Good bridges make good neighbors.

On a nice night last January, while taking a healthful walk toward the Dean Smith Center for a UNC basketball game, our friend and neighbor David Galinsky was killed as he tried to cross Fordham Boulevard, an unlighted, un-crosswalked, six-lane barrier between our neighborhood and the campus. His widow, Maeda, in her grief, channeled her energy into demanding that improvements be made to this important intersection so that such a thing need never happen again.

Hence the Fordham Boulevard Safety Committee, which made its final report to the Town Council last night. These folks deserve a lot of thanks for such a thoughtful and thorough set of recommendations. I don't have a copy of Nancy Tripoli's collection of images of beautiful pedestrian bridges in university towns across the country, but if you take a peek here you'll get a sense of what is possible. Not easy, especially not when the road in question is controlled by the state DOT, but: not impossible. Says Nancy: "The bridge is for pedestrians. Nothing else about it needs to be pedestrian."

UPDATE: Nancy's presentation.