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Since transitioning to life almost exclusively in my home in March, I've come to appreciate even more how lucky I am to live in a walkable neighborhood, and have thought a lot about the value of investing in hyper-local spaces. A thread 1/x
Since the pandemic, I am spending nearly all of my 24 hour days in #Northside45223. Most mornings I take a mile walk around the neighborhood, sometimes my family hikes in the nature preserve a few blocks away, and I've patronized many of the local businesses. 2/x
I'm fortunate that my neighborhood has residential streets that are safe for walking, parks and recreation nearby, local restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacies, convenience stores and more that have remained open for carryout and delivery during this time. 3/x
Short of a grocery store, every thing I need or want can be reached on foot or bike. I recognize how few places that is true in our community. When we talk about building back better, we should be talking about investing in hype-local improvements. 4/x
That means lifting up the work of neighborhood community development corporation to reinvigorate business districts and create a mix of housing options and supporting groups like @weareMORTAR to create a pipeline of diverse businesses to fill those business districts. 5/x
We should double down on the work of making our communities more walkable and bikeable. Too many streets in our community are designed to be hostile to non-drivers, and it impacts what people can access in their neighborhood. 6/x
And we should be thinking about how equitable our access to parks and recreation are in our community. How many people can walk or bike to a playground? to a nature preserve? to a trail? to a public pool with strong social distancing policies?I7/x
These types of investments are true whether you're a city dweller or a suburbanite. Focusing on how people interact with places at the human scale is more important than ever, and it will make our neighborhoods and communities more equitable and desirable in the long run. 8/x
I haven't touched on the sense of community you can feel when your community is built at human scale. We have front porches to sit on & socially distance, space to walk, including in the street when necessary. I have seen more of my neighbors, not less, in the pandemic. 9/x
There aren't specific policy prescriptions here. Just thoughts on falling in love all over again with the community I live in, and a hope that we'll create more spaces like this, and ensure they're accessible and affordable for everyone 10/10
