We're encouraging community leaders and residents to gather neighbors between June 4 and June 11 to walk the neighborhood; submit 311 requests related to sidewalk access, lack of sidewalks, inadequate sidewalk widths, lack of pedestrian crossing protections, safe passage to school, and more; and talk about the challenges of walking in the District.
The event is meant, in part, to highlight how the city de-prioritizes pedestrian infrastructure. (I don't know about you, but I've had sidewalk repair requests outstanding since I started as a Commissioner in 2019.) The event is also meant to be fun and build community, and it is flexible to allow different variations.
I am attaching flyers for hosting an event and attending an event. You can check out the map of event locations at https://sidewalkpalooza.org/.
To give you some ideas of what an event might look like: I am working with Commissioner Yeats to host an event at 4th and Butternut Streets, NW, where we will have sidewalk chalk and live music (like a block party lite). You might incorporate kid friendly elements, a community cleanup, local businesses, or anything else to get folks out and walking and talking about pedestrian infrastructure. I'd love for the event to generate 100 311 service requests related to sidewalk and pedestrian infrastructure.
I hope you will join us! You can email me, Nick (ward5forall@gmail.com), or sidewalkpalooza@gmail.com if you have questions, want to talk through ideas, or need anything else. Please feel free to share with anyone you think might be interested; I've used an open cc on this email so you can see who I've reached out to.
Thanks so much!
Erin
Erin Palmer, ANC 4B02 Commissioner
