In NYC, I think nothing of a 30min to 1-hour walk to get to dinner. In my hometown, where there are sidewalks connecting my house to the "downtown", I can barely walk 3 blocks without feeling weird. It's not just the practical distance, or how "safe" it is to conduct the walk... it's the strangeness of walking through something not as dense as NYC.
I've done far less formal exercise these days than I ever have at any point in my life, yet I'm still about the same weight. I owe it all to walking, including the four-story walkup.
This is so true. Although I'm not sure it's entirely about density --I think part of it is just that you're so alone as a pedestrian. At least if you're walking around my hometown, you might be the only one on the sidewalks, barring neighborhood kids hopscotching around or whatever, for 2 miles, even though there are homes and businesses everywhere. The psychological effect of being such an outlier is really noticeable.
I pretty much walk or bike everywhere in Brooklyn.
When I go home to Oregon, we're constantly in the car. "Getting a coffee" consists of getting in a car, driving for 5 minutes, grabbing a to-go cup at Starbucks and driving back home... I can't really do it anymore.
Must not be Portland, where driving makes you one of the untouchables, as distinguished from the Master Race astride their bicycles, kitted out in TRON gear.
Portland wasn't always a safe haven for cyclists :)
And even now, on the sonorous hums and curves of Sandy Blvd, you may find yourself cycling next to several 'mudded' pickups, and called things that are hateful and confusing.
You can put the hipster in Oregon, but you can't take the redneck out.
I've done far less formal exercise these days than I ever have at any point in my life, yet I'm still about the same weight. I owe it all to walking, including the four-story walkup.