More blog crawling

In my wanderings through the various blogs I watch, I found a link to a Los Angeles-based blog called Neighborhood Pride (Thanks, Branden!). The link I followed went to the post on "Ten ideas to boost block spirit." There are some fun ideas in her post!

I walk Cisco, Jenn's dog that she adopted from the Humane Society eleven years ago, just about every day. Cisco gets to walk his rounds two or three times a day, inspecting his "dog newspapers" (aka sniffing every tall blade of grass, tree, shrub, and garbage can within range of his leash), and whichever of us is walking him stops to talk to whatever neighbors are out and have time to chat a moment. During the power outage following Hurricane Ike a year and a half ago, we got to talk with neighbors quite a bit, and have made a point of continuing dialogs with them. In most cases, the response has been something along the lines of, "I'm glad we're talking--it feels more like a neighborhood this way!"

Other ideas that would be less likely in Good.is contributor Kyla Fullenwider's home of Los Angeles: Shovel the snow off your elderly neighbor's sidewalk and driveway. Shovel the snow off your own sidewalk, so those walking instead of driving aren't struggling through the ice and snow left after a partial melt. I admit to some enlightened self-interest here, of course. I take it the next step, so to speak, and clear a path for our mail carrier, who covers our neighborhood on foot.


Following another link in the Good.is listings, I found this discussion of a new traffic sign idea. I've not yet read all the commentary on it, nor all of the underlying thoughts going into its creation, but on the surface it makes too much sense for it to ever get into the MUTCD. Of course, the same was once said about the Sharrow, which IS in the 2009 MUTCD. As one who is interested in roundabouts as a way to smooth and calm traffic flow in our suburbs, I read this as an alternative when the immediate topography won't allow the space a roundabout requires, and it will receive more of my attention soon.


Yet another Good.is link led me to musings on whether we need to limit car advertising, much as we do with tobacco and alcohol advertising (expanded upon here). Of course, this one really grabbed my attention. I'm not sure how well the concept would work, given the human tendency to ignore reason and follow emotional stimuli, but it's worth trying. There would be the usual knee-jerk reactions from the anti-cyclist crowd--mostly the same crowd that gripes about "business owners' rights" when smoking bans are discussed (a "smoke screen" meant to obscure the real issue if ever there was one).

I want to read more, but have stuff to do. I'll have to come back to my reading. Ah, the magic of bookmarks!