Walking And The Suburbanized Psyche Summary

Life in the city is often chaotic and fast-paced. It is as quick as a television dinner. Often, people are forgetting the art of appreciation. Things go unnoticed like a pebble under a shoe, like sparkling windows on corporate buildings. Now, people are typically giving more time to their technological devices- which is not necessarily a terrible thing. If anything, it speaks more of an imbalance. There is a wider disconnect in every day social interactions (communications) and public spaces (location). It has been noted by a creator of public spaces, Goldberger, that people are “there but not there”. They have closed themselves off from experiencing what is right in front of them. For example, the average adult spends seven hours on a technological

Solnit starts out by saying “Freedom to walk is not much use without someplace to go” (Solnit page 262). Solnit starts out by saying our early ancestors used to walk miles in order to obtain food, find romance or communicate. Solnit claims that the average American walking radius has decreased to “a quarter of a mile” (Sonlit page 264) In modern America we prefer to drive to our friends house rather than walk. We spent time more time on social media sites rather face to face communication. As of 2010 the New York Times have announced that the average Americans walk approximately half a mile a day. When I first came to Riverside from Norcal I used to live in motel 6. I have spent four hours a day for three weeks walking getting to know the school and city. Just as Henry David Thoreau said in “Walking,” walking can symbolize a path taken or history that was and now is. This lack of exercise leads to health issues such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, stroke

In many communities, walking ‘behavior’ does appear to be unusual, because it looks so uncommon, despite the natural physiological aspect of walking. Riding in a car is seen as more normal, just like a robotic policeman is seen as more normal in the Bradbury story. Today, people do still walk, but often on a moving conveyor belt at the gym, rather in a real environment. This takes people away from nature and a sense of being part of something larger than themselves.

Transportation in the region has a long and successful past. However, public transportation has consistently taken a back seat to the personal automobile. There has been a strong core of persons who rely on public transportation to achieve mobility, and governmental

The wide use of transportation contributes to how society is increasingly turning away from walking. Since, the majority of people drive either their own cars or a form of public transportation regularly they have lost the sense of distance. People may never even know that the daily commute they may take to work is faster to walk to then it is to wait in traffic for. For example, recently my roommate invited me along so she should get a tattoo at a parlor in our hometown. We had to take a bus to get near to the location because it is a bit far away from UCR, but once we got off at a bus stop instead of walking the short distance that would take about 15 minutes we decided to call an Uber. We both haven’t been in our hometown in a while, so instead of enjoying it we decided to take a car. At my high school, students were allowed to drive themselves to the campus beginning junior year. I never got my license during high school, so I would either be picked up by one of my parents or a friend who drove to themselves to school would. However, whenever one of my parents would pick me up they would refuse to pick me up directly in front of the school because of the ridiculous amount of traffic. They had me walk a little over half a mile each day after school to the exact same spot. Even though, half a mile wasn’t a long walk I realized a difference between taking that small walk and being driven home by

In the anecdote, “Walking and the Suburbanized Psyche”, by Rebecca Solnit, she implies, if walking continues to devalue, our society 's relationship between body, world, and imagination will be lost. I personally do not find walking to be a cultural activity or pleasure of getting around. Instead, walking is a hassle when the “American suburbs are built with a diffuseness that the unenhanced human body is inadequate to cope with”. Furthermore, instead of making us feel guilty or attempting to persuade us to travel on foot; we should acknowledge that we now perceive: value, time, space and our own bodies in a drastically different way than older times.

Rebecca Solnit’s Walking and the Suburbanized Psyche stresses her concerns about the suburban wave that has plagued the world in recent times. According to her, the mind, the body, and the world have a special bond that is being vanquished by the lack of recreational walking. In the eighteenth century, there was a “golden era” for walking because recent accommodations made it possible for the general public to enjoy the untamed nature all around them. This era was short-lived, as suburbs rose to popularity so did their unorthodox labyrinths which made walking simple distances nearly impossible to the public. The reason why walking in nature is important, Solnit shares, is because it allows the mind to flow freely without the corruption of everyday obstacles that the suburbs brought. She explains that in order for the mind to avoid being molded into a sterile dull thing, it must imagine in nature. If we do not continue to walk, the history we have with walking will diminish as will the special bond our ancestors cherished so dearly. Without it, Solnit fears that we will no longer be able to produce such things, however, in recent times walking is not a luxury many can do. I disagree because society has changed to the point where walking is not only a rarity but also a threat to many.

Staying cooped up inside not going outside only when necessary can negatively affect your physical health. Walking was cultivated by our ancestors. The physical benefits are eye-opening because most of them improve problems society is dealing with such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc. For example, an article by the Mayo Clinic Staff states, “regular brisk walking can help you: Maintain a healthy weight. Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Strengthen your bones and muscles.” (Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health), walking seems to improve physical health. Walking is more

Throughout the text “Solitary Stroller and the City,” author Rebecca Solnit explores the complex relationships between the walking individual and living in the city. The title brings together three central ideas; walking, the city, and solitariness as an individual.. These three central ideas are tied together and used to reveal deeper meanings and relationships within the text. When analyzing Solnit’s work, the reader is left to identify a complex relationship between the central ideas and how the geography of a city influences all the three of the central ideas. Solnit makes claims throughout the text that are strongly suggestive of a relationship between the ability to walk and its derivability based on the “when” and “where” concepts. The geography and or location can be explored through the comparison of rural walking versus urban walking, the comparison between the cities of London and New York, and the solitariness associated with the geography and structure in one city versus another. Spanning the entire text is the idea that the city influences the walker and their individualism among the crowd, or their perception of solitude. Solnit compares London walkers and New York walkers, exploring how their different geographical locations define their city as a whole as well as the individual. Geography plays a crucial role in one 's idea of solitude and individualism.

According to the essay “ Nature Through the Looking Glass”, the author believes that people should be part of nature, but most of the time people do not have real touch activity of nature. Under the strong competition society, it is not easy for a normal worker to go outside and interact with the nature. Those green plants on two sides of the city sidewalk is one of the chances for people to get touch to nature. More importantly, walking in the city sidewalks is easier than having a travel, which can satisfy most of the city people’s working requirement . Also, nature world will bring quiet life for people I always ask myself, if I can live without business area, after reading the essay “ The Forged City”. And I get a response, which is people need to get out of business activities and come back to nature even a short time in each day. Without interest relationship, people’s life will become simple and pure. Shopping malls cannot replace traditional city centers because people have large limitations in business malls. In contrast, people can observe different levels people in the society with equality ideas in traditional city centers. City sidewalks can fit for this requirement and provide a comfortable area for all of us. When children go

Many Americans rely heavily on their cars to get them from place to place. In the past, people walked to get to where they needed to go. In the suburbs for example “walking as a

On Saturday September 3rd, between 6:30 and 7 I went to the Arlington Parks Mall to observe the movement of others. In that short period of time I observed at least a hundred people, some I analyzed closer than others. Despite the fact that I am a creature that produces movement as well, and am someone who is not new to seeing others in action, there were some new revelations that were made apparent to me about movement outside of the expectations I already had. (3) First and foremost, people’s movements, like the finger prints that we are born with are unique to each individual; movement is a rainbow of flavors, no person moves exactly like the next. When I was observing in the mall the first and most common movement I noticed was walking.

It has always been human nature to live in small concentrated cities because of the opportunity, the services that are provided, and the cultural diversity, however negative aspects do arise when people are closely compacted, such as poverty, pollution, overcrowding, and even violence (“Urban” np). Residential segregation can also come from diverse cities caused by Urbanization, i.e. Chinatown in New York City (Beall, et al. 7). Some cities have tried to limit the amount of cars used for transportation and fund many sorts of different modes of transportation, and the large amounts of transportation may make it difficult for people to switch to a different mode, although a taxi or bus may still get stuck in traffic thereby limiting the contributing

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” This quote is from Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher who mused on the Apollonian and Dionysian literary concept. These concepts deliberate the influence logic and emotion have on thought, particularly the conflict between the two, as well as individuation versus connection to the world. Walking is like a physical manifestation of the Dionysian concept, as not only does it physically connect one to the natural world, but also lends itself to creative thinking. While some assume walking is only beneficial to the physical well-being of a person, others claim it also stimulates creative thoughts and ideas.

With an increase in urbanization, more people are moving to the industrial cities in pursuit of alternative lifestyle and jobs. Life in city and suburbs can be compared and contrasted with various aspects in mind since they share quite some details in as much as they are vastly different. Firstly, the transportation is more accessible in the city as compared to the suburb where there are no apt transport networks as compared to the city, among the transport mode in the city are subways, busses, trams and ferries. These provide easy, fast and cheap means of getting around in the city in as much as the streets are crowded. This is in contrast to the suburbs since owning a car is mandatory since such public transport systems are not available. When the costs of insurance, fuel expenses and time of commuting are added up then transport in suburbs is seen to be expensive when compared to that in the city. The easy transport in the city does not come all rosy since the city is also flooded with traffic jams due to congestion and this can render transport slow. This is contrast with suburb life where there is no traffic and hence with no congestion traveling in suburbs is more peaceful (Boulter, 2005).