I decided to avoid the park on my walk to work today. Instead, I wandered through the neighbourhoods south of our house to the commercial strip on the south end of Albert Street, and then headed east to the university. The sky was cloudy. The sidewalks were empty. I saw a handful of other pedestrians: a woman walking her dogs, two fellows speaking a South Asian language. Everyone else was driving. This is a city for automobiles, not for pedestrians. Walking here–especially walking outside of the park–is strange, uncommon. I’ve written about that before, but today it seemed more true than ever. I’m not sure, though, whether that strangeness translates into anything radical or resistant, despite the psychogeography I’ve read. Walking in this city might just be a weird thing to do.
