Chart of the Day: Picnics Over Time

While I have a few problems with Robert Putnam’s methodology, he’s not wrong about the decline of picnics. In his book, Bowling Alone, he writes:

The practice of entertaining friends has not simply moved outside the home, but seems to be vanishing entirely. Informal outings, like picnics, also seem on the path to extinction. The number of picnics per capita was slashed by nearly 60 percent between 1975 and 1999.

Well, here at streets.mn we’re doing our best to reverse this trend. We had a great Writers/Members Picnic last Sunday. Thanks to everyone who made it, and I put up a few photos on the Facebook page. Become a member today, and join in our next event!

 

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picnics

The season trends in picnics, via Google Trends.

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.