Artists work with chalk on the street at Communiversity 2013

One of the nicest things about Communiversity, which happened on Sunday, is that downtown Princeton becomes alive with people, all out walking and enjoying the town. Normally pushed onto sidewalks to allow cars and trucks to connect through the town, Communiversity is the day when walkers take over the streets.

And not just people walking, but artists too! As this picture shows, the Princeton Arts Council set aside an area of road around Palmer Square for community artists to make pictures out of colored chalk. Spectators gathered to watch the artists at work, as the street became a canvas.

Normally, this space is given over to cars, as the image below shows:

Palmer Square on a regular day, via Bing Maps

These roads around Palmer Square are entirely redundant with parallel streets connecting to Nassau Street (specifically, Chambers Street, John Street and Witherspoon Street). It’s not clear that traffic would be seriously affected if we closed these streets permanently, increasing the freedom of pedestrians to roam around Palmer Square, and providing year-round access for local artists to create their beautiful work. The minuscule impediment to drivers would be more than offset by the advantages of creating an upgraded walking plaza.