OnFootBlog.com

It’s taken awhile for me to come around to the idea of marathons as more than just big races, but I’m starting to see how an event with thousands of people can become a celebration of community — even if it’s an event full of sweaty, fast-moving people.

Baltimore’s decision to have a “running festival” seemed silly to me at first, but as I watched the way that fans, families and post-race runners brought life to usually-dead-on-Saturday streets last month, I was sold. I wish I could have seen how the Washington event staffers did at leveraging the race.

Now Philadelphia does their version. From the Inquirer:

With runners competing from across the United States and more than 30 countries, officials decided to highlight Philadelphia as a destination for marathon weekend, offering Marathon Fan Shopping Passes with 15 percent shopping discounts at businesses along the route.

If this type of thing becomes truly routine, you might start seeing smaller cities jump into the marathon circuit — especially at a time when people aren’t shopping as much. Volunteers at water stands are cheap, but getting eyeballs into your store can be quite expensive. It’s definitely something for folks in places like my hometown of Lansing to mull over.

The “Redesigning East Baltimore” symposium will be meeting tomorrow night — Wednesday the 12th at 4:30 — to talk about urban planning. Assumedly, this will include some earnest discussion of walkability and transit.

That’s nothing particularly new: These types of meetings happen all the time.

What is new is that there will be a walking tour beforehand, in one of the rougher neighborhoods of Baltimore.

I wish all civic design events were this gutsy. Maybe you’d see a few more people at county council meetings that unveil watershed studies if those meetings were preceded by informative dips in local creeks. They would at least be a bit more fun.