Walkability Workshop 1 & 2

So I could live anywhere, nothing's really tying me to Greenville. No job, no girlfriend, just a love of what this town has to offer. I considered NYC... nah, too much Southern blood. I thought about DC, I even heard their public transit comes by every 8 minutes. But, I love this town enough to give 'em a fair shot at fixing what's broken. And with me riding buses a lot, and with my parents being so supportive (thanks), I've discovered the bus system is only kinda half-broken (public transit comes by once an hour, if you're lucky), but making steps toward improvement. Well, the only step I've seen real evidence of so far is adding a new bus stop by the Humane Society, at my request, since the bus went right by there anyway. Now they are about to get (some number I forget, 10-15) new buses, but instead of using them to increase it to one bus every half an hour, I hear they'll just replace the current buses. Huh. More work yet to be done on that cause.

Oh right, sorry, I forgot my point. This city is doing things to make it more live-able for us pedestrians. Apparently, some years ago, Jeff 1.0 signed up for emails from the city of Greenville. I got one saying that they were having a "Walkability Workshop" on Monday 3 days ago, at City Hall, with a national walkable-cities expert. So I go to City Hall, right past a crowd of folks gathering in front, and ask about the workshop. "Um, you just passed them." "OH, that was the Workability Workshop! I assumed it would be inside, where you can't really walk anywhere." (Did I mention the TBI?) I even went to the follow-up workshop at 7:30 this morning. I was one of only a few members of the general public, the rest were mostly all city council-type positions. As evidenced by the fact that when I first walked up to the group, some lady kindly asked me "And who are you? A member of the public?" My answer, since I didn't know yet that they were mostly city councilmen, "Um, yeah, I mean, really, when you think about it, aren't we all? I mean, you're not?"

So, all in all, this town is proving they're serious about becoming more of a pedestrian's city. This walkability goal is going to become an ongoing project for them. (well, since I live here, I guess that should be "for us") And I learned at the follow-up session this morning that, apparently I was involved enough on the first day, since they (city councilmen, etc.) were all calling me by name! Huh! I even met the director of public transportation, and he made some comment like "Wait a minute, you're not Jeff Knox are you?" "Um... (uh oh)... no... that's a different guy... that is 6'2" and has black-ish hair & a beard. Uh oh, whoops, I MEAN not at all, why?" (We've been bugging him on the phone to get the community bus to serve the community college)

So the bigger lesson is that the story of what happened to me, and my (and my loving folks') ongoing pursuit to have things at least be available to me is touching enough to be the catalyst to enact changes. Jeff 1.0 wasn't involved AT ALL, that was my problem, but J2.0 is involved way deep in leaving this town better than I found it. I've been invited to speak at a city council meeting in Jan.! This town may have so many features that I love, yet not be my ideal place to live right now, but between my parents & I, we're sure as heck gonna try to make it ideal. Thanks for the help, guys.