The Fairbanks Pedestrian is a discussion of community-building, social capital, downtowns, neighborhood culture, city planning, domestic and civic architecture, public and private transportation, and the pleasures and difficulties of city living in Fairbanks, Alaska.
I hope you’ll join the discussion.
In The Fairbanks Pedestrian, I explore a few central ideas:
- City life — and that doesn’t mean big city life — provides a cultural wealth that car-intensive, suburban life does not.
- Civic, democratic life is enhanced when people have more chances to encounter each other and those different from them.
- Our built environment should be useful, convenient, and pleasant enough that people do not feel the need to retreat from it daily.
- Children, the poor, the elderly, and the infirm deserve physical access to cultural resources equal to the access of well-off, able-bodied adults.
- Whether cars are wholly good, wholly bad, or something in between, all people have a right to meet their daily needs without owning one — that is, on foot.
While for now I write all the posts to to this blog, I am always eager for readers to participate. I do not claim to have all the answers to the questions raised here, nor are all my stated opinions unchangeable and final. I encourage everybody with another perspective or a question to leave a comment. For example:
- “Here’s another example of what you’re talking about…”
- “How would your solution apply in this difficult circumstance?…”
- “Here are some facts you didn’t consider…”
- “One of your premises is faulty. Here’s what I’d say instead…”
And, of course:
- “Great ideas! What can I do to help?”
To leave a comment, click on the linked text (“No Comments”, “5 Comments”) at the end of the post to which you’d like to respond. Or, if you already see an empty box below the text “Leave a Reply”, you may type your response there.
If you enjoy The Fairbanks Pedestrian and would like to keep up with new posts or new comments, there are a few ways to follow them: Those who use a “feed reader” like Bloglines or Google Reader may subscribe to this blog’s new posts or to all new comments, with the “Posts” and “Comments” links at the top, or to the comments specific to one post, with the “Comments RSS” link at the end of that post’s comments. Those who prefer e-mail notifications may sign up for them by following the “Subscribe to Posts” and “Subscribe to Comments” links under the banner.
I look forward to this discussion with you, and I hope that it can help us build, keep, and improve on a city worth living in.
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