Pedestrian Friendly

 Jacobsen’s Family Department Store is fundamental to supporting the pedestrian friendly status of Northfield.  The store is located in the central, downtown district of Northfield.  The majority of businesses in Northfield are all located within the six block section of Division St. S., beginning at the intersection of First St. and Division St. S. and ending at the intersection of Division St. S. and Sixth St., adjacent to the Econofoods. A city is considered  pedestrian friendly when residents can easily walk to shops, services (hair salons, dry cleaners, health care facilities), schools and work.   Under the New Urbanism definition of Pedestrian friendly, a community can be considered as such when, all of the institutions and shops that one desires to go to must be located within a 1/4 to 1/2 mile of people’s homes.

  Walk way
This is a pedestrian path to an apartment and a management services office located along the Cannon River
 
 
 People are persuaded to go out often if they are within walking distance of local shops, restaurants and cafés. People will choose to walk more frequently if pathways and sidewalks are safe, comfortable and enjoyable (Robertson, 1998). The photographs on this page exemplify that there are many sidewalks for people to walk on in Northfield that are visually pleasing and safe. In this type of community, seeing an old friend does not have to be a pre-arranged activity.   Frequently, one might walk over to the local Guatemalan Café, Les Delicias and run into a friend they have not seen in a couple of months.  The frequency of increased social interactions with people is the core of what creates a sense of community for people.  The more times people interact with each other builds people's emotional connection with each other, which is a key element of a person's sense of community (McMillian and Chavis, 1996).

 The benefits of a pedestrian friendly city are abundant.   The increased number of people that are walking or biking around in a city increases people’s opportunities to have interactions with one another.  The increased occurrence of people talking with one another encourages the development of a greater sense of community.  Many downtown business owners and citizens asserted that easy accessibility of the downtown area of Northfield to pedestrians contributed to their sense of community.  One downtown business owner said "I can’t walk down the street one block without having a conversation with five different people. That would not happen if I were driving a car."   Kent Robertson, a professor and researcher for community development has written several articles that support this concept.  He states, "The more people on foot, the greater the opportunities for social contact and interaction, thus promoting a greater sense of community" (Robertson, 1998).

Two girls with funny clothes
Two friends taking a mid-day break together, by walking to the local coffee shop.

     In addition to pedestrian friendly cities facilitating a sense of community for their residents, they also help to maintain the vitality of the downtown area (Robertson, 1999). This is a very important objective for many cities.  Northfield is one of many small town cities, where the locally owned, downtown stores are struggling to compete with large retailers and other forms of periphery development.  Currently, the stability of small businesses is even more challenged by peoples decreased spending due to the slump in the economy.  Therefore, it is always important to increase business downtown.  Since, pedestrian based communities significantly increase the amount of people that are present within the downtown of a city; these people increase the amount of business that occurs downtown. 

    A group of down-town business owners has formed with the specific goal of making the downtown area more pedestrian friendly.  They have developed several ideas about how to make the downtown area more accessible to pedestrians.  They are in the beginning stages of developing ideas on this subject.  One of their ideas is to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on Division St. in the Downtown area.  This type of change would encourage people to walk more in the downtown area because people feel more comfortable walking when the traffic is slow (Robertson, 1998).  They have also considered constructing  a kiosk, that would serve as a community bulletin board.  It would include a map of the downtown area that clearly labels where all of the businesses and restaurants are located.  This kiosk would make it easier for visitors to Northfield to find the restaurant or store that they are looking for.  Another idea that this group has developed is to make signs that direct people to where the public parking is located.  This idea is of fundamental importance in Northfield, because many respondents stated that the confusion about where to park in downtown is a deterrence from people experiencing a sense of community in Northfield.

 

Bike
A commonly used bike rack in downtown Northfield.

The interviews supported the research that pedestrian friendly communities facilitate a greater sense of community for people.  Many respondents asserted that a sense of community is facilitated by the greater greater frequency of people walking downtown.   People may walk only one block from where they parked their car to the store.  However, a few non-downtown business owners and some Northfield citizens defined their sense of community through economic concerns.  These individuals had difficulty speaking about their own sense of community in Northfield.  They valued certain aspects about Northfield, such as the slower pace of life in the community of Northfield.  However, their main concern is that Northfield needs to develop and be more competitive, by having more major retail stores.  These stores can offer people lower prices and an increased variety of goods.  To them, price saving is more important then the sense of community to be gained in downtown Northfield.  In their opinion, stores like Jacobsen's will inevitably close because they cannot compete with the price competition of other large retailers in the area.    

 There is also an abundance of environmental benefits to communities like Northfield that are pedestrian friendly. Northfield is pedestrian friendly to the extent that one can easily live in the downtown area without a car.  This is an extremely environmental choice.  People that do not have cars consume ten times less energy then suburbanites who drive everywhere they need to go (Register, 2000).

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