Sidewalk!

It is about time to start updating all that is going on with our life in rural Iowa and how life changes with a 19 month old!

We walk on the street all the time in our low profile town because many streets do not have sidewalks. We look at this differently now when we are trying to walk to more places and make less car stops that are so close to each other. This should work well for living in small towns, you would think.

On a trip to the farmers market this summer at a local college town, I found out that you can't walk safely to and fro many new businesses even in a small town. Storm Lake is the biggest town within 30 minutes from my smaller town where we frequent for most day to day things. My town had a small store that burned down this summer:(

I took my 1½ year old daughter to Storm Lake to go to the farmers market and then planned to walk a few blocks to get lunch to go at the NEW Quiznos. We bought our cabbage, peppers, and basil and walked with the stroller a few blocks to go to the Quiznos. We got to the street where we saw the Quiznos and I realized that I would have to walk my daughter in the stroller half a block or so in a busy street to get to it because there are no sidewalks.

I noticed when we visited suburbs , lived in L.A. , Seattle and Chicago for 5 years, that this was also a problem with most newly constructed areas. For 2 years without a car in Chicago, I spent many trips to stores walking to the ‘El’ or bus stop in the snow without a sidewalk at times.

Good news for Storm Lake! I have been e-mailing someone that said they are waiting for grant money to put in sidewalks along one busy street that goes out to a walmart and other new stores that are away from the down town business district. Unfortunately, the person I talked to said there are no plans to put in sidewalks on the Quiznos street that is just two blocks away from the courthouse/county hall, fire department, police department, a large high school, community college, and numerous other businesses people walk to.