The new site is up!

So why are you still here?

Get ye over to thegoodcity.com, where i hope to once again discuss city, church and culture here in Fort Wayne and elsewhere.

See you there!

UPDATE: OK, now it actually works in Internet Explorer, which evidently is still in use out there on the googlenets. Sorry for the error!

Pardon the ugliness

I will soon move this whole blog over to my new hosting provider, so The Good City will actually live at thegoodcity.com. But until I do so, this blog will be a little ugly, since I didn’t pay the annual CSS prettifying fee to WordPress.com.

Stay tuned for details!

Seniors want to walk, but the streets won’t let them

Will our cities step up and improve our streets for non-car traffic for our seniors?

A new poll by AARP finds that while many Americans ages 50+ are trying to move away from car transportation as a result of high gas prices, their attempt to go “green” is challenged by inadequate sidewalks and bike lanes, as well as insufficient public transportation options. …

Almost one of every three people (29%) polled say they are now walking as a way to avoid high gas prices. But as those people set out to walk, almost 40% of the 50+ population say they do not have adequate sidewalks in their neighborhoods. Additionally, 44% say they do not have nearby public transportation that is accessible. Almost half (47%) of poll responders say they cannot cross the main roads safely — 4 in 10 pedestrian fatalities are over the age of 50. 

No wonder many older people are tempted to drive even as their reflexes slow and sight dims. There aren’t always sidewalks, but there are always streets.   

Read the whole article here.

Dangerous crossing

This is North Clinton Street at Grove Street here in Fort Wayne. It’s a bit north of downtown, so the lack of pedestrian safety is unfortunately a given.

This intersection is close to a large number of apartments, down Grove to the left, and the last I heard, many new immigrants are placed there. I would guess a new immigrant living in an apartment would be more likely to want to use Citilink buses, especially since so many other cultures are more acclimated to using public transportation than the U.S.

But think about being a pedestrian trying to cross this five-lane road. I estimate it’s about 75 feet across. I have sometimes seen people standing in the center turn-left-both-ways lane, waiting to cross the next two lanes. It’s a natural place to want to stand, but it’s quite dangerous, since it’s a real lane used by vehicles.

Medians are used to good effect on Main Street downtown. Can’t we extend the hospitality to other areas of the city? These can’t be that expensive:

It’s a midblock median island, and something similar would be helpful to the real and perceived safety of pedestrians in the area trying to catch the bus. It seems placing one in the center lane just to the north of Grove Street would help pedestrians immensely without affecting traffic much at all.

But two other problems make this stretch hazardous for pedestrians. First, the sidewalks are rather narrow. Second, have you noticed how easy it is to go above the 35 mph speed limit in this stretch? That’s because the expressway width of the road makes even 50 mph feels safe.

Taking away a foot of roadway on both sides and giving that space to pedestrians or bike lanes would give motorists visual clues that would help keep speeds closer to the posted limit.

Are there other areas in town that could use a little love for pedestrians?

– bottom photo by Richard Drdul on Flickr

Beijing hides ‘ugly’ neighborhood with brick wall

Is eminent domain not cleaning up your city fast enough? You could take a tip from Beijing and simply surround the offending non-glittery neighborhood with a giant brick wall.

more about "Beijing hides ‘ugly’ neighborhood wit…", posted with vodpod

America’s fastest-dying cities

As ranked by Forbes magazine. The Rust Belt is pretty much the entire list.

The big loser? Ohio, with four cities on the list: Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and Cleveland. Runner-up is Michigan, with Detroit and Flint.

Read the article and view the related photo package.

– Photo by abardwell on Flickr

Poverty experts bewildered by the poor

A story in the Sunday Journal Gazette titled “Section 8 leaves poor unmoved: Efforts to scatter poverty meet unplanned hurdle” takes a look at where poorer people live,evenwhen given the chance to move:

If people living in the projects were bedeviled by crime, deteriorating conditions, bad schools, few resources and urban blight, a voucher that would let them escape to neighborhoods with less crime and fewer problems might also help them escape poverty altogether. Those with vouchers would pay 30 percent of their income toward rent, the government would pay the rest.

“There was a general feeling that there was a contagion effect,” said Ron Haskins, a poverty expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. “The idea was to disperse low-income families.”

Thirty years later – despite the chance to live anywhere in the city — a map of where Section 8 vouchers are being used in Fort Wayne shows they are largely concentrated on the southeast side.

Poverty experts aside, people for the most part still like to live in the neighborhood in which they live. Read the story here, but you’ll have to get the print edition to see the map.

The geography of happiness

How much is your happiness dependent on what country you live in?

That’s tough to say, but by and large, Americans are pretty happy; in fact, we’re ranked 16th in the world. From Science Daily:

Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS’s 2000 survey.

“Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the U.S. looks pretty good,” says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the university, who directs the study. “The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom.”

And Richard Florida correctly points out the money quote, by Inglehart: “Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives.”

Read the article here. HT: Richard Florida

Follow the Crumb Trail to local produce

Wondering when all those farmers markets around the area are open and what they might have? And realizing that they’re not listed in the phone book?

The author of a new blog, The Crumb Trail, has as its stated purpose:

Sources for locally grown produce, meat, and dairy in Allen and surrounding counties in IN.

Find out about new and favorite farm markets by keeping to the Crumb Trail.

– Photo from The Crumb Trail

The Good City awakens

I keep finding links and stories that I want to share, and then I think to myself, “Oh, that’s right. I’m on hiatus.”

So, TGC is back! But what have I been doing?

jonswerens.com

I’ve been working on my own personal Web site, www.jonswerens.com, for quite a while now. Coming soon there: Some video of a concert of mine in Angola, Ind., back in April.

Plus, I’ve been adding features such as easy-to-print and -email posts, and a groovy-cool Gig Calendar for when I actually get back to performing concerts again.

thegoodcity.com

As you may or may not know, I own the domain name thegoodcity.com, but that URL just transfers you to this WordPress.com blog. 

But when I change Web hosting providers in a month or two, I will be able to afford hosting under the URL itself. That looks a step more professional and allows me more technical flexibility in how to set up this blog.

After the switch, your old links likely won’t work and your RSS feed and auto-email thingy will need to be reset.

Stay tuned for more changes!