you are here (we think . . .)

from: La Ganga, Maria L. "You are here (we think . . .)." Los Angeles Times, 21 August 2005.

Building in the nation's burgeoning burbs is happening at such a torrid clip that it has outpaced cartographers' ability to map the latest subdivisions in places such as Elk Grove, Mountain House and Moreno Valley, all in California; Reno and Las Vegas; Phoenix; and central Florida.

Cartographers have struggled to chart the changing world for more than four millenniums, since Babylonians etched charts on clay tablets. But these days, the maps of America's fastest-growing suburbs are running woefully behind schedule at the same time that technological advances are raising travelers' expectations that it's possible to go from Point A to Point B without getting lost.

Even maps supplied by online services, which generally refresh their databases quarterly, or those zippy little global positioning system gadgets in expensive new cars and high-end rentals, are not much more current than many of the maps jammed inside glove compartments.

"It's tougher now with the growth to get a fully updated product to the market," said Edward Sweet, director of cartography, geographic information systems and research for Compass Maps Inc. of Modesto. "Scouting research is still very hard…. We rely on public works departments, government agencies, and they're in the same situation we are. They're so far behind with budget cuts and the costs of doing day-to-day business."

In Modesto alone, Compass gets information on 10 to 20 new streets and two or three new subdivisions each month to add to its city road map, which is being updated for 2006. The California State Automobile Assn. is updating its Reno map
for the first time in 18 months, and cartographers are adding 700 streets.

"We have one person dedicated to doing Las Vegas, and it's a lifetime career, it seems," said Jonathan Lawton, senior cartographer at the San Francisco-based CSAA. "At one point, five years or so ago, Las Vegas had 400% growth, and that's hard to catch up with."

The Art of Mall Walking (Viv Corringham)

Here is an excerpt from an article from Minnesota Public Radio on the work of walking artist Viv Corringham:

Baxter, Annie. "The Art of Mall Walking," Minnesota Public Radio, 29 March 2005.

Musician and sound artist Viv Corringham loves to walk. Back in England, where she's from, walking is considered a virtuous activity.

"A walk is all about nature, communing with nature- communing with your higher feelings," Corringham says. It's all part of the romantic poets history that's passed down to us."

Corringham tapped into this idea in a sound art project she called "Shadow Walks." She went around England and Ireland asking people to show her walks that were meaningful to them. She'd record her conversation with the person during the walk. Then she'd go back and take the walk alone. She would
try to get a sense of the place and then sing what she felt--doing wordless vocal improvisations. In her final sound pieces, she'd mix the narration and singing together with recordings of the sounds of the place.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Rebecca Solnit)

Press, Joy. "Wander Woman: An offbeat intellectual explores urban ruins, country music, Hitchcock's Vertigo—and grandma," Village Voice, 28 June 2005.

Although the title pronounces this a field guide, it's closer to a walkabout. Solnit's essays sweep through myriad varieties of loss, from objects to memories to love, with plenty of slippage between the categories. She believes that losing things is intrinsic to human life, a never ending process of abandonment and discovery. "Imagine yourself streaming through time shedding gloves, umbrellas, wrenches, books, friends, homes, names," Solnit proposes. "This is what the view looks like if you take a rear-facing seat on the train. Looking forward you constantly acquire moments of arrival, moments of realization, moments of discovery." Solnit's writing switches gracefully between these two modes of perception—between melancholy regret at what's been discarded (Hollow City documented the displacement of bohemian San Francisco in the dotcom era) and fragile optimism (Hope in the Dark rallies around the power of grassroots activism).

talking about Pedestrian Culture to John and Jane Citizen

A good question from the Pedestrian Culture listserv, from L.A. walker Lisa Salem. Any thoughts?:

I'd really like to generate a dialogue here for exploring ways of talking about the ideas and issues within 'pedestrian culture' (inc. psychogeography, derive, acoustic ecology, land art etc...) that aren't alienating, overly academic or cerebral. I'm interested in communicating with the 'average person on the street' (if there is such a thing) about these ideas but am at a bit of a loss as to how to do it without being written off as 'arty' or bourgeois/academic.

I want to converse with a broad spectrum of the public but that necessitates knowing how to present these ideas in the first place in a relatable, inspiring and non-alienating way.

It seems to me that these are the wrong fields to be confined to the worlds of art and academia as they are so fundamentally about being human and living in (our) society. And yet when I try to touch on the issues with people outside of these circles, I often get a glazed look.

I was wondering if this spawned any thoughts for any of you? I'd love to explore and experiment with this topic in this forum. Also, perhaps there is some reading that I have missed that would help?

Don't even THINK of walking here . . .

Some scary pedestrian hazards from Michael Lewyn, here, here, and here.

pedestrian right-of-way?

From: Vartabedian, Ralph. "Caution: Pedestrian Crossing," Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2005.

Lt. Joe Whiteford of the California Highway Patrol says that a driver must wait only until it is safe to proceed through the crosswalk. A violation occurs if the pedestrian must take evasive action or stop to allow the vehicle to pass through. In that case, the motorist has violated the pedestrian's right of way.

So, if the pedestrian is walking away from the car, it is legal to proceed through the crosswalk when the pedestrian is a safe distance away. When the pedestrian is walking toward a car, it is legal to go through the crosswalk if the pedestrian is far enough away so that he or she does not have to slow down or stop for the vehicle to complete the turn.In Eklof's scenario, it would be legal to complete the turn if the pedestrian had only stepped off the curb of a six-lane street and was walking toward the car. But by the time the pedestrian is in the middle of the street, it is almost certainly too late, according to Whiteford.

The bottom line is that the pedestrian does not always have the right of way.

Peak to Peak

For those of you in the Bay Area (and those of us who wish we had seen this earlier so that we could have registered by the July 15th deadline!), there is a Walk San Francisco Peak to Peak, July 23, 2005. They are listing it as the "First Annual," so hopefully we'll get in on this next year.

The first annual Peak to Peak Walk is a 12 mile challenge that will inspire even the most avid walker. You’ll get a unique view of San Francisco’s skyline, stairways, paths, parks, and monuments—all while raising money for WalkSF’s vital pedestrian safety and advocacy work. Join us as we meander up and down along the spine of the city from Mt. Davidson to Coit Tower, with 15 different peaks along the way. In addition to dirt trails and stunning vistas, the walk also features a delicious gourmet lunch and the chance to win great prizes. From climbing the slopes of Mt. Olympus in the morning to celebrating with dinner in North Beach(optional), this full-day walk will give you a whole new perspective on San Francisco.

Pyschogeographical recordings

Brian from the Pedestrian Culture list turned me on to these recordings: The Architecture of the Incidental and Psychogeographical Dip. We're waiting to see if the liner notes are available for public distribution. Stay tuned.

Talking the Walk

from: Scauzillo, Steve. "Talking the walk," Whittier Daily News, 8 July 2005.

"Last Sunday I was standing at the most dangerous place on Earth. I was a pedestrian trying to walk across Lake Avenue at the Foothill (210) Freeway in Pasadena.

I guess that old Missing Persons song is right on, 'Nobody Walks in L.A.,' because if they did, they would be dead by now or in traction.

Do it and you are risking not only injury but all sorts of ridicule. Responses to me legally walking in Pasadena or other parts of the San Gabriel Valley have run the gamut, from middle fingers thrust in my face, car horns bleeding my ears and drivers shaking their heads in condescending disapproval. Oh yeah, there's also the chance of becoming road splatter.

How do you successfully complete this perfectly legal maneuver without appearing like Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds looking over your shoulder in sheer terror? Or without somehow thinking that you are the one committing the faux pas, the one looking out of place at the party. 'Oh, he's walking across Lake Avenue? I feel sorry for him. Maybe he's homeless or retarded.'"

M.A. in Aural and Visual Cultures

Now, this is what I love about education. A new M.A. in Aural and Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths University of London. Wish I had the time and money to collect graduate degrees.

High Peak Haikus

from: Campbell, James. "High Peak Haikus," Guardian Unlimited, 16 July 2005.

"Snyder is at pains to distinguish his way of life from 'a back-to-the-land, counter-cultural, utopian image of living outside of society. That's all right if you're going to just go like Thoreau did for a year, and you can walk over to Emerson's for dinner. But this is more like what the farm and the ranch in the west is, where people live at a distance, with a certain amount of genuine sustainable skill, though for the time being our life depends on machinery - chainsaws, generators, grass-cutters and so forth. Now, when I first came up here I didn't have any of that, and there may come a time again when I don't have it. And so there are other strategies, too.' Kai emphasises his father's attachment to 'doing things in the old ways, using tools that are made locally, things that are made with an intimate understanding of the place where you live. It's about being rooted in a place, and also understanding that the world is changing very fast and that technologies may only be a transitory crutch, a substitute for a deeper understanding of how to live in a place.' "

Theatre of the City

from: Sinclair, Iain. "Theatre of the City," Guardian Unlimited, 14 July 2005.

"The city shimmers, traffic moves a little more slowly, but it was never fast. The clients of the 30 bus out of Dalston Junction are no stranger than they ever were: an excitable young man smoking dope, two women talking fast and loud in Spanish on a shared mobile-phone, a very local youth proclaiming a sudden interest in voodoo. "You find a piece of gold, bruv, an' you kill your mum and dad. It's interesting, bruv. It's powerful. Africa is powerful, bruv." Noise levels drop as a sallow, bearded man in an unexpectedly good suit, white shirt, no tie, wrestles with a cumbersome black rucksack. He struggles to extract something and we all struggle with him: designer dark glasses. Now he looks more than ever like a movie assassin. He returns to the bag. Three upper-deck passengers make for the stairs. "Allo, mum. It's me." One week on and Hackney transport is the performance art it always was, but more so. The audience is sharper, more alert, quicker to respond."

how many seconds to cross the street

from: Malcolm, Andrew H. "New Signals Give Pedestrians the Time to Make Wise Decisions," Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2005.

"As part of an ongoing response to citizen concerns over traffic congestion and in anticipation of more pedestrians, Santa Clarita officials have installed trial crosswalk signals at two locations, one near City Hall and the other at one of the quickly expanding community's busier intersections, McBean Parkway and Creekside Road.

Instead of a flashing red hand simply telling pedestrians their time is nearly up, the $300 devices count down in seconds the time remaining for the walker to reach the curb.
Such devices are common in more established urban areas where sidewalk traffic is heavy and pedestrians cross intersections in steady flows.

But in the new sections of Valencia, the master-planned portion of Santa Clarita, people actually moving on two legs across streets can seem as rare as a condor drifting overhead.

It is the car that rules transportation in such rapidly growing areas honeycombed with sidewalk-free cul-de-sacs. Here, teenagers shun short walks to rise early and drive to school in time to capture precious parking spots. At the Promenade mall, even adults have been known to drive from Pavilions across the parking lot to the dry cleaners on the other side.

In front of the Promenade during one 30-minute span on a recent weekday morning, a total of four people crossed the nine wide lanes of McBean Parkway beneath the new flashing timer. Two were joggers, one was a delivery man and the fourth an elderly woman who made it to the curb after 29 of her 30 countdown seconds."

www.pedestrianculture.com

It's official! Although it will forward to my Cal State Long Beach website account, www.pedestrianculture.com is live! At some point in the future I will have it hosted on its own, but for now this will work fine. I will start sending notes out to the various listservs (as well as targeted invitations), so hopefully we will start to get more traffic.

blockology

This sounds like my kind of project:

"Robert Jay Kaufman, an illustrator, took off on a 52 day, 300 mile journey walking every single block below 14th street in NYC and then wrote a book called Blockology. . . . He highlights his favorite streets through out the different neighborhoods of lower Manhattan. The West Village, The East Village, Noho, Soho, Little Italy, Nolita, The Bowery, Chinatown, Lower East Side, Battery Park City, Financial District, etc. "

as blogged by Gotham Gal

One way to get around L.A.

"What possessed [Lisa] Salem to embark on a trek, in the summer no less, that will take her from North Hollywood to Pacific Palisades, south to Watts and Los Angeles International Airport, and eastward to South Pasadena and Alhambra? 'The idea percolated over a three-year period,' she says between sips of iced coffee. 'We're all living such different experiences of this town, and yet when we say Los Angeles we tend to presume that we're talking about the same thing. What would happen if I walked through all the different neighborhoods? Would I get a better sense of where I live? What would I see that I don't normally see? I think I know this place fairly well, but how well do I really know it and what would be revealed to me if I approached it from this absurd kind of place?I like the idea of doing something absurd, passionately. To me that's poetic, but you have to find a roundabout way to access that kind of poetic feeling, especially in L.A.'"

Hart, Hugh. "One way to get around L.A. and still beat traffic: Lisa Salem is covering the city by foot while recording her experiences on a blog." Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2005.

walking is not a crime (?)

"Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Americans have been subject to increased government restrictions and scrutiny at airports and elsewhere. That bird-watchers have become a target is somewhat surprising, since all they do is 'walk quietly through the woods . . . '"

Cho, Cynthi H. "Birders Discover They're the Ones Being Watched: Hobbyists find that a walk in the woods isn't easy with anti-terrorism security in place." Los Angeles Times, 5 July 2005.

Making the Rounds

King, Barbara. "Making the Rounds: On foot in summer, you find the heart of a neighborhood." Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2005.

"Since June, my neighborhood, like so many other L.A. neighborhoods, has begun to reveal itself in ways only summer allows. I'm getting to know it. I'm learning its sounds, its movements. I'm learning its stories in brief encounters and leisurely observations on my daily walks. Warm weather has made available so much more: the protective layers of reserve have been packed away for the season. Everything, including the profligate flora, is less self-conscious. It feels a lot like Paris."

Switzerland in September, anyone?

Head to Zurich, Switzerland, September 22-23, for the 6th International Conference on Walking in the 21st Century. Wish I could go. The deadline for early registration is July 15th, so check it out.

links and listserv

The first few of many links to come (see sidebar). I've also created a listserv at yahoogroups called Pedestrian Culture . . . which will hopefully grow into something a little more lively than it is now! More soon.