Thoughts about walking on a snowy day

Daniel Ronan, a senior at Wilson High School and a Hillsdale Neighborhood Association board member, wrote this as last week's snow was melting:

The snowfall that came to the Portland Metropolitan area on Tuesday crippled the city as many commuters were unable to make their daily trips and buses ran on limited service.

One thing I realized while drinking a mocha at Baker and Spice in Hillsdale, was the number of walkers in the streets.

As we rethink what it means to live in a city, how the issues of land use and transportation affect our planning decisions and how we want to start creating walkable neighborhoods for all to enjoy, let us remember the snow days.

Remember the days where people get out of their cars and take to the streets and buses to get to work, coffee and the bank. Remember that what we envision in Portland are days like the snow days when people and places interact.

The more we work towards neighborhoods that are safe to walk in and enjoy, the more sustainable Portland becomes, and the more Portland becomes a prominent model for rethinking of America's cities.