Now, this gem I have found goes right along with my previous post about things being depressing, but it is located in my capstone site, so it feels a little bit like a warm cozy fire and a cuddly blanket on a cold night (instead of a straight up cold night with no clothes, and you fell in a puddle).
Apparently, Cleveland has a pedestrian suspension bridge.
From Bridgehunter.com:
The Sidaway Bridge is Cleveland's only suspension bridge. It is a pedestrian bridge that spans Kingsbury Run connecting two ends of Sidaway Ave. This bridge was completed in 1931. It was in function until 1966. In July of 1966 there was a feud between a Polish-American neighborhood on one end of the bridge and an African-American neighborhood on the other side of the bridge. Someone set fire to the wooden deck and it was never replaced.
.....in 1966. That is so sad. 46 years. Why hasn't it been fixed?
As sad as I find this though, it really does light a fire. Every community deserves high quality pedestrian access. The conversation about what communities deserve always ends up being about how to make members of that community care to keep something in working condition. I think, among other things, a community needs to feel ownership, and unique things, with a history, aid in that. Why shouldnt the people that have stuck around in this neighborhood have a piece of working history available for them to use, to improve quality of life, to get them to work every day?
And why shouldn't this bridge be fixed so people like me can google it, then go see it, walk across it, and buy a piece of pizza or a bouquet of flowers on my way back to the train station (or to my new house down the road) ?
See a current(ish) aerial, and a few historic images below. Click on each to see original source.
