Walkability vs. Danger

Random image: White Star of Bethlehem.

Today's Courier News has a brief article about yet another possibly gang-related shooting, the seventh in about two weeks.

Within that time span, I walked to and from the NAACP forum at Whitney Allen Young Apartments on Central Avenue, just six blocks from where I live near Park & Seventh. Later, a trusted friend told me he would have advised me to get a ride or stay home, had he known I was walking, because of the shootings which had begun by that time. I passed by the periphery of the neighborhood where the apparent gang dispute broke out.

Recently I walked even further, to a Board of Education meeting at Washington School. This school was built as a community center and many public events take place there.

But officials even express concern when they find out I walk the half-block or so to City Hall or the five short blocks to Municipal Court, in order to cover City Council or other public meetings.

All these neighborhoods have residents. Granted, I am a stranger to some. But within these neighborhoods, those who live there must run errands, wait at bus stops, go to schools and in other ways expose themselves to random danger. What will it take to reduce or remove this factor from the daily lives of individuals who have nothing to do with gangs?

So far this time around, only those suspected to be gang members have suffered harm, and true to their code, they aren't talking to police about what happened. But in the past, innocent bystanders have been harmed or killed. (Personally, I don't think going to these destinations in a car gives an individual much more protection from gang violence than being on foot.)

There is a tendency (expressed in fact at the NAACP meeting) to blame news media and bloggers for "negativity," including reports of shootings and gang violence. One candidate at the forum suggested that the cure was for the city to have its own newspaper. But pretending these crimes don't exist won't make them go away.

Walkability - meaning access on foot to stores, transit, restaurants, schools and libraries, personal service providers, parks and more - is a key factor in attracting people to urban centers. If walking is equated with danger, the community loses its appeal and even its viability as a place to live. Those with the means to pick up and relocate or avoid living there in the first place will do so.

Plainfield deserves the benefit of best practices and strategies to rid the city of gang activity. Gang members intent on destroying each other must not be allowed to overlay their violence on the lives of everyday people (or even bloggers).

--Bernice Paglia