At the January 27, 2020
City Council meeting, one of the Council Members stated that there was no need
for either a coffee shop or a small corner grocery store at the proposed Corona
Train station development because anyone could simply walk to either
"Beyond the Glory" or to "Safeway." (That would be a 1.1
mile or 1.8 mile walk one way, respectively.)
This community walk, on
the morning of February 1, 2020, was organized by Brian Barnacle. We walked the
1.1 mile from the Corona Train Station project to Beyond the Glory. Contrary to
what a City Council Member stated, this is not a "walkable" trip. By
definition, "walkable" is under 1/2 of a mile and has sidewalks the
entire way.
A livable community
is one in which at least some trips can be made on foot. For the past 70 years
we have been building out east Petaluma as a suburban sprawl bedroom community
and, for many residents, every trip everywhere anytime is an automobile trip.
This is a failed land use planning model. But even today we continue to build
more automobile dependent single family housing.
