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Comment by zoklet-enjoyer | Hacker News Reader

I don't get it. A bunch of paragraphs on going for a walk?

The essay defines the concept of psychogeography then explores how people have historically engaged with that concept.

As a small example of what this essay is pointing to: suppose your neighborhood could be 100% walkable and that you could easily walk to work, the doctor, your friends' houses, etc. What is desirable about that kind of environment? What would it take to make it possible? What kinds of systemic forces counteract it?

> Many of the issues we face [...] are deeply connected to the physical world and our interactions with our immediate surroundings. [...] As we emerge into post-pandemic public spheres, we have the opportunity to imagine new versions of the public sphere[.]

> Guy Debord, a founding member of both bodies, defined psychogeography as an environment’s impact, whether mindful or not, on an individual’s behaviors or emotions.

> These sorts of actions, even on the smallest scale, carry significant meaning when practitioners assert how they wish to inhabit a space, and when they are able to convince others to likewise undertake this reflective process of questioning the status quo.

Who on earth thinks there’s any probability to the place you want to work, the friends you want to talk to, and the doctor you trust being within walking distance to your home, among all the other things? It sounds like an unbelievably narcissistic or naive idea - that all the things you need wound somehow be just a few steps away because you’re that important. I mean, this is like a very childish thought.

What counteracts it? Reality.

You seem strangely angry about a pleasant idea.

I live in a small college town in Germany. My workplace is a 15- to 20-minute uphill walk away, my family doctor is in the building next to where I live, and all my friends are within a 40-minute walking distance. The situation was almost the same when I lived in China, in a smaller town two hours' drive from Guangzhou. I've walked my whole life and don't even know how to drive. I've almost taken for granted that one should be able to walk to any place that is important to them; perhaps it's not that universal elsewhere?

Good city planning is a thing.

Not my reality. I've lived in four different cities as an adult over almost three decades (not Europe - Australasia). This has always been the case for me. Though of course I also have friends and family that are more far-flung, and I see relatively less of them.

If you don't design your life around a car to begin with it really isn't hard (in many places). On the other hand, if you assume you'll be reliant on a car and then choose to live in an outer suburb you have no chance.

Uhmmm, don’t know what to say to that, that’s the reality for me and many others. Not a few steps away, and maybe 15 mins is a bit optimistic for everything, but i have all that in max 30 mins walk

Curious how you think people existed before cars & bikes were invented? Horses were expensive and few had one.

Nothing to get. Just upper middle class people who have surrogated every difficult thing in their lives and now without struggle or meaning need something to fill that. So a utilitarian task - walking somewhere - suddenly becomes a think piece on how to walk somewhere better than other people.

The author pays no mind to people who would love the luxury of mindlessly podding around smelling the roses and taking it all in. Except for they can’t because the immediacy of their stresses overwhelm any chance of taking it in.

Saying that, it’s nice to keep your head up wren walking around a nice place.

Luxury? Some of the poorest places I've been are full of people with relaxed paces of life who make a habit of taking in the scenery, whether sitting at a cafe or walking.

Not only that, but half of the paragraphs reference at least one social justice trope, including, ironically, redlining, which supposedly disproportionately urbanized minority populations by keeping them out of newer suburban developments--but those newer suburban developments were inherently less walkable, weren't they? https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history...

You're going to hate Proust.

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