Walkabout Spokane

I attended Mark Fenton's presentation at the Lincoln Center tonight. About 55 people were present. We started off with a short walk during which we evaluated the walk as a group.

It was helpful to hear what other people thought were positives and negatives. Some things you wouldn't think about unless you were using a walker, pushing a stroller or getting around in a wheelchair. He stressed that it's important to consider everybody when designing for pedestrian traffic.

I really liked how he tied in pedestrian/biking/transit as contributors to solving the problems we have with health, obesity, pollution, parking and reliance on oil. But most of all, I liked his approach to implementing change. Rather than lay blame, address the issue from a higher plane and work to solve the problem together. Overall, we have to decide as a community where we want to be and make sure our elected leaders not only know it, but get on board. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the end of his presentation, but I think I got the main points.

Mark is a smart, creative and passionate advocate. He should visit Spokane more often.