Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM
Walkability - Barelas Style
So I make my mug of Ohori’s Italian Roast drip coffee, all the while dithering over whether I want to start my day with the New York Times or the Albuquerque Journal. Undecided, I head out to the front porch, balancing an old-fashioned paper newspaper atop my laptop. I gingerly set down my filled-to-the-brim Mickey Mouse coffee mug on the rickety retro aqua blue wooden table, pull my favorite sturdy cane chair closer to the porch rail, and sit down, resting my feet on the rail and my laptop on my actual lap.
There.
I’m ready to start my Sunday.
Before I crack open either paper (electronic or dead-tree), I notice that the neighborhood is abuzz with activity this morning. Denizens of Barelas and visitors to our fine barrio are walking, riding their bicycles, and otherwise getting around without the assistance of petroleum guzzling conveyances.
In the fifteen minutes after I have had my first sip of coffee on the porch, I notice the following:
• A 60-ish couple on bicycles, wearing matching shiny new Bell bike helmets. I’m guessing they may be coming from the Church of Beethoven as the time is right and they (and their bikes) fit that demographic.
• A granddaughter pushing her grandmother in a home-use wheelchair. The grandmother has lifted her face to the sun and has the most beatific smile on her face, matched only by her granddaughter's radiant smile. The grandmother, clad in a conservative cotton dress and sensible low heeled black patent leather sandals, makes a marked contrast to her twenty-ish granddaughter, who is wearing tasteful black shorts and a colorful blouse. They turn north on 4th Street; I surmise they may be going to mass at Sacred Heart Church.
• A plump young mother pushing two children in one of those strollers that converts to a bike trailer. She is red-faced and looks a bit wilted. The children are fast asleep. I remember the days. (This reminds me that I should probably retrieve our bike trailer out of the shed and use it to haul around groceries or something.)
• A thirty-something couple who look as if they’ve stepped from the pages of an REI catalog. They’re walking south on 4th Street, with their leather-bottomed daypacks and sheathed metal water bottles. Given that they are dressed to walk the bosque, I wonder why they are walking through the heart of Barelas – as far as I know, none of the restaurants on 4th Street are open now. But perhaps they are DCF readers going to the NHCC to check out the posters…
Walkability is a word I keep seeing this summer. According to this nifty little tool, both of my home neighborhoods are very walkable, with scores of 74 (Barelas) and 78 (Trinidad in Washington DC). These pale in comparision to neighborhoods like Nob Hill and Dupont Circle, but I'm not complaining. Much.
The eco-geek in me loves the concept of walkability, yet for some reason I find the word itself a bit annoying. I don’t know whether it’s my usual curmudgeonly resistance to neologisms or the hint of elitism typically associated with the word, but something about it grates.
Depending on how you look at it, Barelas has been ahead of the curve or way behind when it comes to how people get around. For some people, walkability is a necessity, not a trend.
One of my neighbors has been catching the bus to her job for years; she doesn’t drive and cannot read English. Another neighbor, a teacher's aide, walks the few blocks from her house to school. On any given weekday afternoon in Barelas you can see middle-aged laborers riding home on bicycles – the bicycles are more likely to be labelled Huffy than Bianchi, and there’s nary a bike helmet visible in the entire bunch.
I know walkability is an appellation for a neighborhood and not a set of behaviors, but I can't help thinking about what walkability means for children and teens. Über-organized and tightly scripted summer schedules seem to be the antithesis of walkability.
When I was young, we didn't have much choice. If we wanted to go somewhere, we knew that we had to walk, bicycle, rollerblade, or skateboard to get there. Maybe this was an effect of the 70s gas price wars. Maybe parents were less inclined to spend their time shuttling children from one place to another by car. Or perhaps they were just more
In some places, like Barelas, this pattern still holds. Children and teens mostly get around on their own power - walking or biking to the community center, the pool, dance classes and art lessons, and elsewhere. What I find fascinating is the informal "Kid Watch" that springs up here every summer. Without fail, from senior citizens to stay at home mothers to telecommuters, Bareleños keep an eye out for their own, watching from their front porches and windows and gardens for any hint of trouble.
Barelas has another group of commuters without cars - those who live here by choice. (Some call them the first wave of gentrification.) There’s a whole passel of professionals, from lawyers to non-profit managers, who walk to work downtown. We’ve also got a contingent of Rail Runner riders, who walk or bike to the train station and continue on to work - which is usually an office environment with shower facilities and secure bicycle storage.
And then there are those of us fortunate enough to associate the word ‘commute’ with stumbling to the front porch and setting up a laptop or an easel as we watch the world go by on a Monday morning.
Lest you envy us too much, remember that working from home is a mixed blessing, with plenty of distractions (people stopping by to visit because you are at home) and temptations (hmm, maybe I should first pick plums before I start writing this proposal) that can lead one astray.
Happy Monday!
Tags: albuquerque, barelas, walkability
10 Comments
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Comment by mombat on July 28, 2008 at 4:12pm -
Lovely!
I think that trendy labels often wreck good concepts. Barelas, Nob Hill and many other older neighborhoods are walkable because that is way we built things for most of human history.
I have to fight my husband and oldest daughter for the Times magazine on Sundays.
Enjoy the porch.
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Comment by Dennis Osorio on July 28, 2008 at 7:18pm -
I loved your post. I think the ability to walk places, to watch neighbors walking, to have access to a church/school/coffeehouse/whatever fosters a great sense of community. That is part of the reason it makes me sad to see us living in bigger and bigger houses located further and further away from each other. With all that "space" something is lost.
I don't think happiness is formulaic or that my definition is appropriate for everyone. But for me, "walkability" is certainly part of the equation.
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Comment by Joe S Sausage on July 28, 2008 at 9:09pm - i live up in Alameda, the lots are huge, lot of space, it takes a little work to know your neighbors, but we do, it's the new ones that seem standoffish, the point is, community begins in the heart of the individual, smile and say hi, it will shrink that space.
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Comment by Barelas Babe on July 29, 2008 at 8:06am -
Just Al - yeah, getting out to have fun is one of those things that keeps slipping to the bottom of my "To Do" list. I've reordered it this week.
Mombat, Dennis O - Good point about how this trend away from walkability is fairly recent. As a child of the suburbs, I sometimes forget this - even though our suburbs (built in the 1950s when most families had just one car) were relatively walkable. Last night my daughter and I were talking about where I grew up and what was within walking/biking distance - I was surprised when I realized how much was only a 10-15 walk away! Sure, there were no museums or bosque to keep us occupied, but plenty of other things to keep a child's interest including two craft stores, an avocado packing/processing business, two drugstores (one with ice cream), a park and a bus that went straight to the beach.
Joe S - I couldn't agree more that community is what you make it! When I lived in very rural Wyoming, my neighbors were sometimes miles away, but we made the effort to get to know one another and stay in touch - even if it was just waving to each other on the road into town. Glad to know that you are making these efforts. (And one of these days soon I'll be popping into your shop to get some sausage...)
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Comment by Lee on July 29, 2008 at 3:03pm -
the idea of a walkable neighborhood and one which watches out for it's own, all feed on one another. In modern suburbia the focal point of houses is inside, or a big patio in the backyard which turns it's back to the street and what is happening, people get in their cars in their garage, drive away and return to the garage, all without any interaction.
Older neighborhoods, the bungalow type houses with windows that open, large front patios and the ability to walk to the local store, work etc.. gets people knowing one another, or at least familiar with the faces that live on a block or blocks. People can actually sit on front patios, much like you clearly do, and experience the neighbors.
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Comment by Matt on July 29, 2008 at 4:14pm -
Thanks for a great post!
I grew up in the experimental suburb known as long island, and I remember having to walk everywhere we went, and the neighbors always watching out for us, (and calling our parents when we made trouble, smoked cigarrettes, or mis-behaved). I love your writing style, it was so easy to read and let myself see your world through your eyes.
Thanks again!
just my two sense
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Comment by Shifty on July 29, 2008 at 5:47pm -
My childhood was similar--if I wanted to get somewhere I had to walk, skate, or ride my bike to get there! My mom refused to take part in the overprotective culture of driving the kids to every event, and I think my brothers and I wound up with a sense of adventure and travel resourcefulness that some of our fellow suburbanites didn't share, as a result.
You're right that walkability seems to be the topic of the day, especially here on DCF. I wonder if the summer months and high gas prices have made us all aware of how little time we do spend hoofing it.
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Comment by JeSais on July 30, 2008 at 11:49am
- its funny, when I lived in the big bad city of Chicago I knew more of my neighbors than when I lived in So. Cal. I'd see my Chicago neighbors at the bus stop, at the coffee shop, at the grocery... or standing in the lobby waiting for the damn slow elevator. walkable = community.
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Comment by Jay Brotz on July 30, 2008 at 4:56pm - It's funny, in all of my searches for a "vibrant" neighborhood, I've never really known what that meant. I don't know what it is, but I know that I want one. But you, by simply describing a scene on a Sunday morning, seem to have defined just that. It sounds like a great place.
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P.S. love your New Mexican style porch! And you have the same ideas we do for weekend mornings once we move......