Social Benefits
I see my parents age and their world slowly contracts. As I was growing up our home was bustling with kids and neighbors. When we kids left home a circle of activity left my parents. No more PTA meetings or school events. They were no longer as connected with the high school band, theater or sports. Then Dad retired from his years at the hospital — less connections. As more and more friends make the obituary page my parents' lives have become emptier still. Now they can go days with no more interaction than each other and the television.
I've discovered by watching how people age how important social connections are to people. Our communities need that third space — not home, not work — where people can interact on a casual level. We need to treasure our current public spaces like the New Castle Parks and Memorial Park and we need to find new ways to bring people together.
I once heard then mayor of Indianapolis, Stephen Goldsmith, extolling the wonderful Indianapolis Trail System. He often said it was the best thing he did in his tenure as mayor of our capital city. And he talked about how the trails bring the city "social capital." Trails bring people of all walks of life together —walking, riding bikes, pushing strollers, etc... And there is something about trails that creates an open atmosphere where people talk and visit. At a mall people may focus on the shops and displays, but on the trails there is more personal interaction.
Some developments in the east for older Americans have recognized the need to bring older people out of their homes to interact. They require sidewalks and a central post office so people have a way to get to know each other. Front porches are a necessity for people waving to their neighbors.
And socialization isn't just for the elderly. I read a wonderful speech by the Mayor of Bogotá, a man who "led the transformation of his city's attitude from one of negative hopelessness to one of pride and hope." This man truly believed in the need for cities and communities to protect their pedestrian park spaces.
In the speech he said, "If only children had as much public space as cars most cities in the world would become marvelous." This man led his city in the creation of more than 1300 parks. They invested in water and sewer systems. But beyond education "we didn't have a higher priority than public pedestrian spaces: pedestrian streets, sidewalks, greenways, bicycle paths, metropolitan parks, neighborhood parks and plazas. Spaces for people but above all, spaces that demonstrate respect for the more vulnerable of society's members: the poor, the old and the children."