Most communities have older areas where neighborhood homes have detached garages and alleys in back. You've seen them - and probably walk past admiring the mature trees and established rose bushes. Beautiful. Not everyone wants the shiny, new subdivisions.
My little town has just published and now is distributing brochures to visitors to come and take walks (4 mapped "trails" in all) through some of our neighborhoods - many dating back several decades.
What I find very odd about one of the four routes is that it directs walkers into the alleys in a section of residences. Having lived on one of these streets previously, I was perhaps more prone to be wary.
Wary of what, you ask? Would you want folks to be strolling along your back yard fence, first of all? Most of us spend time on our back patios or in our back yards because it is more private - for cooking, eating, entertaining and playing.
Now, our city is touting these residential alleys as a walk to be used for exercise that "provides a glimpse into a bygone era when life was simpler and slower." Nothing wrong with that, but no glimpsing in my back yard, I'd say!
After reading an article about this particular tour in our local newspaper, I decided to take a stroll down the highlighted alleyways and see what I could see. In fact, I took my camera along for documenting the true "beauty" that is now being marketed to visitors to our area. What will they like best?
Would it be the bright, ragged strips of blue tarps tattered across some fences? Or maybe someone will want to duplicate the abandoned tire rim "statue" just down the way from the eight-foot satellite dish. This is museum material here.
I did find a little squirrel "sentinel" in an oak tree bordering one alley opening. That, combined with the fat cat padding quickly ahead of me, made me feel like I was really on a nature jaunt for sure. That was - until the growling pit bull with gleaming yellow eyes ran back to greet me at a back gate a few driveways past. I slowed down just in time to miss the pile of cat puke at my feet. Stunning.
Confused by our city's attempt for these "pleasant" walks to "stimulate the local economy," I wondered how leading visitors past haphazard pickets and drooping gates would entice them to our dying downtown - unless it would be to purchase bright flags at Dragon's Lair or pretty curtains from the Goodwill to donate to the many dilapidated back doors. And, this was in a good neighborhood. These nice homes are very neat and tidy in the front for the most part. But, really, who takes visitors off the street and walks them back to their alleys for a nice view?
What really doesn't make sense is that all four of our new prescribed walks are NOT in the nicest Westside neighborhoods at all. They all go close or around parts of some pretty parks, it's true. That makes sense. But none of our fairest streets filled with beautiful older homes are being marketed to strangers for those regimented routes helping people "find ways to exercise."
The folks down at the City Hall or Chamber of Commerce wouldn't want hordes of tourists walking past their homes - let alone past their backyards and garages!
Privacy is a valuable commodity - so if you want some, build yourself an 8-foot fence and grow bamboo to protect yours if you live on an alley in this town.
1 comment:
Thanks for your comments. This idea of walking down the alley did not make any sense to me since the City of Ukiah won't help keep the alley clear. I live in the neighborhood of one of these walking paths suggested and have a continual battle with a neighbor about keeping their bushes trimmed back off the alley so our cars won't get scratched. How are people to be safe in an area where many homeowners & the City of Ukiah won't take care of their responsibilities? I see a lawsuit in the near future and pray it won't be me when something happens!
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