Sidewalks for the internet
Since having a second kid, my husband and I realized that we are rapidly out-kippling our ability to stay in our current house, and we’ve been on the hunt for a new one. However, we’re finding it very hard to pull the trigger because the area we live in now is extremely walkable, much more so than the average American suburb.
We realized how important this was to us after looking at a house last week. It was completely remodeled and had all the bells and whistles you could possibly want: awesome kitchen, a study, a pool, and a separate bedroom for everyone so the baby doesn’t snore baby snores right next to my ear every night! It was great.
There was only one problem: the development didn’t have a sidewalk.
It’s hard to know what specifically about the lack of sidewalk threw us off. By all rational reasons, we should have sprung for that house right away. But, subconsciously, it was this big, weird, dark thing, and we decided not to go any further in the process after talking about it.
On the face of it, it seems ridiculous to decline to buy a house because there’s no sidewalk. But, I went to investigate, and it turns out I wasn’t as crazy as I thought. Sidewalks are really, really important for our mental and physical health. As far as physical health goes, it’s obvious: more sidewalks mean more riding bikes and walking.
Walkability has a direct and specific relation to the health of residents. A comprehensive study of walkability has found that people in walkable neighborhoods did about 35-45 more minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week and were substantially less likely to be overweight or obese than similar people living in low-walkable neighborhoods.
In a massive study of half a million residents of Salt Lake County, researchers at the University of Utah found that an average-sized man weighed 10 pounds less if he lived in a walkable neighborhood – "those that are more densely populated, designed to be more friendly to pedestrians and have a range of destinations for pedestrians" – versus a less walkable one. A woman of average size weighed six pounds less.
Good sidewalks have an impact on our mental health, as well. In a study in Tehran, Iran, researchers found a correlation between mental satisfaction and the state of the sidewalks in the city.
America is terrible at sidewalks. It’s one of the least-friendly countries for walking.
So, given all the benefits, why doesn’t America build more sidewalks? The answer is pretty complicated and probably belongs in Normcore’s sister publication, Normcore Architecture, but, basically, we love cars too much, and property owners have to shoulder the costs of sidewalk construction without perceived benefits, and so are hesitant to approve them.
We built America to be car-friendly since the beginning of cars (but particularly after the 1950s), and since then, cars have been seen as high-status commuting options. The main reason that the house we looked at didn’t have sidewalks was that it was built as a separate subdivision in the 1940s. And in the 1940s, walking was seen as lower-class.
The original reason for not building sidewalks in suburban neighborhoods was to give the development a “high-class” non-urban image by discouraging walking. See Dead End, page 16.
….
My neighborhood, Palisades, had a protracted debate about adding sidewalks on a neighborhood street, University Terrace. Ultimately they were not put in.
Some of the arguments were expected: there are people who never walk, who don’t see any utility to sidewalks. Landowners who would lose part of their front yard were predictably opposed. What surprised me was how many people expressed the viewpoint that sidewalks actually detract from a neighborhood. People even used the adjective “rural” to describe our neighborhood. I’m not sure they really knew what rural meant — Palisades certainly isn’t rural — I think they were looking for a word that meant non-urban and that was the best they could come up with.
Very frequently, homeowners push back against installing sidewalks because, in addition to costing, a lot, there is a pervasive idea in America that putting in sidewalks invites people to “loiter.”
I often think that we’re kind of at the same place of the internet. The sidewalks (and front porches) of websites used to be Javascript-free websites that loaded quickly, with comment sections. These were places where everyone could freely travel and participate in the public nature of the internet.
But, as the internet became more commercialized, more walled gardens were created, and for the sites that remained open, comment sections were closed down (because it costs money and time to moderate comments (Normcore link) and sites didn’t want to spend it), and instead plastered the whole damn web with ads.
There are still a couple places that are open to public “walking” - Reddit (Normcore link). MetaFilter. Some niche internet forums. Hacker News. But the number of sites where you can talk and walk freely with people in a leisurely, open way that’s not subjected to the algorithmic hyperbole and social media public shaming is dwindling.
It’s a huge shame, because democracies need informed people to make decisions that benefit the population when they vote in elections. But we now conduct our debates and knowledge-sharing in short tweets or on closed platforms like Facebook that are subject to hiding comments and bringing out the worst of human nature.
Maybe we’ll swing back to sidewalks soon. The tide seems to already be turning in suburbs and cities. (For example, this trial community in Tempe, Arizona, that’s banning cars.) The newsletter boom is proof that people are thirsty for good, non-sponsored content. Now the problem is adding back the conversational component that we’ve lost.
Art: House on the Outskirts of Paris, Henri Rosseau, 1902
What I’m reading lately:
Always a fun time reading about McKinsey and other management consultancies
Family bathroom design in America is … crap
This was a fantastic watch (and it has subtitles) with an American Central Park tie-in
If you’re so successful why are you working 70-hour weeks?
About the Newsletter
This newsletter is about issues in tech that I’m not seeing covered in the media or blogs and want to read about. It goes out once a week to free subscribers, and once more to paid subscribers. If you like it, forward it to friends!
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What’s up with Russia’s Internet· I spent $1 billion and all I got was this Rubik’s cube· Die Gedanken sind frei · Neural nets are just people· Le tweet, c’est moi· The curse of being big on the internet· How do you like THAT, Elon Musk?·Do we need tech management books? ·Two Python Paths
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Imgur is bad now · Eric Schmidt and the great revolving door· No photos please · Deep thoughts of Cal Newport
About the Author:
I’m a data scientist in Philadelphia. Most of my free time is spent wrangling a preschooler and an infant, reading, and writing bad tweets. I also have longer opinions on things. Find out more here or follow me on Twitter.