Paths of Desire: Walking Without Sidewalks
Saturday May 4, 3-4pm
Walking in Newport can mean navigating many streets with inconsistent sidewalks, which result in pedestrians making their own way. On this walk we’ll intentionally seek out those odd places where sidewalks end, paths created out of habit emerge, we walk in the road because the cars are parked on the curb and everything in between. Without going too deep into why the sidewalks are this way, we’ll explore how this kind of pedestrian experience feels and share strategies for making positive change.
Organized by Rebecca Noon
Rebecca is a community arts organizer, deviser, and administrator. After four years as the first Director of Community Engagement at Trinity Rep in Providence and another four as the Director of Community Engagement at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Rebecca is back in Rhode Island working as the Director of Special Projects in the city of Providence’s department of Art, Culture and Tourism.
Participant Reflection
10 of us gathered on Memorial Blvd at Chapel Street. Rebecca began the walk by showing us an illustration by a Swedish illustrator named Karl Jilg, that depicts pedestrians on sidewalks as being on the edge of a great chasm. In reference to this she then told us a brief story about how when she had first moved to town, she worked doing support work with a young person. Since she was carless at the time, they would spend much of their time together walking and it quickly became apparent that Newport, despite its history predating cars, is actually not very well designed for pedestrians. She asked us to take in and be aware throughout the walk of how we felt in our bodies.
Rebecca then had us pair up into groups of two and walk along Chapel, discussing our plans for the summer while we at the very same time trying to stay cognizant of how the infrastructure or lack there of made us feel physically. As we walked we would periodically stop and notice when sidewalks disappeared, reappeared on the opposite side of the road or became too narrow to pass through while having a conversation. We also came across spots where there was only grass on both sides and had a conversation about whether one side of the road which had rocks towards the street made us feel more or less encouraged to walk there. We also came across spots with road verges and had a conversation about how those made us feel more comfortable while walking.
The walk ended with some folks discussing different areas where sidewalks are tricky in Newport. Folks lingered after the end of the walk and exchanged information.
