In Praise of a Good Walk

So I’ve written about my fondness for cycling.  But I’m also what you might call a walking enthusiast.  

Some Great Things About Walking:

• A good walk is good for your body. Like many forms of exercise, walking is conducive to overall fitness and helpful in weight control.  And if the Kaiser Permanente commercials are to be believed, just 30 minutes of walking five days per week can help keep you healthy and reduce your risk for many chronic ailments, including certain kinds of cancer.   Read a summary of the study here.  
  
• Unlike some other forms of exercise, walking is generally pleasant and can be done either alone or with others. While I often walk by myself,  I love walking with friends. This is a great way to catch up with each other and burn calories at the same time. I am lucky to have some very energetic walking partners!
  

• Walking is also great for your head.  According to a study reported in the New York Times  this can be especially true if you walk amid nature. I completely agree, although I enjoy a lot of diversity in my routes,  Natural setting are very calming, but an urban or even a neighborhood walk can be interesting or even stimulating.  But regardless of where I walk, I never wear headphones!  Without the extra distraction or forced focus on music or a podcast, I do some of my best problem solving during long walks or just enjoy a more meditative experience, absorbing the sights and sounds around me, whether it’s the chirping of birds or the bustle of the city.  

• Finally, walking is a form of transportation. Atlanta was built for cars, but now, thankfully, there seems to be a shift in thinking about the construct of our communities.They say that millennials are driving this change, but I know people of all ages are glad to see a more common-sense, healthier approach to development and community design that brings people and amenities closer together. This is good news for people who choose to walk and for those who, for a variety of reasons, must walk to get around. Besides, it’s empowering to get someplace with your own human energy.

Pedestrian Advocacy

Because walking under any circumstances should be safe, I support a small local pedestrian advocacy group,appropriately enough called PEDS. The good folks at PEDS are working on a bunch of initiatives (visit peds.org) including a Pedestrian Action Safety Plan they’re developing with the Georgia Department of Transportation. While it will take some time to create and eventually implement, this important plan started out with citizen input so it will be carried out thoughtfully and with people’s needs at the forefront. I’ll look forward to seeing what comes out of it.

WALKtober
But in the spirit that walking really is FUN, especially with others, PEDS has announced its first annual WALKtober event -- what they are calling 4 weeks of fun on foot.  They’ve got five organized group walks throughout October around some cool places.  I plan to do the Oakland Cemetery walk myself (on Oct. 6).  PEDS is even encouraging people to organize their own walks and put it on their WALKtober calendar so others will join.  Check it out and consider supporting the work that PEDS is doing as an important player in making Atlanta a better city.  

An Atlantan's Impressions of P-Town

Saturday Festival by the River

Just returned about a week ago from Portland -- the one in Oregon. Until last year, when someone dear to us moved out there, I knew nothing about this trendy town with so many nicknames. So as an amateur observer interested in experiencing cities and lifestyles, here are my 10 quick and dirty takeaways from our week-long visit to Portland (episodes of Portlandia I’ve seen, including the 3 hilarious ones I saw on the flight over, notwithstanding):

1. The city is nicely compact and generally very manageable to navigate. It is sensibly divvied up into geographic quadrants and bisected by the Willamette River. The street names in the NW area and extending into downtown are arranged alphabetically, making it easy to know, for example, how many streets over a restaurant is on Lovejoy if your hotel is on Vaughn.
2. Portland's skyline reflects both its industrial past and revitalized present, including both heavy old and sleek modern bridges spanning the river. I believe one of Portland’s nicknames is Bridgetown.  And for a not very big city, it has a surprising number of freeways going in and around town. Listen carefully to your Google navigator and be ready for quick exits!
3. At the same time Portland is a paradise for cyclists and pedestrians. The city doesn’t just talk the talk when it comes to prioritizing safety and access for those getting around with 2 wheels or 2 feet. Their transit isn’t bad either, and at least one of those bridges crossing the Willamette was constructed just for non-automobile traffic. We rented bikes from the helpful folks at Cycle Portland and had a great day touring -- from the riverfront and downtown to the Japanese gardens to the famous city-block large Powell’s Bookstore. Coincidentally, during the week we were visiting, Portland rolled out its bike share program with bright orange bike stations (sporting the Nike swish) popping up all over the city.  Biking in Portland (in July at least) is a beautiful thing!
4. Why do so many restaurants close at 9 pm, while the bookstore is open until 11?
5. Portland has a serious homeless problem. Except in Portland, the homeless have tents and are politely called “campers.”  What’s up with that?
6. Areas in and around Portland are gorgeous.  If you love the outdoors, you could spend your whole life hiking different mountains, volcanoes, and forest trails in the state. Check out Oregon Adventures. We did one incredible walk on snow-capped Mt. Hood, strolled through the city’s 6,000 acre Forest Park (one of the largest urban green spaces in the U.S.) and explored some of the rugged coastal areas. (Don’t expect to go swimming at Oregon’s beaches… unless you have an insulated wetsuit!)  
7. The weather… hmmm… well, it was perfect during our visit with blue skies and temps around 80 degrees each day.  We are told that everything you hear about the dreary, drizzly winters is true and that summer doesn’t begin until July 5 (hard for an Atlantan to imagine), although it doesn’t seem to slow anyone down. Quite a change from the month straight of 90+ degrees we've been having here in the SE.
8. I’m a big fan of gardens, and Oregonians have incredible flowers!  Huge colorful roses, lilies, even the wildflowers are beautiful. Portland is apparently also known as the City of Roses.
9. Yeah, the coffee is good. Even the bar food is good.  We seriously got taken to a bar whose food menu was exclusively vegan.  Only in Portland!
10. Portland apparently lacks great ethnic diversity. But we found it to be a generally friendly, courteous and environmentally progressive city with a counter-culture undercurrent and an accent on acceptance and tolerance. There’s a lot to be said for that. We look forward to going back -- there are 2 more floors of Powells we never got to and at least a dozen other hiking trails on our list to explore!  #PDX, #BikeTown, #RipCity

Another beautiful garden near Overlook Park

Mt. Hood

Portland's new bike share program

For the Love of Cycling

Happy 4th of July!

I love cycling. Part of the desire to write this blog is to journal and share my enthusiasm for doing stuff outdoors. I had a bike as a kid and our suburban Miami subdivision actually was a fantastic area to ride.  But as an adult, I have to credit my husband for turning me back on to the bike.  A notorious Goodwill shopper, he bought our kids, and then us, bikes. Then he bought more because he liked to rehab them and because it was good to have extras for the kids’ friends or when some of bikes didn’t make it back home.  At one point, we had close to a 12 bike fleet in our back shed.  

I have an old white Schwinn that Taylor paid about $20 for at Goodwill, then he put about $100 into spiffing it up for me. At first, we would go out to the Silver Comet Trail* and ride on neighborhood paths. Eventually I began to build up some stamina and confidence.  I have friends who also like to ride, and I don't mind riding alone. Taylor and I try to make cycling part of our vacations whenever possible. We’ll be going to Portland, Oregon soon - a very bike friendly city I hear - and definitely plan to get bikes there.

[The Silver Comet Trail is 61 miles of old unused railroad turned into a recreational trail that runs from Smyrna to the Alabama line. The Chief Ladiga Trail picks up there and extends 33 miles beyond to Piedmont, Alabama. The trail is well maintained and offers excellents rides or walks with  options to “put in” at many different trailheads. The Rail to Trail movement has helped to transform recreational areas in the U.S.]

For me, cycling is empowering and invigorating. Not only is it great exercise, but (even though I’m not super fast by any means), I love how you can cover a lot of distance and see so much. Such a great feeling to be on the bike.

Over time I’ve discovered that every ride is different even if it’s a familiar route. Yesterday morning  I took my usual route through Morningside and Virginia-Highland to Piedmont Park where set up for the Peachtree Roadrace was in full swing.  I rode around the park several times dodging a few trucks and carts, but mostly the paths were clear.  Taylor runs the race, so I sent him a picture of the activity. What a huge effort.  Once, some time ago when the race was smaller, I volunteered to give out shirts at the park. Now I cheer my husband on from the comfort of my bed.  

I finally left the park and took the Beltline Eastside Trail to the end at Irwin Street and turned around. Another thing I love about just being out and about in public spaces like the park and on the Beltline -- whether I am cycling or walking -- is the people watching.  There’s so much diversity: young and older, black & white, gay and straight, people with babies, dogs, whole families, groups of friends.  On foot, on bikes of every type, skateboards, rollerblades. At the park, people are having cookouts, flying kites, doing photo shoots.  On the Beltline, there’s street musicians jamming for tips, funky art, people headed for actual destinations, others just to be out. It’s a visual feast, and I love it.

On the Freedom Path just past the Carter Center, I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow cycling enthusiast -- maybe late 20s, who was new to the trails. He seemed to like the company so I rode with him a little while and explained the path’s tricky on-street routes to Stone Mountain.  He had a new bike, but was wearing neither a helmet nor a shirt (in 95 degree heat). He was truly appreciative of my help, which made me feel like such a trail veteran.  I took him through Candler Park where the path ends and talked him through the next on-street section to him. He worried he would get lost, and it’s likely he did, although I’d like to think that maybe others like myself were kind enough to help him.  

I reversed and made my way home exiting the path at Oakdale. While waiting at the light at Fairview, a loud firecracker went off seriously startling me. I wondered who was testing July 4 fireworks, when I looked down and realized it was my front tire. Completely blown.  Damn.  Had the shop overfilled my tire when I took it in to repair a back tire flat the week before?  Still not sure. I was about a mile and a half from home and soon rejected the idea of walking the bike back in the heat, so I called “Roadside Assistance’ - my son Jordan, who as luck would have it, had just arrived home and was able to come for me with the car with the bike rack.  

Sad that I didn’t get to finish my ride, but feeling fortunate that the tire didn’t blow while I was riding and that help came quickly, I treated us both to strawberry-banana smoothies.  Ahhh….

Hello, An Introduction

She’s not perfect, but as a city Atlanta is a pretty sweet place to live.  Beautiful neighborhoods and day access to beach and mountains, reasonable cost of living, a diverse population, decently good climate, a variety of cultural and educational opportunities, and restaurants to please most palates and wallets.

My kids were born here, but I’m not a true native. After spending most of my life in Miami, and then a year in Westchester County, NY, my dad’s company transferred him to Atlanta when I was a high school sophomore. My parents bought a house in the Chamblee-Tucker area, and I was enrolled at what was then Henderson High School near Northlake Mall.  We arrived in December and I recall that my first day of school, set for the day back  from winter break, was delayed by nearly a week when we were hit with one of Atlanta’s most infamous ice storms. To us, the storm seemed an incredible thing -- both beautiful and destructive. The ground and trees were coated with ice nearly an inch thick, and of course the power went out -- for days. Though I was 16 years old, I had experienced snow for the first time in my life only the year before in New York, so this was pretty amazing. Of course, as I would soon discover (and others know well), it wouldn’t be the last paralyzing ice or snow event I’d ever encounter here.  

I made friends at school, got confirmed at The Temple, and got my first ever job at Roger’s Pharmacy working the cash register, filing prescriptions and shelving products.  Later one of my best friends and I would take the # 91 Marta bus to jobs we had at the Colony Square ice rink. I’m guessing not everyone knows about when you could ice skate in Midtown Atlanta.  Transferred yet again (yeah that sucked), my family moved back to New York at the start of my senior year of high school.  But when my dad finally quit the company to start his own business, my parents decided they would return to Atlanta. When I graduated with my journalism degree from Kent State University, I too came back and ever since have called Atlanta home.

Our city has its faults: local government corruption, public school scandals, traffic gridlock enough to make you cry, the insult of the Braves moving to Cobb, ,etc.  But for me, it’s a comfortable place with a lot to offer people of all ages. I launch this blog with the intention of sharing not only my thoughts and experiences about living in Atlanta, but also to advocate for thriving communities everywhere. If this platform can serve as a place for me to drop some insights and opinions, as well as share information, I’ll consider it a success.