Neighborhoods speak. The citizens that live in them need to understand their language.

Considering the urban background not from the abstract perspective of an urban planner but from the viewpoint of an attentive observer, I’m going to try to learn more about my neighborhood from sayings, observations, and bite-size truths. I’ll try to do short essays as I learn how to read the neighborhood.

I’m curious about the topic of neighborhood literacy, from a pedestrian’s perspective. With these Urban Planning 101 posts, I want to learn what to notice if I want to understand the neighborhood. Over time, we can learn to detect patterns in the relationships between people and the neighborhood environment.