I am so in love with this idea! Maybe not this year for me, but I will be looking into this for next year for sure!

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My jaw dropped. There have been stories all over the news about communities trying to outlaw sidewalk chalk, and you run a piece featuring sidewalk (public sidewalk) painting?

Gee, that should get posts.

It's been a while since I lived where there are sidewalks, but I'm pretty sure I would have been annoyed if my city neighbors did this.

I'm curious, why would you have been annoyed? Is it the disruption while they are doing it, or do you feel it's so unattractive you would be bothered by it? I can't imagine the latter (I have a high tolerance for stuff like that, and it's got to be prettier and more interesting than most of what I see in the city), but I can understand being annoyed if the sidewalk were inaccessible to people who need to use it for days on end.

And was the paint permanent? I assume it washes away eventually?

This looks like great fun! My mom has said for years that she wants to host "Cousin Camp at Gram's" when she has grandchildren who are old enough. (She'll have to wait a while, though. The first one isn't due until October!)

R&R I'm curious too - why ban sidewalk chalk? Next they'll be banning swinging in the park because of the squeaking - that and children laughing too loudly.
Going to look into this, seems like a fantastic idea, especially for folks who are unable to afford private day camps.

BEST. ARTICLE. EVER.

Thank you SO much, AT for calling this to our attention. The goal of getting kids outside is, in itself, HIGHLY laudable. And to encourage neighborly interaction, art, independence, etc, in the process, is just magic.

I do wish kids would learn they don't have to scream the whole time they're playing. I think that's a function of our messed up society and what we expose the kids to media-wise. It used to be, perversely, that kids should be seen and not heard. Now it's just as perverse: kids should be heard but ignored.

Think of Tom Sawyer and friends, do you picture them running around screaming their heads off, or getting INTO their adventures? When I was a kid, we yelled and were noisy, but nowadays it seems kids CANNOT play without constant screaming. I think they're acting as buffers for their parents' stressed-out, uptight lifestyles.

Maybe stuff like this will help change that. I don't imagine they were screaming as they painted.

I got the feeling that @RuralandRueful meant she liked sidewalk chalk/painting and would be annoyed if her town tried to outlaw it. I could be wrong though...

I was one of those rah-rah cheerleader type day camp counselors the article referred to but I think this is a great alternative! Either for families who cannot afford a traditional day camp or in areas where they aren't offered. When I was young all the kids on the block would get together and play and I feel like you don't see that very much anymore. Sometimes I think kids do think age restricts them which is not the way it should be! Very cool :)

To the questions posted as to why I might be annoyed (and I am just guessing that I would be)...it's the taking over of a public right of way, for a day or however long. That would bother me on principle. Of course, if you are in a gated community or a cul de sac and clear it with your neighbors first, that's another thing. Or if you are having a block party and the block is closed off anyway...you see? I used to have an aggressive, beligerent, mean, city neighbor who would take over his sidewalk almost every weekend for one thing or another.

I'm betting, btw, that makes a big mess when it's hosed off.

Sidewalk chalk hit the national news because the HOA for a Colorado community was trying to ban it in public areas. I think it had to do with tidiness or something. Or maybe clashing colors.

I'm curious about liability. If someone babysits out of their home, I believe there's a threshold number of children who can be present before the babysitting turns into daycare and they need to get a license.

It sounds like parents attend, too, but if a kid gets hurt doing one of his activities and a parent is particularly litigious, it seems like it could still end badly for him. If anyone with a legal background can shed some light on this, I'd be interested to hear it.

Otherwise, I love this because it sounds so much like my childhood. My small neighborhood was relatively new and the landscaping was all pretty young, so pretty much everyone shared one giant backyard down our block. You could just go out the back door and see which house all the kids were behind and go join them. I played with teenagers, I played with toddlers. It was pretty great.

great idea

but evangelical! I don't get that.

@Akay, I didn't get the impression the parents were accompanying the kids.

Liability can be an issue for any gathering. If you entertain large groups a lot in your home, umbrella coverage is advised.

Honestly, I have never lived in a neighborhood where running an informal summer camp for two weeks would be accepted by neighbors. Maybe Lanza has exceptionally easy going neighbors, maybe he watches the neighbors's kids, or maybe he gifts a lot of good wine.

I think people who choose to be so grim as to be annoyed by sidewalk chalk should get over themselves. There are real ills in the world and sidewalk chalk just ain't one of them.

And I enjoyed the post. Thanks!

I am one of the lucky few who live in a neighborhood with a wonderfully welcome attitude toward children and playtime. We live on a block with oodles of kids (all ages) - I think the adults might be outnumbered, actually. While very occasionally it is noisy, it usually is just normal play and an acceptable noise volume, so I haven't experienced the screaming that Annie-O speaks of.

I've long thought how fun it would be to host some sort of informal kids art camp, since there is nothing of the sort in our town and I have an art background. Seeing this painted sidewalk makes me smile. Taking a stroll through town should be an adventure (who doesn't like seeing what's going on and what is new?), and happening upon such a happy little project would make many other pedestrians smile as well. This post brings my previous ideas to the front of my mind again...maybe next summer I'll be organized enough to bring them to fruition.

I think this is a great idea. I also think my neighbors would love it, at least the ones we know. I bet if you did something like this for a few years, people would hear about it from people who'd done it, and it would grow that way. Plus it would be a great way to get to know other families.

A friend of mine does a neighbors camp with five families in her neighborhood every summer where the kids go to a different house each day and do a different activity. They all know each other and the kids all play together anyway, but it's a great way to change things up a bit and try some new things.

I suppose if they painted in front of their house, I wouldn't care. I'd think it was silly, but I wouldn't complain as long as it wasn't in front of my home.

However, I am completely familiar with the screaming Annie-O speaks of. There are a couple of girls who live a block away and are always outside and screaming for no reason. This isn't "we're having fun" screaming; this is "I have been seriously injured" screaming and it's beyond annoying.

@RURAL AND RUEFUL, if you look at the site, he talks about parents participating.

@kristenverity, A-men! People who get upset about sidewalk chalk need to go find something worth getting upset about. Or they should appreciate that their lives are so fantastic that they can spare the time and energy to get upset about sidewalk chalk.

Hi, Folks, thanks for all the comments about our camp and our sidewalk painting. Both have been a huge success.

I'd like to respond to the commenters who found fault with the sidewalk painting. First, regarding the potential for disruption to sidewalk traffic, there wasn't any. Where we live, there are sidewalks in front of homes and not in others, so pedestrians are used to walking on the street.

Even if our sidewalk was more frequently used, though, I think the cost of the disruption would pale in comparison to the community benefit in terms of neighborhood children's pride in their artwork and in the increased character and beautification of the 'hood. Plain sidewalks are B-O-R-I-N-G. (See my favorite children's book about neighborhoods, The Big Orange Splot.) In fact, plain streets are, too, in my opinion. In fact, I'm very keen to paint the street in front of our house one day like Portland residents have done to over twenty intersections.

So, regarding the criticism that we're defacing public property, I say, "Mellow out!" Sure, we altered the look of public property, but what does "public property" mean in this instance? I paid for 100% of that sidewalk. Besides, who is "the public?" All of the young artists who painted this stretch of sidewalk live in its neighborhood, as do their parents. All these people like it a lot. In addition, I've gotten numerous complements about it from other neighbors who didn't participate in Camp Yale.

Lastly, no, the paint doesn't come up at all. It's permanent.

akay: that was something I was wondering about. I love the idea of hosting a neighborhood summer camp for a week, and I know there are a million kids around here who would like to participate. But in addition to the camp substituting daycare for those mornings (meaning no parent could be present) I also wondered about the libility. I guess you could have a lawyer write up some kind of waver for the parents to sign? But who would sign that? If I could figure out a way around that I think I'd be all about planning this for next summer.

I know of neighborhood summer camps that have parents sign liability wavers (most notably, Camp Iris Way in Palo Alto, CA), but I haven't taken this step because I don't want to. I think it would somewhat cripple the effect I'm trying to have on our neighborhood: I'm trying to set in motion a culture of unsupervised play among kids.

I thought of "Big Orange Splot" too. =) I love that book and I love this post.