Tuesday, October 2, 2018

What does the LA Cougar have to do with Nashville's Sidewalk Woes?

LA Times article - Mountain Lion overpass / 101 Freeway
LA Times - mountain-lion-freeway-bridge


Last night, I went with my family to see Steve Winter talk about photographing big cats for National Geographic.  It was completely enthralling.  One of the most striking things he spoke of was a land bridge, to cross the 101 freeway in Los Angeles, to allow mountain lions safe passage and access to a much larger terrain. 






This project is being spearheaded by volunteers and by private donation.










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To build a bridge for mountain lions, wildlife activists need $60 million






As 101 Freeway traffic streaked past, a dozen conservationists and fundraisers gathered this week just west of Liberty Canyon Road in Agoura Hills, their eyes alternating between maps they carried and the contours of a canyon where mountain lions hunt and breed.
But it wasn’t the big cats they were looking for. Their target, instead, was a patch of land that could anchor a 200-foot-long, 165-foot-wide overpass spanning a stretch of freeway that carries 100,000 vehicles each day.  Click 1st link for remainder of article.



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This topic, sat with me in part because of my persistent interest in the safety and health of pedestrians in Nashville. 


Nashville is a large city/county of over 500 square miles.  We have 19% of its streets sidewalked.  At our current rate of production, none alive today will see this job done.

The notion of private funding major projects like the land bridge above is being done in other cities and it raises the notion of doing it in Nashville to build sidewalks.

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