Rocky Ridge Park creates one of this neighborhood’s boundaries. From the street, the park looks kind of boring — a strip of grass with some ball fields, a playground, and a building made more interesting with a few murals. The wooded area, if you step through the trees, reveals how the park and neighborhood were named.

 

 

The same neighborhood that has Charter Oak Marketplace also has the Park River Greenway, Meadow Trail,  a green school building and outdoor classroom, Cemetery Brook, and South Branch Park River.

 

 

At the same time, paths going beyond the Park River Greenway have been made a mess by ATVs. If you walk along these paths, you’ll see deep ruts, trash, and other surprises.

 

 

In that way, this neighborhood shares with others the stark contrasts. One block looks like residents take pride in their yards, the next block, not so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a weekend morning, there’s already traffic. The bodegas are drawing a share of that. Passing a tag sale, someone tries to sell me an orange and green bicycle that had been made to look like a dirt bike. I’m on foot. It’s tempting for a half second. A bike share program would come in handy at times like this, when a walk has gone on longer than it needed to, but one already has a bike at home and no need to accumulate a fleet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking on paths along the river one encounters things like makeshift poultry coops, with birds darting in and out of their boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changes have been made to infrastructure, something that was supposed to happen whenever roadways were redone. The Plan of Conservation and Development was trotting out non-stop for some time, but has lost its luster or political usefulness, or both. Every time bike lanes, sharrows, or anything else one might see in Complete Streets appears, it’s safe to assume that local activists have had to push for them.

 

 

 

On Zion Street, bike lanes have been painted in both directions, but as of last weekend, no signs or symbols easily interpreted by motorists could be seen.

 

 

 

It should be common sense that if a lane is too narrow for the average vehicle, then that lane is not for parking.

In the space of one block, there were four vehicles illegally parked, blocking the bike lane. The opposite side of Zion Street does have a parking lane; at that time, there were many spaces open. Odd enough, for the remainder of Zion Street, everyone managed to keep their cars in the space designated for cars.