Market Forces

In his book The Psychology of Everyday Things, Don Norman - who's more or less the father of user-centered design - tells a story about a university that was building some new real estate, and wanted to figure out where to put the paths and sidewalks. The faculty and administration was deadlocked; everyone had an opinion - and you know what they say about opinions...

Finally, someone (I don't remember who from the story, I haven't time to look it up, and it doesn't matter for purposes of his post anyway) suggested just planting grass everywhere and leaving it for a year - and then putting cement on the footpaths in the grass. It (so the story goes) worked.

I thought of this because as I waited for a green light where Lyndale Avenue turns left onto Oak Grove - near the Walker, the Guthrie, the 510 Groveland and other up-market destinations in Minneapolis - there is a grass strip on the median where some beggar or another almost always stands.

And the path in the grass along the left-turn lane was not only worn down to the dirt, but was in fact a muddy trench a couple of inches deep.

Must be a hot spot for 'em.