Carolyn HAug 18, 2024
lynn / clarissa

Wrote a short gempost about what it means to live in a city as opposed to a city being a series of car connected archipelagos:

gemini://inconsistentuniverse.space/gemlog/2024-08-18-pedestrian.gmi

(proxy web link: https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/inconsistentuniverse.space/gemlog/2024-08-18-pedestrian.gmi )

Pedestrian Life and the Urinary Leash — inconsistentuniverse.space

Aug 18, 2024 at 10:14pmWeb
Show threadlynn / clarissaAug 18, 2024
even though I don't bring up seattle per se this is also me figuring out why visiting seattle for a few days felt so bad: it's even less a city that wants to be lived in than portland
Show threadpounce  Aug 19, 2024
@left_adjoint
this is definitely one of the main reasons i moved out of Seattle (and the US in general)
the accessibility there (*especially* for public restrooms) was the worst ive ever seen, from what seems to only be in the service of further criminalizing existing in public spaces.
Show threadlynn / clarissaAug 19, 2024
The one thing that I'd love to hear from other people specifically about is their experience with how accessibility issues affect their ability to "live in" a city, to experience it, the way I'm describing it
Show threadlynn / clarissaAug 19, 2024

because I think the ability to live in your environment in all its richness is a human fucking right for literally everyone

I often think in my long long stretches of walking about every bit of unevenness, every sidewalk without a cut, every place where there's trash or overgrowth that makes me have to shimmy past

I think every fucking time about how it is completely inaccessible to someone with slightly less agility than me

Show threadChelAug 18, 2024

@left_adjoint this reminds me of how back before i became too much of an anxiety addled wreck of nerves to work a traditional job, an older coworker of mine told me (in my late 20s) that I wasn't a real adult

a real adult he said, had a car. and a house. i had neither

it didn't matter that I couldn't afford them or that i'm too easily distracted to drive. and it didn't matter that as a consequence of him having them he was drowning in debt and could barely afford to feed his kids

Show threadIzzy's Old AccountAug 19, 2024
@left_adjoint I've only recently gotten a car license again, and there's no joy in riding a motorbike in the city, ergo for the last year I've been using buses and walking a lot.

Happy? To report that the gold coast is pretty okay for pedestrians. Public toilets are abundant, at least.

The cynic in me says it's because that's being tourist-friendly.
Show threadKlara in the hidden landAug 19, 2024

@left_adjoint Damn, coffee shops in Portland are removing restrooms even for paying customers? I'm surprised that's even legal.

I do remember how every bathroom in Seattle had a rotating door code or a key (it's not like that here!), and here we do have, like, little bakeries and dessert shops without restrooms, but for somewhere designed around lingering that feels deeply counterproductive? (Or are Portland coffee shops not designed around lingering anymore?)