Alleys

On the bus ride into work this morning I passed by the Capital Park neighborhood north of Peace College. I couldn’t help but admire how inviting this neighborhood is. One thing that makes a big difference in my opinion is the use of alleys.

Once upon a time, all a home’s “plumbing” was tucked away from public view, only accessible through the alleyway. Half the front yard wasn’t paved over, and half the facade of a home wasn’t wasted with an ugly garage door.

Had trash to put out? It stayed in the alley, not on the front sidewalk. Had to park your car? The alley will take you to your garage, keeping the front street open for visitors. With an alley there’s no barrier between the front of the home and the sidewalk or street. A home can come right out to the street to greet company.

I wonder when (and why) subdivision developers stopped appreciating this extremely useful part of the neighborhood.

Everyone’s a Eugene

Interesting. I did a search on “they call me Eugene”, looking for a dumb novelty song from the early 80s. Instead of my song, I found a bunch of fake websites with that phrase designed to game the search engines:

your up to date arthritis news site 1375 By Mortgage Refinancing …
They call me Eugene Keith Diaz. I live in a cozy 2 bedroom timber frame home a few miles outside of Woodmore, KS. Me and my family have been living here …
www.mortgage-refinancing.name/129.html – 4k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this
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