On the whole, as I've been knocking on doors the last couple of weeks asking for signatures to support the road closure, the response has been really enthusiastic. Even people without kids have been keen to sign up, some going further and offering help on the day. I've lost count of the conversations that have ended, 'If there's anything I can do to help...' with someone I met for the first time three minutes earlier.
The only note of concern I've heard is: but where am I going to put my car?
Good question, and one I hope we'll come up with answers to at our next meeting on Thur 12th May... parking is tight in Palmers Green and we don't want anyone to have to park on a meter for the afternoon!
Interesting, though, how our cars have come to dominate the street. We all tend to think of the road as somewhere to drive and somewhere to park (except after the restrictions end at 6.30pm, in which case we go round the block five times til a space comes up). Yet 30 years ago, streets were a different place, where you were more likely to see children out playing on the pavement and neighbours chatting. 71% of us played on the street as kids, according to a 2007 poll by ICM, but how many of us let our own kids out nowadays? Streets have lost their multipurpose, community function and become the exclusive domain of the motor car, so that we have to hustle our children inside and shut the door.
It will be a pain in the neck finding parking on that Saturday in June, but maybe we'll see our street transformed for a few hours into something other than a traffic highway.
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