News-Record.com

Responding to a Fast Forward column my Jason Hardin,David Wharton offers an insightful post today on why so many places in Greensboro are unwalkable.

He's right. Even on streets with sidewalks, walking can be unpleasant and even nerve-racking.

Consider Lawndale Avenue, on which some stretches of sidewalks are so narrow that zooming cars and trucks seem to brush past you.

Or Battleground Avenue, where at some points telephone poles are plopped smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk.

I suspect these sidewalks were retrofits, added as clumsy afterthoughts beacause they weren't built when the road was built. And don't even get me started on West Wendover.

Wharton wonders if the City Council will exercise more leadership in developing sidewalks. I'm by nature an optimist, but the council seems to have a natural aversion to the P-word: setting plans and, even worse, following them.