Where’s the walkability?

To: Members of the Rhinebeck Town Board
Re: Rhinecliff TND
Date: July 20, 2006

“Smart Growth,” by definition, relies on “walkability.” Unlike sprawl, which spreads unchecked till it becomes The Blob That Ate Your Town, Smart Growth features “mixed use” development, in which businesses and residences are situated within easy walking distance of each other, and apartments are located above shops. In theory, you can take care of all your daily errands without needing to drive.

The proposed Rhinecliff TND is being hailed as so-called Smart Growth, which is pretty odd when you consider the fact that Rhinecliff doesn’t actually offer the kind of walkability that Smart Growth is supposed to promote.

Yes, I know we’re nicely situated near a train station; in fact, that’s the reason my husband and I bought our house on Kelly Street in the first place. We needed a place we could get to from the city via mass transit, because, you see, we don’t drive.

So what’s it like to live in Rhinecliff without a car? Well, it’s great to be able to walk home from the train station. And I ride my bike down to the station to pick up the morning paper. We walk to the post office and the library, too.

At some point during the day, though, we like to eat. Actually, make that several times a day. And when it comes to food, there isn’t any in Rhinecliff, except for the China Rose restaurant, and whatever I can grow in my yard that the woodchucks and birds are kind enough to leave me.

So, unless you’re the sort of person who could live on Chinese take-out, at some point, you have to leave the hamlet to stock your pantry. And I’m betting dollars to donuts (mmm, donuts) that you do it by car.

On Sundays, we can bike to the Rhinebeck Farmers' market and stock up on all kinds of wonderful local produce and other foodstuffs. But like most Rhinecliff residents, we buy a fair amount of staples at Stop ‘n’ Shop or Hannaford.

How do we get there? We rely on the kindness of neighbors with cars. Because it’s just not feasible to walk two or three miles to buy your groceries, even if you were blessed with the superhuman strength that it would require to carry all those bottles of water and cartons of broth back.

And the people who’d live in the proposed TND wouldn’t walk to the supermarket, either. Practically speaking, it’s not possible for the average person to live in Rhinecliff without a car. I should know.

Do the math. The TND calls for adding 90 units to the hamlet of Rhinecliff, which currently has less than 200 households. The DeColas would also like to build dozens of additional units at the other end of town. We can safely assume that each of these additional households will include at least one, and possibly two, cars.

I spend an inordinate amount of time puttering in my front garden, so I’m well aware of the traffic patterns on Kelly Street, which ebb and flow with the time of day. There’s a rush of cars in the morning, followed by a midday lull during which you could indeed eat your lunch in the middle of the street (leftover Chinese, perhaps?) if you were so inclined. Traffic picks up again in the mid-to-late afternoon and drops off in the evening.

Much of Rhinecliff is, as its name implies, nestled into a cliff, with tiny houses clustered on narrow roads. Rhinecliff residents who walk, jog or bike along our roads on a regular basis have to dodge drivers who go barreling through our hamlet as if it were a thruway. Our neighbors have lost numerous pets to drivers who were tearing down Kelly Street too fast to avoid hitting a dog or cat. Parents with strollers are keenly aware that they may have to step aside when a car swerves round the corner without seeing them.

The proposed development would increase the number of cars in Rhinecliff significantly, reducing whatever existing “walkability” Rhinecliff currently offers. What’s smart about that?

The Village of Rhinebeck, unlike Rhinecliff, is the very model of “walkability,” with its mixed-use neighborhood in which residents can walk to all kinds of businesses and amenities. It’s the only part of our community that does, in fact, have any real potential for “Smart Growth.”

So why not build the proposed development where it would actually make the most sense?

Well, maybe because some people are determined to preserve as much open space as possible. And that’s understandable. Everybody likes rolling pastures and perfectly weathered old barns. On the other hand, when was the last time you heard someone say, “I love it here, but this place sure could use a few more condos?”

But the Powers That Be have determined that there must be some development, somewhere. So what we’ve got, here, is an attempt to dump the density in Rhinecliff, which would let Rhinebeck keep its open space while complying with the demand for development.

There’s actually nothing smart about the proposed growth at all. If the development is not situated within walking distance of such amenities as shops, banks, restaurants, etc., the people who occupy these new households are going to get in their cars, just like the rest of us, and drive to town. It seems to me that the streets of Rhinebeck are already pretty congested with traffic, especially on weekends, and parking doesn’t seem all that easy to find, either. And don’t forget to take into account the fact that the construction at the Gardens is only one-third completed; how many additional drivers will that bring?

If the planners really want smart growth, why are they ignoring the need to place the development in a location that offers genuine walkability? The current plan, if implemented, would strain the geographical limitations of Rhinecliff; it would also bring many more cars into the town of Rhinebeck. When you build housing that requires people to get into their cars and drive just to buy the basics, that’s not smart growth, it’s sprawl. Let’s be honest about it.

Kerry Trueman