Today’s walk was through the mid-century Idle Hour neighborhood. The neighborhood is bounded roughly by New Circle Road, an industrial area near the RJ Corman tracks, Richmond Road and the Idle Hour country club. The neighborhood is buffered from New Circle Road by Idle Hour park, and it was from here that I started the walk. Though the houses seem to be from the 1950’s, they usually seem to feature cars or carports. I always wonder what these neighborhoods must have seemed like when they were new, but it seems reasonable to imagine an air of optimism, especially in the coming half-century of car culture. On this day, it was fairly quiet, though the occasional car did speed by especially on the main feeders. Will Fant was dominated by duplexes and apartments, and here you could hear children playing.

Overall, though, this neighborhood was rough around the edges. Certain things are always troubling to me in neighborhoods like this. Usually, it’s something along the lines of streets that aren’t maintained (i.e., repaved) as well as they might be in a nicer area. I did notice at one intersection, the “zebra” crosswalk marking had been scraped off. I’d really like to know the story behind that.