A photo essay on school sprawl in two parts

I've commented here often on the fact that Franklin's schools are great examples of sprawl-planning in action: inaccessible, dangerous to travel to and from except by vehicle, etc.

Kaid Benfield asks in a two-part photo essay:

How in  the world did we get from this...
 

..to this:

Schools used to be the heart of a neighborhood or community.  Children and not a few teachers could walk to class, or to the playground or ball field on the weekend.  This was relatively easy to do, because the schools were placed within, not separated from, their neighborhoods.  They were human-scaled and their architecture was not just utilitarian, but signaled their importance in the community.  Now it has become hard to tell one from a Walmart or Target.

Kaid Benfield's Blog › A photo essay on school sprawl - Part 1: 

Part 2

Comments

[Chubbs]

Great find. Be SURE to promote it on Digg and Reddit, we've got to get people reading this stuff

[Janet Evans]

Ah, your "How did we get from this" pictures are likenesses of my old schools...I hate to say it, but those were the days. I loved walking to school.

The "sprawl" of schools now is partly because of athletics...you need one or two fields for each sport; partly because you don't want to build a school that goes up...it's got to be a one story maze that takes forever for students to traverse; and partly because you don't want to have noise and light too close to homes...which has been a complaint even here in Franklin (high school).

Even my high school was a school that was walkable school. The only problem was making sure students stayed on campus! It sure made it nice for students to be able to attend activities though.

[john]

Ironically, the neighborhood close enough to be LIT by the lights at Franklin High School have NO PEDESTRIAN ACCESS TO THE SCHOOL OR ITS FACILITIES!

[A]

I love reading your blog entries but I have to attempt it makes me quite depressed sometimes about the city I am living in.
My son just started at PV and I live right behind the MMSD field.

What can we do as citizens to get our voice heard, we have lived her for 5 years and there are many aspects of Franklin I truly love and others I truly hate, my son asked to walk or ride his bike if he could with me but I can’t even imagine walking or biking on 51st, Minnesota or the street leading to PV.

As a community can we petition a walkway through the field, or is that a dead end battle, who hears complaints on the structure of our roads leading to schools?

Again, thank you for your blog. Just wish as taxpaying citizens our voices were heard a bit clearer.