There are many components of our built world that can support or detract from a place’s walkability. Much of the public realm has been designed with a primary focus on automobile travel with pedestrian needs often secondary or even a complete afterthought. A walk audit is a way to analyze
Sebastopol is a great case study in what makes a successful walkable people-oriented place. Sebastopol is a small town with a traditional commercial Main Street. Unfortunately, our Main Street is also a state highway and as such it is designed for the most-efficient throughput of vehicular traffic. For much of
I’m going a bit beyond the smalltownurbanism.com typical focus on small towns with this post and travelling south to San Diego. My daughter is a senior at UC San Diego. She’s had a great experience, even during the pandemic, and I’m happy for her education. The campus is in La
Sebastopol has been fortunate to have had 3 parklets installed during the pandemic to help support downtown businesses and social distancing. Parklets have been discussed around town for probably about 10 years in one form or another. The Core Project participated in several park(ing) days. The Core Project did a
If you haven’t heard the name before, beg buttons are the push-buttons you have to activate in order to get a walk signal allowing a pedestrian to cross the street. There has been much written about them and how they really are one more instance of our circulation systems prioritizing
Since November of 2020 Sebastopol has had 3 parklets installed as a response to the pandemic to allow for more outdoor options for the public to congregate downtown. Because all 3 parklets are located on Caltrans right-of-way, an encroachment permit was required from Caltrans. And in order to expedite the
Today is Park(ing) Day! Started in San Francisco in 2005, Park(ing) Day has turned into a global phenomenon to highlight the need for more people space in our communities by repurposing a parking space and turning it into a parklet for the day. These have become very popular during Covid
Downtown Sebastopol is bisected by two Caltrans controlled state highways. Highway 12 heads east from downtown toward Santa Rosa on Sebastopol Avenue. Highway 116 is north-south and uses two one-way roads, Main Street and Petaluma Avenue. Caltrans has recently made some ‘improvements’ to downtown intersections and some driveway curb cuts
The Parklet Project was a success! We set up 3 parklets on Main Street and blocked a section of street to create a pop-up plaza last Saturday. The 3 Main Street parklets were all of the same design; plywood floors on sleepers to align with the sidewalk, and OSB walls
The Core Project and the City of Sebastopol are sponsoring The Parklet Project, tomorrow, Saturday, April 29th. The Core Project has been working to bring parklets to Sebastopol and was instrumental in getting the city to adopt an ordinance to allow their development. We have participated in PARK(ing) day several times
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FRITZ ARCHITECTURE-URBANISM
small town urbanism
urban design thoughts through the filter of living in a small town
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