Instead of screaming into the void of Twitter, I bring you a weekly highlight reel of what it’s like going places in Greater Hartford when one is gloriously car-free. These posts are on a slight time delay because nobody needs to know exactly where I am when I am there.
1. A few seats ahead of me on the bus, someone is reading Bleach (Manga), and I am transported to 1995 when people would be holding physical books rather than scrolling on their phones. Is it creepy to watch someone read? Oh, absolutely, and I’ll own that. But not as creepy as if I tapped someone (wearing headphones) and tried talking to them about their book. Covid positivity rates have been up due to a whole lot of stupid, stubborn, and selfish. Kellogg’s is threatening to fire 1400 striking union workers, answering the question of who pissed in my cereal. Less than a year ago, the outgoing president attempted a coup. But here, on humble public transportation, we have people just trying to get home after grocery shopping, escaping for a few minutes with a book about battling evil spirits. I don’t like to use the word “normal” but the whole scene felt comfortable, familiar…until this person turned, showing a phone in one hand and a masked face.
2. Hartford’s sidewalks are constipated. The Citgo near Trinity College places a lottery sign blocking half the sidewalk without a thought as to how someone in a wheelchair will navigate around this. Imagine thinking that profit is more important than a person’s safety?
Down the street, a pile of trash – mattresses and other large items – completely block the sidewalk. I snap a pic, report it to 311. Most people don’t seem to bother calling the City of Hartford to schedule their bulky waste collection, and if they did, well, it doesn’t hurt. But here are my choices: (1) walk in the street, (2) climb up and over the garbage, (3) walk across their lawn, (4) cross the street. As much as the obstacle course challenge appeals to me, I don’t feel like going in for a tetanus booster. Between Covid and Influenza, I’ve had enough damn shots this year. I go across the yard. Not slightly on the edge. That was the polite thing that I used to do before this shit got old. I go way up in the clearly trespassing zone as I cross. Just returning the level of courtesy shown. There are a half dozen other trash piles like this that I navigate on my recreational loop to score Italian pastries in the South End.
Are there better ways to nudge people to stop blocking the sidewalks with their crap? I don’t know. If you ask someone to not litter, they threaten you. If you use a crosswalk when it’s your turn, people threaten you. It’s more direct to enter a business or knock on someone’s door, but is that even any more effective than asking paid professionals to follow up? It’s not like I’m calling the cops on them. I think I’m a practical person in that I want problems fixed with as little fuss as possible. But people seem to require fuss.
These are not all evictions, so let’s rule that out right now. Some have placed the blame for these messes on Hartford’s government, and everyone has a role to be sure, but how is it that so many people have so much trash, constantly? How? How often do people replace their mattresses? I just Googled this because I was beginning to suspect people are swapping out their beds at the same rate as their toothbrushes. Fine, I’m overdue to replace mine, and it’s not like I’m sleeping on some top-of-the-line model, but what is going on in those households where they have mattresses on the curb every couple of months? Add a plastic protector. Stop smoking in bed. I don’t even know what to say. But the way humans readily toss large items after not a whole lot of use reminds me of how we are trashing our own habitat, and this is one hell of a depressing walk. Guess these cannoli will help me while I eat my feelings.
3. The first snowy commute of the year! Last night it rained, then froze, and then snowed…and someone who didn’t pay attention to that could’ve fallen victim to the soft lie of a gentle, sparkling, very thin blanket of snow. That someone was not me. I walk like a penguin and don’t care who knows it.
It was bright and cold this morning, and I wanted to pour one out for all the schmucks who think that the outdoors is off limits when temperatures dip below 72 degrees. Instead of wearing a car to work, I pulled on my skirt and boots like a big girl and headed down the road.
I walked more slowly than usual, adding, at most, five minutes onto my commute. It’s hard to say because I also kept stopping to take pics of everything glittering in the sun, knowing it’d likely be melted off in a few hours. What you don’t see in a car: plump raspberries dusted with snow.
People like to talk about how the snow covers messiness, but snow also reveals. It shows how “nobody uses those stairs” or “nobody walks on that street” are not truthful statements. The proof is in the footprints and bicycle tire tracks through the snow.
4. I have begun walking through the new roundabout as if it were my personal kingdom and why not, this is my neighborhood. I’m not someone just speeding through, and speeding through they still are. Tonight, I motioned “slow down” with my entire body and watched the person going excessively fast down the hill jam on their brakes. You better slow down. You are a guest here. Act like it.
5. When approaching an intersection, I always understood the norm to be that everyone takes turns, unless the light signals otherwise. It’s not about courtesy; it’s about having a semblance of order and consistency in expectations. A person on a scooter, a bike, in a wheelchair, on their own two feet, all get a turn. Why do some in cars believe they only need to share space with others in cars?
Think about those T-intersections where one leg has the stop sign, but the others do not. It suggests that those being asked to stop, stop, and wait for anyone using the dominant direction to safely pass. More often than not, while on foot, I am ignored in this position.
Tonight was no different, except in one important way. Walking down a major road, I paused to let the person who had stopped a bit before I arrived, go. They had blocked the crosswalk with their oversized vehicle anyway. By now, though, I was at the corner and planning to cross as soon as they moved. The driver of the next vehicle immediately rolled forward, blocking half the crosswalk as I was in it. I gestured. I was yelling to them (“I’m in the fucking crosswalk”) but my mask was on, so it was probably just standard fury conveyed. They let me through, but I could hear someone yelling to me. My earbuds were in – the universal sign for “leave me the hell alone” – and while I can absolutely hear cars, sirens, creaky bicycle chains, people’s voices are muffled. Couldn’t tell you if I was getting an apology or a threat, but I wasn’t stopping because my boundaries were clear.
After the driver turned, they pulled over, honked, and began yelling again. I kept walking, kept the earbuds in, and didn’t even turn my head. The thought that this might’ve been an apology only occurred because of the types of bumper stickers covering the vehicle. But honestly? I don’t want an apology. I want better behavior. I want drivers to imagine that at any time they could harm or kill someone they actually know. I want drivers to stop imagining pedestrians as an anonymous annoying class of people. That’s a thing they could be teaching in driver’s ed and including in those road safety PSAs: drive as if you know every single person in every vehicle on the road, on every bicycle, exiting every bus, standing on every corner waiting to cross. Drive in a way that both keeps them alive and avoids a really awkward relationship going forward.
This so far. however, has been routine in that it was not the first, second, or third time someone pulled over to yell something at me from a vehicle (and those interested in power dynamics might investigate how fucked up this is). What varied is that I passed this driver, on foot, when they were waiting at the next light. . . and then again at the subsequent light. A better person might’ve thought to smile and wave while walking by, to convey “So sorry that you picked an inefficient mode of transportation, sucker!” but I am not that person.
6. Besides those tempting community garden raspberries, there were a few other finds while walking to work…all of which are more curiosities than pleasures. There was the brassiere hanging from a branch next to the pond. This is concerning because it’s a relatively recent addition, and even though temperatures have been warmer than normal, they aren’t warm enough to warrant topless sunbathing. It’s also possible that someone had had it with their tit sling and flung it away. Who hasn’t had one of those days?
A feature, if you can call it that, which people might be surprised about is how often I have found unopened cans of beer in the wild. It’s a shame none of these have been sours. Today, it was a can of Natty Light in the gutter by a pub.
Grosser than curbside booze: this guy who frequently pulls over, in a company-branded vehicle, and pisses into Pope Park. Look, public urination, when no public restrooms are open in the area, becomes necessary; however, you don’t have to be a jerk about it. An extra five seconds of walking would take him to the other side of some shrubs where passersby would have to neither witness his morning ritual nor smell it from the sidewalk. Again, no judgment on having to pee in public, but have some courtesy, bro.
Walkers, cyclists, bus riders: what has been the weirdest thing you’ve encountered that you would definitely not have noticed in a car?
Richard
One thing that I relish seeing when out walking is hundreds of pavement ants moving along in a mass of brown, all going somewhere. Years ago, I was out walking, and I saw larger ants which inspired my work, The Museum Was Closed Today So I Took a Stroll. The first line was, A Thousand Ants Carry a Dead Beetle Home. I went on naming and claiming what I saw. A bit out of downtown I saw a sign that should have said MART but instead it said ART, so I went in and bought some. I remember your sidewalk series which I loved as so many things we see when walking about. I think some of the best art is out there and I am not talking about the type that tells us and fits into the boxes created, but the type that we us to call the psst psst when it all comes together and there it is. I can’t remember any weird things maybe cause my brain is weird. But I will leave with this. The best thing ever I found walking was first some rolling papers and then a nice dime bag of some of the best weed I ever smoked. I could tell why someone must have thrown it out of the car, it was witches weed if there ever was any. Now this was years ago when we didn’t end up smelling like a skunk. I was on my way into Woodstock Center to attend an opening of an art show but decided to stay in the woods as I was having an art show of my own in my head.
Kerri Provost
Perhaps there should be a disclaimer to not ingest treats one finds in the gutter, no matter how tempting!
Jim L
Perhaps not necessarily weird, but something that I always find fascinating is the sheer number of people that have a glazed/zoned out look in their eyes as they drive, when I walk on the sidewalk against the direction of traffic.
Kerri Provost
Yes! And if they hit you, they won’t get hit with a distraction or DUI charge on top of whatever because how do you prove someone was daydreaming and *that’s* why they didn’t see you? Zombie drivers are scary.
Richard
I guess this could be called a weird thing. Yesterday I was in Glastonbury walking from Main Street up Hebron Ave to a doctor I was trying out (doctors generally are in the dislike column) Well at every cross walk I edged out into it a bit and every car that was coming stopped for me to cross. I laughed when a police car came around the corner a bit too fast, saw me and stopped on a dime. Of course, to all of the drivers that stopped I gave a wave. One thing I noticed was a woman wanting to cross over Hebron who was standing on the sidewalk, and no one was stopping. I told her you have to insert yourself a bit into the cross walk, so they know you want to cross. As soon as she did the first car stopped. I love stopping cars. A new hobby, maybe.
Kerri Provost
I never used to understand why people would walk so slowly when crossing streets, but now I get it. Everybody gets a turn. There is no reason for me to hustle when it is my turn. I also generally do not wave to drivers because when I am a driver, it’s not like I’m waving to every person who yields when they are obligated to do so. Maybe if someone is being extra cautious and courteous they’ll get one.
It’s unfortunate that the law changed, but we still have to step out into the street most of the time for people to stop. Someone recently yelled at me for using the crosswalk by an elementary school. They were speeding in a school zone and thought they would bully me. What kind of person takes on that attitude by an elementary school? Someone who should not be behind the wheel of a death machine!