Jaywalking in Seattle (An Invisible Protest)

According to wikipedia, "jaywalking is the illegal or reckless crossing of a roadway. Examples include a pedestrian crossing between intersections without yielding to drivers and starting to cross a crosswalk at a signalized intersection without waiting for a permissive indication to be displayed."

In Seattle, jaywalking is illegal, and (anecdotally) is a ticketed offense. People wonder why Seattleites wait so patiently at a light, when no cars are coming from any direction. I think it's mostly because if we get caught, the fine is $56 dollars. In comparison, the fine for smoking marijuana in public is $27.

I'm a firm believer in allowing the public to use common sense, without being punished. If I look both ways, and there's not a car in sight, and no cars looking to turn from a side street, then as a pedestrian I should be allowed to cross the street at my discretion, without the fear of a ticket.

My best advice for anyone jaywalking in Seattle, is to think twice if you're going to do it in front of the police. I say do it whenever you can as a matter of invisible protest against punishing the use of everyday common sense in public. But be safe, and don't get caught, because it's $56.

The Problem of Stuffocation... or, Destufficate

I'm trying to learn to live a more minimalist lifestyle. It's not always easy, but I think it has value. This is definitely worth listening to, if you have an hour of time to spend. "Material dreams have their place, but that memories matter much more."

I found this at LifeEdited.

The Value of Time

If I have the time to walk to my destination, I would generally prefer to walk. When time and distance are a larger issue, then I start to look at the bus schedule. But, there are also times when the bus isn’t practical, and driving is the best option. It’s not that I don’t like driving; I’m certainly comfortable and capable of getting around the city by car, it’s just that being in the driver’s seat is always the least interesting way to get from point A to point B. On the bus, or in the passenger seat, I have the opportunity to at least look down the passing side streets, catch a glimpse of some kind of random excitement, or just people watch at stop lights (without having to be focused on all things that are required to operate a motor vehicle). As a pedestrian, I am hyper-sensitive to unattentive drivers, so I take my responsibility as a driver very seriously. Not to get too far off track though, because this post is really about how I decide to spend my time, because deciding to walk anywhere just takes longer.

I think it’s safe to say that for most people time is valuable, and the older we get, the more valuable it becomes. Many of my friends are married, with children; they have jobs that require more than 40 hours per week of their attention; and they have obligations when it comes to their weeknights, and weekends. We inevitably end up in a position, where so much of our lives end up being dictated to us out of responsibility to work and family, that what time we have leftover is precious little.

I am fortunately (and unfortunately) a single, unattached guy. I have a 40 hour per week job that I get to leave at the door, when I walk out of the office at the end of the day. Because of that fact, my job doesn’t necessarily leave me with a ton of disposable cash to spend, but It has however (up until this point in my life), left me rich with time. I'd have the time to spend on friends & family, and if I wanted to walk somewhere to meet up with someone, I could fit that into my schedule with relative ease.

A great example of this would be last Sunday I met two friends to watch a movie. The cinema is approx. 2 miles from my apartment. I can walk to the cinema in about 45 minutes (which I’ve done about twice a month since moving to Greenlake in July). The weather was okay, and the movie was in the mid-afternoon, so I made the decision to hoof it up to the movie. The reason why I’m mentioning this is because what it really means is that I have to have an hour and a half of travel time, plus the running time of the movie in my day to make that work. If the movie is 2 - 2 1/2 hours, then I have to have 3 1/2 - 4 hours in time that I can spend on an adventure like that.

When I lived in the Queen Anne neighborhood, I would occasionally walk with one of my best friends from Queen Anne, to Century Link Field to watch an afternoon game in the summer. It was a 3 1/2 mile walk that would take us a little over an hour. Those were my very favorite Sounders games to go to. It was a 4 hour commitment, but I was having fun, and it gave my friend, and I two hours to talk about whatever was going on in life. A lot of it was joking around, but we also had time to talk about things that were important to us too. I was spending a quarter of my waking day in time on this one event, but the value that I got from that time was very, very high. 

Interestingly, over the last several months, I've slowly found that I have a lot less time to spend on those kinds of things. I've started a year-long health coaching certification program, I've committed to this blog, and currently I'm volunteering as a supernumerary for the Seattle Opera, (all on top of my full-time job). I’ve come to find myself wrestling with the dilemma of not having the amount of time that I’m use to having. This month, I’ve found myself driving more, and walking less. It’s been a disappointing realization.

So, now I have to start asking myself some tough questions, because moving forward with my life plans, means having less “disposable” time. How do I continue to maintain a walking lifestyle, as my life gets busier and busier? What are things I can bear to give up, in order to continue making walking the priority? I may lose the freedom to do some my random I’ll-walk-here-for-that-thing kind of stuff that I love, but my goal is not to forget the value that walking has in my life.

Pathway of Lights

They even light the docks that surround the lake with the little candle-lit lanterns.

This last Saturday (Dec. 14th) I walked over to Greenlake to check out the 37th Annual Pathway of Lights for the very first time. For anyone who doesn’t know, Pathway of Lights is an event where volunteers set up thousands of luminaria that light both sides of the 2.8 mile path around Greenlake. The event is scheduled from 4:30 - 7:30 and there are several stations around the lake where one can listen to live instrumental music, caroling, or get a hot chocolate. 

I first became aware of the this event two years ago. Last year I was unable to participate because of some other conflicting holiday obligation (I can't remember what). This year I promised myself not to miss it, but due to a volunteer opportunity, that required me to be somewhere else by a certain time, I felt much more rushed for this walk than I wanted to be. I would have happily stopped at each station along the way, had I the time.

Taken from the Greenlake path.

I started the walk, relatively promptly, at 4:30. Dusk had set in, and the darkness was coming fast. The luminaria at dusk were very beautiful, and it allowed me to get a couple of instagram photos before the daylight had completely gone. In the dark of the night, there just wasn’t a good picture to be taken of those damn candles.

A lot of people turned out for this event, and it presents a few challenges for the Greenlake regulars. The pathway around the lake becomes quite congested, and I noticed the few runners I saw struggling to navigate their way through the packs of people. Also, because of the crowds, it can be hard to walk around the lake at your own pace without either feeling pushed along, or slowed down. None the less, it was still an incredibly festive environment. I saw a small family in a tiny boat with a string of lights being pushed off from the shore, paddle boarders with what looked like candles on the back of their boards, and children strung up with battery-powered christmas lights. 

Paddle boarders, with what looked like candles on the back of their boards.

Overall it was fun, and the weather was amazing for Seattle at this time of the season. Next year I’ll make sure I have the time to experience the whole thing the way I would have preferred to. One thing I'll try is to start out between 3:30 and 4:00 in order to capture more pictures at dusk, and maybe getting to enjoy the full beauty of luminaria (depending on what time the candles actually get set out on the path) before the crowds get too unwieldy. Once the sunsets, and the daylight is completely gone, the luminaria just aren’t as impressive. I think in some part that's because with the number of people on the path, it's hard to find an unobstructed view. That's fine though, because the magic of the experience really becomes about the holiday spirit that so many bring with them. That's the reason why I’ll definitely plan to take a second lap around lake. I really do want to stop and listen to the music, and enjoy all of the holiday cheer. Pathway of Lights is an event I would highly recommend to families looking for something to do during the holiday season. If young kids are involved, weather and length of the walk are certainly considerations. With a couple of spiked hot chocolates, or maybe Irish coffee, It could also make for a fun date night.