There’s an interesting story in the Neighbors section of the Journal Star today. Apparently there’s a walking path in the East Bluff that runs between Frye and Thrush. Usually when the Journal Star writes about walking paths, it’s always a positive thing. Walking paths add quality-of-life to the city, they say. They make it more liveable and more attractive to young urban professionals who might want to work at Renaissance Park (f.k.a. the Med-Tech District). We need more, more, more walking paths in the city!

Yet this story isn’t positive at all. The city and park district aren’t praising this walking path. In fact, they want to close it down! I read with incredulity:

Over the years however, as the community has been taken over by gangs and people in the drug trade, the walkway has become a haven for those seeking to evade police or to easily carry out their clandestine activities.

Huh. Imagine a walkway being used by gangs and drug dealers for nefarious activities. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but at the same time the city is removing this short, troubled path from the East Bluff, isn’t the park district working to build a long walking path that will connect Taft Homes with the near north side and eventually meet up with the Rock Island Trail? Does anyone think that maybe, just maybe, there might be a similarity between these two trails, particularly where they traverse a community that’s been “taken over by gangs and people in the drug trade”? Is anyone connecting the dots here?

I’m just asking.