Take A Walk Update

On 27th St, between Normandie and Kenwood Ave

The picture above is a microcosm of what we encounter daily when traversing the sidewalks in our neighborhood. Jacaranda trees may look great and provide much needed shade in our urban environment, but bulbous tree roots are the #1 cause of raised, broken, and sometimes even MISSING segments of sidewalks. Strollers and wheelchairs were not designed to hurdle such yawning gaps. 

Patch-up jobs of filling cracks in the concrete with asphalt (re: above) is not a lasting solution--it is like putting a Band-aid on a deep gash in your arm instead of getting proper stitches. No, these troubled areas have to be repaired for the long-term: partial removal of the intrusive roots, leveling of the base foundation, new concrete cast-in-place. We are hoping that stimulus funds allocated to the City from Washington DC would be designated towards repairing our walking, strolling, and wheeling infrastructure. (While of course preserving the lovely jacarandas and other innocuous trees; they know not what they did to our sidewalks.)

In the past month and a half, a band of surveyors have braved these sidewalks to record all instances of brokenness. We now have a comprehensive list of nuisance sidewalks, from 1-inch bumps, to 3-foot long valleys, even 12-inch monster peaks. Praise God for these volunteers from Church of the Redeemer (COR) who participated in this early phase of the project!

The next step of the project is crucial: outreach and organizing neighbors. This involves fanning out across our target area again, honing in on sub-areas where broken sidewalks were detected in order to engage residents in the project's mission. We want Take a Walk to be truly a COMMUNITY project, not just an RCP pilot. 

During the surveys, we sensed some initial enthusiasm and heard some moving stories from neighbors that we came across, all of which we would like to channel into formats that would be presentable and convincing to the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the office of our Councilman, Bernard Parks. These formats include petitions, stories, letters to our politicians, and ultimately a 'PhotoBook' that encapsulates the stories and photos that would hopefully compel the leaders of our neighborhood and district to make sidewalk repairs a priority for the stimulus fund allocations.

Would you pray for:

• God to open doors and hearts to our volunteers to share their sidewalk stories as well as their lives. We don't mean for this project to be a one-time deal; rather, we hope that it would be just the beginning of deep relationship among neighbors.
• More volunteers from both the COR and from the neighborhood to sign up to go door-to-door.
• Favor from the councilman's office and continued favor from the CRA.

For more updates, photos, and such, please visit the Take a Walk blog.