigbor wonders if we couldn't leverage some material other than ped-harsh, resource-intensive (to pour, to maintain) concrete and heat-island-inducing, unattractive asphalt for our sidewalks. Could we "go pervious" for much of our traditional sidewalk space in The Avenues? The idea rings truer yet when I am met with some paving stones serving as routes to and from the curb and sidewalk at the visual threshold of a well-tended home in the mid-Avenues. (I will not "out" the property with an address, for fear of exposing the place to ordinance violation!)
When I embarked on my Summer of 2009 run for Salt Lake City Council, I met with Salt Lake County Mayor and Avenues resident Peter Corroon. His number-one issue? The walkability of The Avenues. Specifically? Redressing the poor shape of many of our sidewalks. I agreed it to be a top priority. But what about leapfrogging this situation with a solution both addressing the current problems of corrections/maintainability and the bigger-picture notions of not just green, but joy--SO very much nicer to walk on surfaces other than harsh concrete.
I understand that yesterday's sidewalks and today's (cities in Alabama have been hosting pervious concrete since 2004) permeable walks host more than pedestrians: Baby carriages (like that yielded with grace by the happenin' White family), wheel chairs, lil' red wagons, wheelbarrows, and the like rely on traverse-ability of those parallel road arteries. But why not look to find surfaces that are not only more foot-friendly, but are inherently more environmental in terms of minimizing heat island-effects as well as water runoff. Why not... go green and put the walk into sidewalk?
I really like the recommendations posted by eco-landscape architects County Landscape and Design out of Santa Barbara, Calif. While some notions may strike as a bit over-the-top, when ingested with a more forward-thinking look at what our increasingly more walk-able, bike-able, dog-able area might look like? A less car-centric, more community-centric neighborhood? Well, take a whirl:
1. ALTERNATIVES TO IMPERMEABLE PAVING: Where paving is required, mandate the use of permeable materials and systems.
2. PERMEABLE STREETS: Repave streets with pervious concrete or other permeable materials. (Florida/deep South, Great Britain, elsewhere)
3. PERMEABLE SIDEWALKS: Use pervious concrete or other permeable material for construction and reconstruction of sidewalks.
4. NATURAL SIDEWALKS: Where practical, use natural materials like decomposed granite or soil paving for sidewalks. The city of Paris, France successfully uses loose and pervious materials extensively in public rights of way. Many communities in the United States and all over the world have no problem with safe, pervious, natural public paths. If decomposed granite paths are good enough for Alice Keck Park Memorial Gardens, then why aren’t they good enough for other pedestrian uses?
5. SIDEWALK REDUCTION PROGRAM: Evaluate the necessity for sidewalks, remove existing sidewalks where practical, and minimizing the construction of new sidewalks. Install sidewalks on one side of the street only.
6. ROOT-FRIENDLY PAVING: Trees offer many advantages to residents and the environment. Sidewalks, roads, foundations and other urban infrastructure are detrimental to the root systems and overall health of trees and other plants. Santa Barbara is a Tree City USA, but like all cities it damages its urban forest through unwise paving techniques. Develop a plan for improved methods of caring for tree root zones, including engineered or structural soils beneath city sidewalks and streets, "continuous trench" and "root path trench" methods of rootzone enhancement, and pervious paving techniques.
7. NON-TOXIC SEAL COATING: Develop and mandate the use of pavement maintenance materials that do not leach toxic waste.
The dumbest smart person?
The dumbest dumb person?
Or just a neighbor who cares about a Green City, Smart City, Hip City, Safe City?
I can be called any of the above by Will Smith. The rest of you? Please choose option C or let me know other thoughts. Or, choose option C AND let me know other thoughts.
(The source for the Santa Barbara ideas can be found @ http://www.owendell.com/watershed2.html)
