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I am the luckiest person in the world. I live in Southern California where the weather is perfect every day. “What?” you say? How can that be? It’s true. Most years from April to November there is not one drop of rain. When the rains do finally come in the winter, you are so ready to see some moisture from the sky that you will run out of the house completely naked and dance around in the back yard in the drops of rain pouring from the sky. If you have to go out of the house via the front door, you can put a sweater on and pretend you live in New England without the depression and feeling of being trapped in winter. When you come back home for the evening you can build a fire in the fireplace and order some pizza and a movie, sit back with your family, hunker down and enjoy the coziness of the chill in the air.
But the weather is only part of my story. Southern Cal, the weather is great yes, but the other benefit I enjoy here is my one hour commute that I have every day. Yes, it’s true. I am happy about my one hour commute in LA. No, you say, this is the bane of existence in LA! It is if you are stuck on a dismal freeway. My situation is different. It is not as miserable as you may think.
You see, I live exactly four miles from my office. Every day I set out on the original transportation method for humankind--feet. I know you think me crazy. And perhaps I am. Driving, I could be at my office, including navigating through camera-armed stoplights, old ladies and bicycles all accounted for in about 10 minutes. Not many people in Socal can claim that. But for me it’s true. However, my choice is to do it on foot. And that is moving as fast as I possibly can. I’ve got it down to 15 minutes per mile and, Voila!, I am at my office in what seems like no time.
My goal is to leave my house at 6am and arrive at my office at 7am. It’s not always that easy. I play a game with myself where I try my best to keep walking without being stopped by the “Do Not Walk” crosswalks. Sometimes I very carefully cross in the middle of blocks when I see there is no traffic coming from either direction. (I never attempt this within 100 feet of a crosswalk as that is the law of course). But mid block in my city of Pasadena between the hours of 6 and 7 am on most days, there is not a lot of traffic.
The first day I tried this, I was actually planning to catch the bus. Inspired by ever-increasing gas prices and a second car that was going to need a new transmission and $1,600, I decided that I would become an environmentalist. How cool every one would consider me, saving the planet by riding the local bus system. Little would they know that I was just a cheapskate trying to save a bit of money. Little did I know that most everyone to whom I bragged about this, stared at me in stunned silence. No one in LA walks. It’s like asking a Norwegian to wear a swim suit outside in January. I instantly knew what the homeless people feel like when they attempt to engage a member of the general public. (In fact, I have been asked several times in my walks if I were homeless and one guy tried to hand me a dollar as I stood on the corner one day. I’m still kicking myself for not taking it!).
But back to my bus story. I did not just want to walk to the bus stop and stand and wait for the bus. I thought why not keep walking between bus stops until the bus came by. Only one problem with that idea, The bus stops were not spaced correctly and every time a bus on my route came by I was too far away from a stop to catch it. Before I knew it I was at my office, sweating like I had just run a marathon. The walk was great but I had another problem that I had not thought about. With my 10lb. backpack strapped over my Nike wind breaker and clicking along at a 15-minute mile pace I was suddenly very offensive to my coworkers.
This brings me to another benefit I enjoy in this paradise called Southern California. My office has a bathroom with a working shower. However, when I first made this journey that shower stall was stacked full of bathroom supplies for the office. It took me a few weeks to convince our office manager to find another storage unit and allow me to test out and begin using the shower. It worked fine, no leaks, so I was set. I went to the local IKEA store and picked up a small wardrobe to put in my office, filled it with my office clothes and I was set for a regular routine of walking back and forth to my office.
So I am very lucky. There are not many people anywhere, not to mention Southern California, who have this luxury of being just the right distance to their office to make the commute a part of their regular exercise routine.
With this thought firmly in mind I decided to create this new blog and Web site to encourage people to walk more in the city of Pasadena. But I realize that many do not have the ideal circumstances. They are too far away or their job requires them to have a car to do their work or family issues (picking up children from school, taking care of an elderly parent, etc.). So I am not preaching but I am encouraging everyone who reads this blog or visits my Web site to be creative and think it through. Can you walk to work and other places that you need to go? (I’ve started walking to the grocery store to shop buying my staples in smaller quantities of course) Can you combine walking with riding the bus? I have been able to do this on days that I have less time.
Aside from the obvious health benefits of what I am doing, there are other greater benefits in my mind. I am starting to see parts of Pasadena that I never knew existed. This is mind expanding and rewarding. This doesn’t mean that everything I am seeing is sweetness and light. Yes, I am finding interesting little shops, cafes and houses that have character and inspire creativity. And, as strange as it may sound in a city the size of Pasadena, I feel much more connected to nature through this walking, even though it is mostly on concrete. As well I get to see a sky in all kinds of changing and beautiful light as twilight and dusk move over the front range of the San Gabriel Mountains that define the northern border of the Crown City. And I hear the songs of birds I did not know lived here some of which are exotic like wild parrots and peacocks.
But I have also seen things here that have made me angry, disappointed and a little fearful as I get a fuller picture of “my little town.” I do not want my first blog entry to be negative so I will save the explanation of that thought for a later time. But I mention to give you a better idea of what this blog will cover. All of these experiences, positive and negative, are amazingly therapeutic after long days stuck behind a desk staring at the computer screen. Or after a short night of sleep to clear the cobwebs and help me overcome my lack of desire to face another day of work. It clears my mind, generates ideas and prepares me to interact with the people I work with and the family that I love. In other words it has helped nurture the most important thing in life, relationships, whether it is with the earth, coworkers, friends or family.
I hope you will benefit from the little bits of insight I feel I am uncovering as I cover the city and be inspired to get out of the car and onto your feet. With the pressures that have been put on the global environment and the multitude of problems associated with the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, it is now time for “City Walking.”
Cheers and happy feet,
Edwin Stepp
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