near West Mississippi Avenue and South Raritan Street. “As you know, the sidewalks over here on this side of town are very small,” says Smack, who navigates them every day. During the event, a bumpy and cracked curb cut at the intersection of Mississippi and Santa Fe forced Smack and others to move into the street instead of staying on the sidewalk. Stalls walked alongside her. “It was rough. It was rough,” recalls Smack. “The sidewalks are very small, and they need to widen them instead of spending all the money on cars and all that kind of thing. They need to consider people with disabilities.” The tour concluded at an RTD bus stop near Mississippi and Raritan. Standing be- neath a shelter that looked like it hadn’t been touched since the ’80s, Pedestrian Dignity ad- vocates were able to show fi rsthand how bad Denver can be for people who don’t use cars. “I am happy to report that we were able to repair the bus shelter. And since that bus shel- ter is owned by RTD, we had the ability to fi x it relatively quickly. That has been resolved. near public housing to show where pedestrians can fi nd grocery stores, hospitals and schools. “It’s where people are going. And then looking at the specifi cs of pedestrian mobility in comparison, in juxtaposition, in contrast to automobiles,” Stalls says. Like the Pedestrian Dignity tours, which are year-round, the videos are made in all seasons. The purpose is to be really clear “how harmful and how much space the car takes up around a community, around where people live and where people are trying to go,” he adds. Stalls is now on a book tour, touting WALK: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles per Hour. “Some of the stories are part of journal entries from my walk in 2010. I kept journal entries, notes and refl ections from the cross- country walk, Walk2Connect [and] other long-distance walking journeys in a large writing fi le, and kept returning to it over the years,” says Stalls, who says he formally began working on a book proposal in 2016, Stalls fl ies cross-country for book tour dates, but otherwise walks to any events he can. The bus shelter has been cleaned up and repaired,” says Brandon Figliolino, a senior community engagement specialist for RTD who was on the tour. “I defi nitely observed that the built environment is oriented toward vehicles. I appreciate them raising that aware- ness and showing that there are opportunities to improve the pedestrian infrastructure on roads and streets in the Denver metro area to make it easier for people to bike and walk to transit destinations,” Why did it take a Pedestrian Dignity event to draw attention to the shelter? “We have a prioritization schedule,” Figliolino responds. “We make improvements based on essentially the safety risk of those situations. We will prioritize getting safety concerns repaired fi rst over more aesthetic concerns.” Stalls made a TikTok video of the event, which has already racked up over 15,600 views. “Notice the new, wide, fl at detached side- walk that leads pedestrians, all who walk or roll into the chaos of traffi c with no support. Pedestrian networks are so disconnected. We need our decision-makers to feel it and experience it,” Stalls says over the video, which features smooth jazz with a beat in the background and footage of Pedestrian Dig- nity advocates and RTD offi cials on the tour. Stalls says he’s “constantly bringing origin and destination into the videos.” He notes what bus routes are nearby, and often fi lms areas the same year he rediscovered the art he’d loved as a child. (He frequently posts stickers he’s created on his walks.) “I wanted others, in their own ways, to connect to walking/unhurried movement as medicine, connection, humility, healing, justice and Earth care,” Stalls explains. Although he fl ies to tour destinations, he tries to walk to his events. For example, he recently fl ew to Providence, Rhode Island, and then walked to New York City, stopping at cities and towns along the way for book tour events. “It’s really important to me, primarily from this place of mental health and integrity and connection to the book, it’s my most healthiest state,” he says. “And it’s a book about walking, so energetically, it just always feels more integrating for me. ... Getting in a car is jarring for me, especially if I’m do- ing any walking programming or anything related to the book.” Stalls wrapped up an August book event by taking participants to Paco Sánchez Park for a live reading. “It’s not all devastation and harm,” Stalls says. “There’s so much beauty when we can move with each other, shoulder to shoulder, side by side. Our bodies are moving forward, under an open sky.” Email the author at conor.mccormick. [email protected]. DEBT & IRS PROBLEMS? SET UP YOUR INITIAL CONSULTATION BEFORE THE IRS AND OTHER CREDITORS ENFORCE COLLECTION EFFORTS. MICHAEL M. NOYES ATTORNEY & CPA 303-756-6789 9 Needing Your Emotional Animal W/ You? For eligible people who need their emotional support animal to accompany them at/or away from home, I am available to provide the documentation and counseling. Call Elaine Lustig, PhD at 303-369-7770 CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED westword.com | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | WESTWORD SEPTEMBER 22-28, 2022 EVAN SEMÓN
