You Call That a CITY?

My favorite street sign of all time is posted as you near Portsmouth from the south on Islington St.  I've never seen another- anywhere.  It reads: 'THICKLY SETTLED'.

The first time I passed it I laughed out loud.  I don't know why I found it so funny, but it struck me as being completely hysterical.  It seemed like a classic new england approach to saying slow down.  I'm sure I risk insulting some old school new englander, but seriously, it epitomizes the 'polite to the point of being rude' demeanor that exists up here.  A town where it is entirely acceptable to stop your car in the middle of a road to chat with the mailman as he walks by, but is absolutely offensive if the driver stuck behind you toots on their horn because of it. When a driver passes this sign they are being told that folks around here have solid vocabularies and have built quite a few houses to boot!  Of course, this particular sign is also seemingly out of place.  The stretch of road where it is posted is not a particularly thickly settled area.  At best it feels suburban for the mile or so past the sign.  Needless to say, I love the sign and always smile when I pass.

Today, we were at the pocket park down the road from our house, as is the case most days, when I started thinking about another perspective on that sign, and on the mentality of this town as a whole.  Something that I really love about Portsmouth.  That sign says: We are a city.  "Booming metropolis" of about 20,000 people actually, which is the same population as the town of Setauket, where my family's farm is on Long Island, but Wow, what a difference there is between those two places.  Setauket is place I hold close to my heart. I grew up there, know many wonderful people, love its history, beaches and of course, our amazing little family farm.  Still, it is basically a stretch of houses that run from the edge of Stony Brook to the edge of Port Jefferson. It doesn't have a centralized feeling, there is no downtown, there are few public gathering spots.   It is devoted to being the suburbs, because it was developed as suburbs, and they just weren't thinking in the late 70's and early 80's-- or at least not thinking about the right things.  Portsmouth, on the other hand, is a historic port.  It has always been a place designed for public gathering.  It is a city because it has always been a city.  It's not about size, it's about attitude.

In a 1/4 mile radius around our house, there are no less than 6 parks.  Maybe more.  I found a new one just the other day when we were meeting up with a friend who lives 4 blocks from us.  Our yard is relatively small, but it is big enough for a garden a grill and a picnic table, so it will do it's job.  The park is a better place to play anyway.  I can throw the tennis ball for our crazy chocolate lab, and she doesn't rip up the lawn, because the park is zeroscaped with wood chips. Meanwhile my little guy climbs across the jungle gym, and my big guy shoots hoops, people in our neighborhood drive by, stop and say hello, wave.  Other kids come and go.  The park creates foot traffic, which creates a feeling of community, which makes people slow down and see one another.  Most of time, cars yield to pedestrians, even when they don't have to.  Foot traffic reigns supreme.

In NY, it sometimes felt like no one ventured outdoors.  There are like minded parents who think there kids should be out of the confines of the back yard on a regular basis, but to find them would generally involve driving.  You could ride a bike to the beach, but there were few sidewalks, and the medians on the side of the road are non-existent in many places.  Driving was safer and easier.  Same for getting to THE park... there was really only one unless you went to a school playground.  No safe way to walk to the grocery store, no corner markets, no cross walks to speak of.  So, it comes as no surprise that in a town with this kind of set up, people don't look out for one another.  In fact, cars would FLY everywhere.  We lived across the street from the farm, which was admittedly quite a busy street, but even when I would stand there with a dog on a leash and two small children holding my hands, cars would roll through the stop sign where we stood and keep on going.  They wouldn't stop!  It became a point of battle for me, where I would stare down drivers as I'd step in front of their cars, daring them to run me over.  More than once I yelled out-loud at someone who was driving particularly recklessly.  What I am beginning to wonder now, is if in some way it really wasn't completely the fault of those obnoxious drivers.  In that town people had willingly or not so willingly agreed to live by the automobile.  There are thousands of towns just like it.  Places that were developed with no consideration towards how to promote foot traffic and community.  When everyone is driving inside their own metal box, and living behind their own picket fence, they don't stop to think about anyone outside that space.  They don't slow down and see their neighbors, they speed past them as their kids watch videos in back seat of the minivan.  Undoing the damage in a place that has been built that way is difficult.  I think, actually, Setauket has a fighting chance.  They recently finished a bike path, there are some really active parents who have taken to the streets with their kids, walking en mass to school in the mornings up busy roads, being visible.  I think the right choices may eventually tone down the manic auto state that has taken over that town, but it is going to be an uphill battle because they now have to undo mistakes of the past.

Portsmouth has her bones in the right place.  The cars are second class citizens, as they should be.  It's EASIER to walk downtown then to drive.  I like that.  And I like our little park.  And, did I mention, the 'Thickly Settled' sign?  It makes me smile.