Kirstin Kruka Monte Sereno, California 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 31, 2020
I’ve never seen so many people out enjoying the fresh air and scenery
Where I live isn’t your typical neighborhood with a straight street lined with sidewalks or houses placed neatly next to each other. My house happens to sit upon one of the numerous mountains in Silicon Valley, and my street on Withey Road has so many bends and twists in it that the speed limit is 10 miles per hour
The houses are so spread apart that I rarely interact with my neighbors and honestly only know a few of them even though I’ve lived here the majority of my life. Walkers and bikers are usually pretty scarce and people generally keep to themselves.
As you can probably imagine, there normally isn’t a whole lot of traffic in my neighborhood, but there are number of cars drive past my house on any given day.
Within the past couple weeks, however, there has been a significant reduction in cars and a huge increase in walkers, runners and bikers. I’ve never seen so many people out enjoying the fresh air and scenery.
Even the wildlife seems to be transformed. The number of birds and other animals I’ve seen is quite honestly amazing. Every time I step outside there’s a constant chorus of birds chirping.
My family has been going on walks a few times a week since our “shelter in place’” began, and people I’ve never seen in my life are out and about. It’s a much friendlier atmosphere now. Everyone is much more social, saying hello when you pass them on the street and making small talk.
It’s definitely a strange experience for my neighborhood, a place I’ve lived the majority of my life, to be so transformed during this whole pandemic, but it’s been pretty nice.
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