This weekend I was paying attention to my movement patterns, trying to understand why I cross busy streets at certain intersections and not others, or why I like to turn certain corners or cut across certain empty lots, when I noticed I was walking in circles around Pioneer Square. It occurred to me that I always do this. I rarely cross the red-brick commons area, and I rarely sit down to relax there. When I do, I always have this sense that I should move on, that there are things to do and errands to finish. I feel kinetic and restless and nervous.
Perhaps it's because the square is surrounded by retail towers and stores - Banana Republic, Nordstrom's, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap, Meier and Frank . . . If you looked in the store windows, you might think it's late summer, with the sandals and swimsuits and beach-towel color schemes. Those windows are a kind of calendar, shifting time forward, constantly taking us away from the now.
note for the psychogeographic map: Pioneer Square induces to faster heartbeat, confusion of seasons and time, desire to move on and away, longing for synchronicity between time and season and desires.