My husband and I have recently talked about purchasing a safe. Not that we have valuable jewelry, gold, or wads of cash lying around, but to protect important documents in case of a fire or natural disaster. We’ve also realized that it would be important in case of a robbery, especially if we have all of our renter’s insurance paperwork inside the safe. We’ve looked at a few models, but just haven’t gotten around to making a decision yet.

With that said, a few months back we were visiting my husband’s sister and her family. They had just purchased a huge safe to hold some of their father’s (my father-in-law’s) guns. For various reasons he didn’t want them in his house anymore and gave them to my sister-in-law to hold on to. (This sounds weird, I know, but these are guns that have been handed down, and we can’t just sell them.) Being that they have young children in the house, a safe seemed the best option for housing the artillery.

The moment my husband saw their safe near their front door, glaringly obvious, he made a point that a safe is usually something that’s hidden. My sister-in-law kind of pooh-poohed that idea since it was such a large item and it had been difficult to move. They also thought it was a nice looking safe and liked the idea of showing it off to guests.

Well, kids are really quite bright, and sometimes mischievous. My soon to be nine-year-old niece saw her mother place her birthday gift inside the safe. I have no idea why she place her daughter’s gifts in the same place where they keep the guns (don’t worry, there was no gun accident!), but she did. A week ago, my smarty-pants niece texted my father-in-law asking for the combination to the safe, from her father’s phone! Luckily, my father-in-law had no idea what the combination of the safe was, and he apologized to my brother-in-law, or at least that’s who he thought was asking. Later, my brother-in-law was surfing through his text messages and realized that someone had been asking for the combo to the safe. Lo and behold, he realized that it had been my niece (his daughter) trying to figure out how to get into the safe and see her present!

Now, I can’t for the life of me think of why the present would be in the safe with the guns in the first place. I’m sure it wasn’t that valuable of a gift. But this is where a safe can be NOT SO SAFE! Like my husband had mentioned to his sister, safe’s are usually to be hidden, or at least respected! Something really horrible could have happened had my niece been able to get into the safe. Thankfully she wasn’t able to figure out the combination.

This crazy situation got me brainstorming some safety tips for a safe for future reference:

• Hide the safe: Even most large safes can fit in a closet or back room somewhere.
• Keep the safe in the back of the house: If the safe is so large it won’t fit inside a closet, at least put it towards the back of the house where it isn’t a focal point.
• Respect the safe: Make sure everyone in the family knows that they are not to touch the safe. There may have dangerous, or important, items in the safe that only the adults of the house are allowed access to.
• Don’t show off the safe: The point of the safe is to hide things. Of course there are collector safes, but these usually don’t hold important or dangerous items.
• Don’t mix up the idea of frivolous items with important ones! This story clearly shows that there is some logic missing here.

What experiences have you had with safes? Do you use one? Do you know the combination? Do other family members in your household have access to them? What have you told your spouse or kids about the safe?

I’ve been looking forward to the rain, really I have. I’m tired of looking at brown mountains and dried out lawns. The much needed rain will green everything up for a bit. However, since we are a town that barely receives our annual 15 inches, this week will be a trying week. Meteorologists are predicting up to 8 inches in a week, that’s more than half our annual rain fall amount.

Most cities across the nation handle much more harrowing weather, like snow, sleet, and ice. There are plenty of people who drive in much worse conditions than just a steady rain fall. Yet our normally arid city slowly comes to a halt with a few inches of that wet matter. For instance, yesterday while driving around town running some errands, every other major stop light was out. At one intersection, our trusty LA Fire Department was putting out a small fire a top a telephone pole….not so nice. Many major roads and intersections were flooded, not because we’ve received our full 8 inches, but because our run-off drains are clogged with leaves and, unfortunately, trash.

Considering our city is one of the most car-dependent, you’d think that our tax dollars could be spent filling pot holes. Not the case, with water filling in the holes, many go undetected, causing havoc to an unsuspecting driver’s automobile. So, with the promise of lots of rain this week which may help us get out of our drought, comes a commuting head ache for many on the road. Drive safely LA!

Standard Time is on - darkness befalls us

I still don’t know why most states adhere to the Day Light Savings time change. I understand that it once had to do with either the agrarian economy, meaning farmers having more daylight to harvest, or maybe something to do with the trains. I may be a bit confused on the train thing, I think that had more to do with the different time zones. However, most people I know and talk to, fret over the time change twice a year.

In the Spring, when it’s time to spring forward, most happy go lucky folks like the additional hour of daylight in the evenings. Those long days remind most of us of our care-free childhood when summer meant no work and all play. Yet, I think that if we didn’t spring forward, we would still get to enjoy the lingering light as summer approached. Take Arizona, for instance, they don’t adhere to Day Light Savings Time. Due to their scorching summers, why add an additional hour of blazing sun to their day? However, they still end up with plenty of evening sunlight. The Earth’s tilt makes sure of that.

Come Fall, or Autumn (for those East Coasters), falling back an hour makes most of us cranky. Yes, we do get that one additional hour of sleep on the first day of Standard Time, but the rest of the first month of two, as we adjust to regular time, the days grow shorter. The darkness makes 5:00pm feel like 8:00pm, our bodies tell us it’s bedtime. Many people driving home from work at this time, struggle with the new found darkness. A few years ago, I read an article that said that states that follow Day Light Savings, which means they change their time twice a year, have more car accidents following the time change. People have to readjust to the darkness or lightness for those first few days. So, on top of having to change all of the clocks in the house, and being cranky, I am also more likely to have a car wreck!

Some people may argue that they prefer Falling Back to standard time because it gives them that extra of hour of sunlight in the morning. Those happy morning people are probably elated when it’s time to set the clocks back. In some ways, I will also like the additional hour of sun in the morning. But mostly, this is due to my safety. I like riding my bike to work 2 or 3 times a week. Lately, I’ve been leaving my house in pitch darkness, I could still see stars and the moon shining above my head. So, my morning commute will be safer. In contrast though, my evening commute will be less safe because it will be darker, thank goodness for LED bicycle lights!

I guess the time change is a catch-22 until states decide to eliminate Day Light Savings. Hopefully everyone has remembered to set their clocks, unless, of course, you live in Arizona, you lucky devil!

Yesterday I posted questions I had about how the suburbs were created and why they were patterned on a grid-system. Well, I started reading a terrific book to quell my curiosity about urban planning, published in 1961 by Jane Jacobs, titled The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, and yes, it is a book that is almost 50 years old. However, most communities were built around this time, so many of Jacobs’s points are still current today.

The first few chapters discuss the importance of bustling sidewalks and short blocks. She described how in New York City, the safest streets are streets that have multiple uses with lots of pedestrians. For instance, the street might contain a grocer, a dry cleaners, a deli, a florist, and a restaurant or bar that is open late. This gives people on the streets a destination to go towards all day long and even into the night. The movement of these strangers gives individuals a common feeling of safety, even though they don’t know each other. The inhabitants in the area know each other, if only by acquaintance, and this adds to that feeling of community. Jacobs’s points out that it doesn’t matter if there is a park, or grass nearby, that’s not what makes the area safe. The short blocks and cohesiveness of the area provides that feeling.

When a city “revitalizes” an area they feel has become run down, they often build expanses of spaces that people don’t use. The fewer the people, the less safe the area becomes. The taller the apartment complexes, the less connected the people living in them feel to the block. Current urban planning is based on a Garden City plan that is over 100 years old. It was a utopia-driven plan with the goal being to thin out the city of London. It didn’t work then, and it doesn’t work now.

When a sidewalk becomes desolate, there are fewer eyes watching it because there is nothing to watch. It becomes, as she says, “…a gray, dull area.” Who wants to watch a gray, dull area? No one. As this happens, the sidewalk becomes a little less safe since no one is watching.

This got me thinking about my neighborhood. I grew up in the suburbs and still live in the suburbs. Jacobs’s states that her observations and research don’t include the suburbs since she focused on dense cities. Yet, much of what she says about cities, holds true for the suburbs. For instance, when I was growing up in the late 1970′s and early 80′s, I played out side on the sidewalks and in the street. There were plenty of kids outside, with parent’s eyes watching from inside our homes. We felt safe in numbers. We felt safe because we could see our parents peeking out from kitchen windows.

There was a huge shift in the late 80′s and early 90′s, a fear of strangers and the beginning of a two-parent working household. This lead many children inside or to the backyards. In my community, our backyard fences are frequently 6-feet tall. Today, I rarely see children playing on the sidewalks or in the streets in their neighborhoods. Since fewer children are venturing out of their houses, there are fewer eyes watching, making the neighborhoods seem less safe. In my opinion, this not only is affecting the safety of communities, it is affecting children’s social skills.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I right in saying that neighborhoods, whether suburban or urban, need eyes watching? Does a bustling sidewalk equal safety?

I’ve lived in suburban Los Angeles my whole life, with the exception of my first four years. I didn’t think much about living in the ‘burbs’ when I was a child, probably because I didn’t travel much more than a mile or two on foot or on a bicycle. As I got older and remained in the same area, I often thought about moving, mainly for a change of scenery. But, something always held me back, whether it was school or a job or a boyfriend. In the end, I met my husband here and we chose to stay put. Lately, I have read a few articles about how most suburban communities are horribly laid out. I’d have to agree.

I first noticed this suburban set-back years ago when I got my first job 15 miles from my house. I had to take the one and only freeway that ran close to my new job, the dreaded 405. I realized then that our city was not planned for the massive quantity of people that would eventually settle in LA County. However, within a year I changed jobs and took one closer to home so that I didn’t have to inch along with the thousands of others heading south on the freeway. I forgot about freeway congestion and was content with where I lived for the time being.

Then, two years ago, I really got interested in bicycling. I remembered how much I loved it as a kid and the freedom I experienced as a pre-driving-teen. I purchased a Raleigh Comfort bike and cruised the neighborhood. Soon, I was bicycling to work 6 miles north. What I also noticed was how much our streets and communities are completely car-oriented. Very few clearly marked bicycle lanes exist, even fewer drivers look for bicyclist, let alone pedestrians. I came to the conclusion that our suburban streets are dangerous for anyone not in a car. This, however, has not dissuaded me from riding  my bike. On the contrary, I feel that when I ride my bike I set a good example to others that might be thinking about riding their bike.

Urban Sprawl Repair Kit from Inhabitat Reader

My biking experience has made me realize how poorly city planners designed suburban areas. When I look at the houses in my neighborhood, all built in the early 1950′s, the garage is the predominant feature. I know that during the 1950′s almost everyone was proud to own their first car, cars were looked at as a status symbol. Young men returning from World War II were given incentives to purchase houses in the quaint suburbs, and had enough money left over to purchase the car that would get them to their distant place of work. The little wife would stay home and tend to the children and the housework. Perhaps in 1952, this seemed like the ideal life.

I wonder if they had been given a glimpse into the future (bumper-to-bumper traffic, smoggy sky’s, not a single child playing outdoors, the majority of the population suffering from obesity, hours spent commuting to and from work, large paved parking lots in lieu of greener pastures, people secluded inside their homes barely knowing their neighbors)  they would have thought twice about excepting the idea of suburbia as a great place to live. Inhabitat often posts solutions to suburban sprawl and even encourages readers to submit their solutions. Here is one solution that seems reasonable.

Maybe city planners will someday incorporate some of these innovative ideas into our towns to encourage more utility of space. If more businesses functioned in a suburban area, people wouldn’t have to travel as far to work, reducing traffic. If people worked closer to home, they could ride their bike or walk instead of drive. Our streets would become safer if more people walked or rode their bike. It would be great if this happened in my lifetime, then I could feel safer riding my bike in my community.