A Work in Progress

Jane Jacobs & a Walkable City

It  may or not be a bit of a curiosity, but I do not own a car.  I have actually never owned a car and I can't say I miss the convenience of having one except on the coldest (or of late) wettest days.  I don't have to worry about insurance or upkeep, about accidents or problems that might occur or buying a parking pass, or the cost of gas.  And it is nice knowing that I am maybe helping the environment in some small way by forgoing having a car.  I've relied on my own two feet and the use of city buses for so long that I don't really give it much thought, but two things have have made me think about cities and city planning of late.

Most recently--this weekend I saw the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, which was really interesting and very well done.  I was already familiar with Jacobs as I bought her seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, way back in the early 90s.  It had been published in 1961, but I didn't know the whole story behind Jacobs and her fight against the urbanization that called for the leveling of vast swathes of vibrant city neighborhoods in the 60s (and which is still happening today).  She was an activist who literally took on city hall and won, which just goes to show you what a community can achieve when they come together to fight "progress".  I highly recommend the movie if you get an opportunity to see it--either in the theater or streaming later.

I dug out my own copy of her book, which looks at what makes cities livable--sort of from the ground up or at street level rather than looking down on it as a city planner might from above.  Now I want to read her book and also read a recent biography of her that came out last year, Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel.

Last week I unpacked another book at work that caught my eye and which I had to bring home with me, Made for Walking: Density and Neighborhood Form by Julie Campoli.  Hooray for walkable cities, which sadly Omaha is by and large--not.  (This is very much a city where you need a car, so getting places for me can often be problematic).  The oversized book is mostly photos, though I am going to try and read the essays.  Twelve cities that were "made for walking" are featured from the US and Canada.  It's good to know such places exist and wouldn't it be nice if cities spent more money and effort in making neighborhoods and city areas walkable rather than sprawling them far and wide?  (Well, that is my wish anyway).

Walking: A Thursday Thirteen

I've been doing lots of walking lately--more than usual and mostly outside and was thinking maybe a book about walking might be in order.  I've got most of these on my own shelves, and a few on my wishlist.  I have only read a very few (are you surprised?).  I love walking and take a walk of one sort or another every single day.  Sometimes it is only a matter of practicality--the need to get to the bus to get to work or walk home in the evening, but sometimes (mostly weekends) I look for new areas and trails to explore.  Recently I discovered an old trail hidden away not too far from my house that lots of other walkers and runners use.  And I have walked a tiny bit along the riverfront (the Missouri River), which I think I would like to spend much more time on.  And then there is armchair walking (is there such a thing?  why not, right?) . . .

Wanderlust: a History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit -- "Drawing together many histories-of anatomical evolution and city design, of treadmills and labyrinths, of walking clubs and sexual mores-Rebecca Solnit creates a fascinating portrait of the range of possibilities presented by walking."

On Foot: a History of Walking by Joseph Amato -- "In this fast-stepping history, Joseph A. Amato takes us on a journey of walking - from the first human migrations to marching Roman legions and ancient Greeks who considered man a "featherless biped"; from trekking medieval pilgrims to strolling courtiers; from urban pavement pounders to ambling window shoppers to suburban mall walkers."

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Hunt -- "In 1896, a Norwegian immigrant and mother of eight children named Helga Estby was behind on taxes and the mortgage when she learned that a mysterious sponsor would pay $10,000 to a woman who walked across America.  Hoping to win the wager and save her family’s farm, Helga and her teenaged daughter Clara, armed with little more than a compass, red-pepper spray, a revolver, and Clara’s curling iron, set out on foot from Eastern Washington.  Their route would pass through 14 states, but they were not allowed to carry more than five dollars each.  As they visited Indian reservations, Western boomtowns, remote ranches and local civic leaders,  they confronted snowstorms, hunger, thieves and mountain lions with equal aplomb." 

The Walking Tour by Kathryn Davis -- "A woman in Maine seeks the truth regarding her mother's mysterious death and discovers infidelity and betrayal. Officially, the mother had a fatal accident while on a walking tour in Wales. The tour was with her husband, his colleague and the colleague's wife."

A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube by Patrick Leigh Fermor -- "At once a memoir of coming-of-age,  an account of a journey, and a dazzling exposition of the English language, A  Time of Gifts is also a portrait of a continent already showing ominous signs  of the holocaust to come."

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson -- "In A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson tackles what is, for him, an entirely new subject: the American wilderness. Accompanied only by his old college buddy Stephen Katz, Bryson starts out one March morning in north Georgia, intending to walk the entire 2,100 miles to trail's end atop Maine's Mount Katahdin."

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce -- "Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning a letter arrives, addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl, from a woman he hasn’t heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye. But before Harold mails off a quick reply, a chance encounter convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. In his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold Fry embarks on an urgent quest. Determined to walk six hundred miles to the hospice, Harold believes that as long as he walks, Queenie will live."

Walking by Henry David Thoreau -- "Originally given as part of a lecture in 1851, "Walking" was later published posthumously as an essay in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862. Now being a chief text in the environmental movement, Thoreau's "Walking" places man not separate from Nature and Wildness but within it and lyrically describes the ever beckoning call that draws us to explore and find ourselves lost in the beauty of the forests, rivers, and fields."

The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot by Robert McFarlane -- "Macfarlane’s journeys take him from the chalk downs of England to the bird islands of the Scottish northwest, from Palestine to the sacred landscapes of Spain and the Himalayas. He matches strides with the footprints made by a man five thousand years ago near Liverpool, sails an open boat far out into the Atlantic at night, and commingles with walkers of many kinds, discovering that paths offer a means not just of traversing space but also of feeling, knowing, and thinking."

Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien -- "In Tim O'Brien's novel Going After Cacciato the theater of war becomes the theater of the absurd as a private deserts his post in Vietnam, intent on walking 8,000 miles to Paris for the peace talks. The remaining members of his squad are sent after him, but what happens then is anybody's guess . . ."

Tracks: One Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson -- "Robyn Davidson's opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: 'I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back'."

In a Strange Room: Three Journeys by Damon Galgut -- " . . . a young loner travels across eastern Africa, Europe, and India. Unsure what he's after, and reluctant to return home, he follows the paths of travelers he meets along the way."

On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz -- "On Looking begins with inattention. It is about attending to the joys of the unattended, the perceived 'ordinary.' Horowitz encourages us to rediscover the extraordinary things that we are missing in our ordinary activities. Even when engaged in the simplest of activities like taking a walk around the block, we pay so little attention to most of what is right before us that we are sleepwalkers in our own lives."

Of course I am always happy to get ever more suggestions.  I am especially curious about fictional books that have to do with walking.  I was surprised I came up with the few on my own list, but surely there are more.  And I like the idea of reading about walkers who do extraordinary things like Helga Estby.  So, please feel free to add titles (or take away suggestions as well!).

Walking (& Reading) the Victoria Line

The Victoria Line of the London Underground.  Let's see, that's 13 miles long, 16 tube stations--all but one of which connect with other Underground lines.  It's walkable in one day, and author Mark Mason managed it in roughly seven and a half hours.  It took me far less time to read about it but I spread my 'armchair' journey out over several sittings.  I almost feel a little guilty that I sat relaxing and reading about it while he did all the work!  So, one line down and nine more to go!

Reading Mark Mason's Walk the Lines: The London Underground, Overground is morphing into something of an enjoyable, and adventurous reading project for me.  First it was a matter of just reading about his experiences, then I added to it the series of books Penguin issued last year celebrating the Underground's 150 year anniversary (you can see my pile of books here).  What better reading pairing?  Each author 'interprets' the Underground line in their own way, telling a story of the city of London with the Underground as their inspiration.  It's a marvelous idea.  And even if my own travels to London took place so very many years ago, the Tube is famous.  I have vague recollections of traveling on it, and recall vividly some of my own adventures in the city. 

I wasn't sure whether the stories he was going to tell, the places he would talk about and the situations that he found himself in would be so far outside my own world knowledge that it might be a little meaningless to me.  I needn't have worried.  Isn't this why we read anyway?  You don't need to have traveled to Mars to appreciate a story set there.  Reading is a way to broaden horizons and bring the faraway world closer to home.  At least that is in part why I love reading so much.  I let my imagination fill in as many blanks as possible and let the writer do his job.  So even if I don't know all the references Mason makes, and if he is a good writer it won't matter, there is enough to appreciate in the telling to make the journey worthwhile.  And I am always happy to learn new things.  I think I am going to learn a lot with this read.

I really do have a good imagination, but a few extra visuals never go amiss.  As I was reading and Mason was walking and talking about the route he was taking--the streets, the people, the places began filling in, but maybe there was a way to bring it even closer?  He had mentioned using the London A-Z Atlas.  Genius.  Why not order a copy myself?  It came a few days ago, so I was only able to use it for the tail end of the chapter, but what a difference it makes to read and follow along the map.  (And I love maps in any case).  And then I can always google the other references--the Wikipedia has photos of all the Tube stations and I can always search out other references as they pique my curiosity.  Now I feel like I am almost there with him.  I can see as many of the references as I like (handy now to have that iPad along with me as I make my way through the book).

And the Victoria Line (I fear I am going to scrimp on the actual chapter but will be better about them in the future)?  All but one of the lines that make it up is literally underground.  It starts at Brixton station and ends at Walthamstow Central.  There are all sorts of interesting bits, but a few to share?  His walk took him past "every architectural style of the last 150 years (Victorian, Edwardian, 1960s brutalist concrete).  He calls London not just a city, but a "collection of villages" and notes that with the coming of the railway "nothing could put the brakes on suburban sprawl".  I already mentioned Victoria station's most famous visitor.  But Victoria station is nearby another famous Londoner.  Any guesses who?  I probably would have made a short detour to the Royal Mews Shop for a peek around.  He walked by the outer wall of the Queen's bedroom and related the story of her unwanted visitor a few years back.

It's amazing to think of all the history that Mason just walked right by.  He shares lots of bits of knowledge--things that make sense but I would not have thought of.

". . . we should remember that Mayfair got its name from an annual fair (guess which month it was held in) that had to be banned in 1764 for being too rowdy."

And imagine walking down the road (in this case Broad Lane) and seeing a small green where Henry VIII came to hunt deer.  There is lots of history, but Mason reflects too on the social and economic aspects of the city--at least how it makes itself felt in this part of it. 

* * * * *

It's the social aspect of London, social as in societal ills, that the author takes as her topic for Mind the Child: The Victoria Line by Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company.  It's tourist London that I remember so clearly, but what about the real London?  Mind the Child was an eye-opening and sometimes harrowing read about a portion of society that should be cherished and cared for, but is all too often abused and neglected--children.

Batmanghelidjh begins her narrative with the story of her own sister who jumped in front of a train but fell between the rails and only injured her leg (she later subsequently had better luck in committing suicide).

"Since then, each time someone jumps on the tracks, bringing the station to a halt, I find myseld preoccupied with the discprepant journeys we all take in life: the parallel existences of the destination-driven crowd, who move rapidly to complete a task, and the destination-despondent, who decide life is no longer worth pursuing."

It wasn't the loss of her sister that prompted Batmanghelidjh to work with children.  It was a love of helping others.  And it was a family trait handed down from earlier generations--this desire to serve others.  ". . . some of the richest cultures put care-giving at the forefront of their agenda, and see it as an expression of refinement rather than failure or weakness."

"We tend to look at the Tube map only when we have a destination in mind.  Take the Victoria Line: its sky-blue snakes clearly through the tangle of other lines, from Brixton in south London all the way to Walthamstow in the northeast.  In this book, I want us to take a less direct route.  I want to introduce you to some of the extraordinary kids struggling daily with the dichotomy of living and dying, who I have met through my work at Kids Company and, prior to that, through a range of other settings."

Mind the children--much like mind the gap--these are the children we don't see or demonize if we do, the ones who fall between the cracks.  Mind the Child is a combination of personal narrative by the children themselves, Batmanghelidjh's experiences working with them, and many statistics about crime and violence.  The numbers however aren't empty and meaningless as numbers usually are.  Hearing the voices of these children, who don't seem to ever be quite visible to politicians puts faces on the numbers.  Each child speaks in their own voice, some pulling themselves out of poverty and bad situations and others mired in it no matter how hard they try and lift themselves out.  The author also explains the neuroscience of battered children--how living in abusive households affects them and stunts them.  I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book.  Victoria Line?  It was her inspiration and it is certainly a journey.  It's reading books like this that put life and the world into sharp perspective.  It was not an easy read at times, but it was such a good read and I am happy that I was finally prompted to pick it up.

Next up I will be joining Mason on his walk of the Bakerloo Line and reading Paul Morely's Earthbound as an accompaniment.  And, of course, mapping my progress in the London A-Z.  I'll tell you all about my adventures when I finish.

Teaser Tuesday: Walk the Lines

I've decided to go on walking tour.  And in one of my very favorite cities--London!  It's been a very, very long time since I traveled to London, but I still remember it vividly.  I am very fortunate to have traveled there not once but twice and the second time I stayed for several weeks with friends.  Un-fortunately an armchair walking tour is about all I can manage these days on my very restricted budget.  Books, though, are always the next best thing--especially if the book is good and your imagination rises to the challenge. 

Cath at Read Warbler suggested Mark Mason's Walk the Lines: The London Underground Overground.  I've been itching for a really good nonfiction read and haven't been able to focus on one in particular (as a matter of fact have yet to finish a single nonfiction read so far this year!).  I'm not even sure what made me reach for this other than picking through a variety of books and the appeal of not only London and spending time walking (I love walking outside and am going a little stir crazy with the incessant cold weather we've been dealing with . . . bring on spring please) was strong enough for me to dip into the book.  Mason hooked me right away. 

The premise--Mason decided to walk the entire length of the London Underground in order to truly 'know the city' and 'own it'.  The catch is he walked each Underground line--overground and passing through each and ever tube station.  To make things a little more interesting and as I always love a good reading project, I have pulled out my set of Penguin Lines.  I love these little Penguin books (I have the Penguin Food boxed set and some of the Penguin English Journeys, too).  They were published last year to celebrate 150 years of the London Underground.

"The city is filled with stories. For the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, twelve writers tell their tales, each inspired by a different Tube line. Some are personal, some are polemical; every one is unique, showing how we are connected, and how the space in which we live shapes us and our imaginations."

When I first discovered them I had to have them, bought each book and then promptly left them to their own devices on my bookshelves.  Time to put them to use, however.  Aren't they pretty?  So, as Mason walks the lines I will follow his adventures and then supplement the reading with my Penguins.  Mason's itinerary: Victoria, Bakerloo, Central, Hammersmith & City, District, Northern, Circle, Piccadilly, Waterloo & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan.  The Penguin series has one additional book--East London, which I am not entirely sure how it fits in with the whole scheme, but I am sure I will figure it out soon enough.

The extracurricular reading may well  diverge drastically from Mason's writing.  I have started reading Mind the Child by Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company.  The Victoria Line--Mind the Child is a play on 'mind the gap', but she takes as her subject the disadvantaged children she works with who have fallen between the cracks of society.  It's been an eye opening and occasionally painful read.  Each author of the Penguin series was able to interpret the theme in their own way, so it should be an interesting read and I am curious how it will all tie together.

As for the Mason.  It's quite humorous and more than a little chatty.  It seems to be chock filled with all sorts of London and London Underground trivia.  I suspect some of it might turn out to be a little over my head as I won't catch all the references, but there should still be plenty of interest to me.  For example (and I swear I'd read this somewhere but had forgotten):

"If you ever want a sense of peace at Victoria, this is the place to come [Victoria Tube Station].  Not because it's especially quiet, but rather because a plaque at the ticket barrier commemorates the arrival of the station's most famous (though nameless) visitor.  At 8.32 p.m. on 10 November 1920, this was the end of the journey from Dover for the train carrying the Unknown Warrior."

I plan on reading each Penguin book in tandem with the corresponding chapter in Walk the Lines, so it may take me a while to get through the book, but I will share my own 'journey' here.  I have also ordered the London A-Z Street Atlas so I can follow Mason's walk.  I think it will be more meaningful to me to 'see' it in some way.  Besides, I love looking at city maps and it will make the reading experience all the more richer. 

I hope the weather is fine in London.  I know I am ready for a good walk!