Walking. I've always been a walker.
Only thing is, these days, not enough of us walk anymore; we drive.
In fact, we'll drive around the mall parking lot for minutes, looking for that "perfect" parking space, the one closest to Dillard's main entrance. But back in days of old, people in Hattiesburg walked a lot. Especially me.
When it comes to driving, I was a late bloomer. While most of my classmates at Hattiesburg High were already driving or even had their own cars, I was still getting around on foot.
For some reason, I was intimidated by the idea of driving an automobile; learning to drive was not a priority for me.
Back then, I made good use of Hattiesburg's municipal bus system. Still, I walked more than the average person in town.
That's pretty amazing when you consider how obese I was in my younger days. In hindsight, probably a good thing.
At least it was a form of exercise for this kid who was usually the most overweight person in any setting. Okay, so I was munching on a bag of Frito's BBQ corn chips and gulping a Barq's root beer at the same time, but hey, at least I was walking!
Sad to say, overall, ours is not a very pedestrian-friendly town. Oh, there were and are some exceptions, downtown Hattiesburg being the most notable. But that would make sense.
In the 60's and 70's, when I was growing up, fewer people owned cars. So a lot more of us walked to our destinations or, like me, rode city buses.
I lived on Fairley Street in east Hattiesburg. Our house was about as close to the Leaf River as you could get before swimming over to Petal. (I never did, but some of the older guys in my neighborhood liked swimming in the river.)
I'd usually ride the bus if my destination were further away from our house than downtown. It was an easy walk from there to downtown Hattiesburg.
Most of the way, my path would take me down streets lined with sidewalks, including 7th, Bouie and Mobile streets. Of course, all of downtown's streets had sidewalks, a holdover from the old days, before automobiles became kings of the road.
Once you left downtown, you'd begin seeing fewer and fewer sidewalks. There were times I'd walk from Fairley Street all the way out to Gibson's (remember them?) on Pine Street, or to Cloverleaf Mall on Broadway Drive.
When I was a student at The University of Southern Mississippi, I'd sometimes walk all the way to campus from the east side. I'd usually take 4th Street, and along the way, competed for space with automobiles and pickup trucks. To avoid motor traffic, I'd walk the old railroad tracks that parallel 4th Street, which are now part of the Rails to Trails parkway.
Truly urbane cities make good use of sidewalks. Hattiesburg has put a lot of resources into adding bike paths along some city streets, but not as much attention is paid to the needs of pedestrians. One part of town I'm keeping an eye on is the still-emerging midtown area.
Those of you as ancient as myself will remember what is now midtown Hattiesburg was once considered the far west side of town. At 40th Avenue, Hattiesburg literally stopped!
From there, after crossing I-59, you were driving into the woods, barely seeing a gas station between here and Columbia.
Since then, much of Hattiesburg's commerce has leaped across the I-59 corridor. But to frequent those businesses, you have little choice than to hopscotch store-to-store by automobile.
You've probably noticed the U.S. 98 retail corridor is downright hostile to pedestrians. Those brave enough to take on the task on foot are at the mercy of automobiles zipping past them at more than 45 MPH. U.S. 98 was "designed" (if that word can be used) exclusively for motor traffic.
Midtown Hattiesburg offers us the chance to get it right, at least for this evolving commercial heartbeat for Hattiesburg. The anchors for creating a pedestrian friendly midtown have been in place for years.
The city's largest employers, The University of Southern Mississippi, Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic, all within walking distance of each other, are concentrated in midtown. They collectively employ and bring a daily cast of thousands to this part of town.
The brand new District at Midtown has, literally overnight, created a pedestrian-friendlier shopping, dining and service area, pleasantly navigated on foot. (Thanks to sidewalks.)
In fact, outside of downtown, midtown has become the only part of Hattiesburg where you can actually park the car, walk and enjoy the outdoors. I'm hoping future midtown development will capitalize on the trend.
Midtown is undoubtedly the most densely populated section of Hattiesburg, with Southern Miss' built-in student population, a heavy concentration of apartment dwellers, student dormitories, the new Hotel Indigo and, who knows, more hotel space to follow? The new Midtown Townhouses, currently under construction on the site, will invite even more residential and pedestrian traffic.
Happily, Hattiesburg's decades of suburban flight appears to have bottomed out. Not everything new is moving west of the city's core.
The Hardy Street business district between U.S. 49 and I-59 is turning into a hot ticket for new businesses. South Hattiesburg along U.S. Hwy 11 is also undergoing a boomlet of new development.
Best of all, on a recent weekend visit downtown, the streets were much more alive than the sleepy, downright depressing downtown Hattiesburg of the '80s. All signs of a healthy city.
As we continue to take ourselves more seriously as a destination city, it's important to remember: those cities that succeed at becoming tourist destinations do so because they invite visitors to park, get out of the car and explore what that city has to offer...on foot. That's why sidewalks are so important, and why Hattiesburg needs more of them, especially in areas like midtown.
It would be cost-prohibitive to go back and retrofit every city street, adding sidewalks. But, as will be the case with Midtown, it's important to make our streets more pedestrian-friendly, inviting visitors and residents alike to get out of the car, walk, explore and take in our charming and growing city.
Elijah Jones is a writer and a proud graduate of the Hattiesburg Public School System and the University of Southern Mississippi. Email him at: edjhubtown@aol.com.
