Preparing to Leave My Blue City Bubble: Getting Ready to Explore
Part Five of Blue City Warrior Visits Red America: In Search of Us
This is the fifth part of my series Blue City Warrior Visits Red America: In Search of Us. Go HERE to read the Blue City Warrior opening essay. Please subscribe to follow my journey!
As I think about how I will show up in my chosen three red cities of Tulsa, OK, Lynchburg, VA, and The Villages, FL, I’m expecting that I will approach these visits as I do any new place I travel to. I love to understand the history, culture, and context of the place: Why is it there? Where is its center? How did it grow? How did the forces of history, racist housing and education practices influence how the city grew? Where did the fancy political and business leaders live, but also, where are the historic redlined neighborhoods? And how did the changes in transportation networks change and impact how the city grew?
I will also keep an eye open for the basic components of a great city. Channeling the great urban champion Jane Jacobs, I will search out the parts of the city that have the most lively and interesting streets, streets that have sidewalks, sidewalks that are made for people, people to walk, and interact with each other. Jacobs taught us that areas that serve more than one function attract more than one type of person, and at various times throughout a day. Rather than segregating different uses to different corners of town, spaces that invite multiple uses breed more lively, interesting spaces.
Great cities also have great public spaces – parks, squares, public buildings. And they invite people in to use them. As Alex Garvin posits in What Makes a Great City? Great Public Spaces, great city spaces 1) are open to anyone, accommodating people of different goals, backgrounds, and reasons to be there; 2) have something for everybody, from active uses to passive uses that give you a reason to go there; 3) attract and maintain demand; 4) are connected to the rest of the city, where people live and play; 5) are designed for people, taking into account their needs for fresh air, cleanliness, with an awareness of the environmental connection; and 6) nurture a civil society.
This point about nurturing a civil society is important. Because cities are places where people of all kinds come together, great cities make sure those spaces are cared for in a way that reflects that people care. Then, in turn, that care is embraced by the people using it in a way that brings out their desire to leave it in a condition where others can enjoy it after them. The way spaces are designed and cared for can impact how people treat not only the space, but each other. Garvin uses the example of New York's Grand Central Terminal. "Miraculously, hundreds of people rush around the great hall of Grand Central, only rarely bumping into one another or getting into an argument or fight," he writes.
Great cities are also accessible to people, providing multiple ways for people to get where they want to go: on foot, by bike, by public transit, even rideshare. One thing I’ve always disliked about staying in a typical American suburb is that they are often built for cars. This often leaves you needing a car to get anywhere that you need to get to to live your life. So instead, I’ll want to stay in a place that is walkable to amenities. And I’ll just naturally check out the public transit system – including if they have a bicycle rideshare program!
Great cities also have great connections to nature, not just for fresh air and squirrels and birds, but also for opportunities for active living and the mental health benefits of being engulfed by trees. New York City has Central Park, San Francisco has Golden Gate Park, Minneapolis is a city in a park with its beautiful Chain of Lakes and Mississippi River access. Trails are great, especially if they lead to an opportunity to get on water and an ice cream cone afterwards.
But mainly, I’m looking forward to experiencing the greatest thing to me about cities: the proximity to other people. Those short interactions you have with strangers in public spaces is priceless, and dare I say life-giving. Jane Brody wrote about this in “The Benefits of Talking to Strangers” in August of 2020 – a time when the whole world was forced to create distance between strangers. “These ephemeral connections, Brody wrote, “add variety to…life, are a source of useful information and often provide needed emotional and physical support.”
I know these types of interactions improve my life – be it from the casual encounters with people in my classes at the Y that I see all the time, know their names, but don’t know anything more about them beyond what I can cull from their t-shirts and bumper stickers. to the wheelchair-bound elderly Black man in line next to me in the cashier’s line at the grocery store connecting over our shared dislike of self-checkout registers. These interactions connect us to each other, and are even more meaningful since the pandemic lock down separated us from each other for so long.
As Melinda Blau and Karen L. Fingerman wrote in their book about the importance of consequential strangers in our lives, consequential strangers “are as vital to our well-being, growth, and day-to-day existence as family and close friends. Consequential strangers anchor us in the world and give us a sense of being plugged into something larger. They also enhance and enrich our lives and offer us opportunities for novel experiences and information that is beyond the purview of our inner circles. They are vital social connections — people who help you get through the day and make life more interesting.”
So I will seek out those brushes with strangers: the barista, on the bus, waiting in line at the cash register, food truck, farmers market, join a walking tour, go to a football game, and generally find places where people come together.
Will my experiences of casual encounters with people in red communities where I can’t assume similar values around our human commitments to each other be any different than my experiences in blue spaces where I can assume those things?
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Thanks Cara! Bon voyage!