By Sarah Canavese
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Can a sidewalk grow from a garden? Ashland shows us how
Take a look outside. What do you see? Roadways? How about
sidewalks? Chances are, you might not see very many sidewalks, and if you do,
you are probably in the lucky minority.
Where I grew up there weren’t many sidewalks, and the ones
that were there, weren’t always kept up to code. Ashland, Mo., can’t boast many
sidewalks right now, but its citizens are looking to change this trend.
Missouri Livable Streets is working with community leaders in Ashland as they
consider new ways to incorporate sidewalks and bicycle lanes into existing
streets and roads.
In the winter of 2012, Grabner’s Learning Garden was awarded
a five-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The grant focuses on
gardening programs and on forming healthy community partnerships.
“We modeled our partnership on Columbia’s Healthy Community
Partnership,” said Grabner. As part of that model, Grabner focused on including
“things such as a walking school bus and looking into working with the city and
county livable streets.”
While the connection between gardens and sidewalks may not
be readily apparent, Grabner has known for a while there is a problem with
Ashland’s streets and sidewalks. “There are numerous places all over town where
they will have a sidewalk part of the way, and it just ends abruptly. I have noticed
that for a very long time,” she shared. “Ashland city park is right in the
middle of town, but there are absolutely no sidewalks or trails that will lead
you to the park. When you see folks who bike or jog, or folks who are mobility
impaired, it is really tough to get around, even though it is such a small
town. [Ashland is] growing rapidly and its population has more than doubled
over the last ten years.”
Grabner cites one area of concern near the schools. “For example,
on Main Street which is a main road that goes north/south through Ashland, [it]
connects the primary and elementary school buildings on the south end of town
to the middle and high school buildings on the north end, [and] there are no
sidewalks at all. [There’s a] shoulder and ditches on both sides; lots of people
both walk and bike daily on Main Street, but it is getting more and more
dangerous to do that because of the amount of traffic.”
One solution to the problem lies with a livable streets
strategy: the Walking School Bus program. A walking school bus is just as it
sounds. Youth and adults walk to school together in the morning and afternoon.
In Ashland, the walking school bus helped educate children on safe walking
practices, as well as adults on a safe way to walk their kids to school.
Grabner reports that this program generated a lot of
awareness in Ashland and this summer a Walking School Bus of Girl Scouts walked
from the primary school down to the park, and these same issues came up.
Grabner said, “Once you get off of Broadway, there are no sidewalks for them.
So that was about sixty girls and their families aware first hand of those
kind[s] of issues.”
While raising awareness of the challenges, Grabner’s also
been able to provide solutions that people want to bring back. “It’s been
interesting,” she continues. “The more people I talk with about this, folks in
their sixties, seventies and eighties, every single one remembers that when
they were kids, there were sidewalks. People were walking around all the time,
kids were riding bikes, and it did contribute greatly to knowing your
neighbors, knowing your community, knowing that you were safe and comfortable
in your community. Every single one of them saw that as a good thing. And they
see that as something worth trying to bring back.”
To learn more, or to see how your town can get started with active design, visit Missouri Livable Streets.
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