walkability

I’m planning on heading out of NYC for a few days starting this weekend. It’ll be the first time staying somewhere other than my apartment since COVID hit. I’ve take two trips of a few hours outside of city limits in Zipcars, but for the most part, for 5+ months, my world has been limited to what I can walk to.

I never learned how to ride a bike, don’t own a car, and I haven’t been taking public transit (well, I’ve been on the subway 3 times since mid-March). I don’t have much of anywhere to be, though it’s very tough not being able to see friend, to go to the water, to experience all the parts of my city. So I live as I live, inside a world bounded by Myrtle Ave to the north, Eastern Parkway to the south, Tompkins Ave to the East, and the East River to the West. That’s my zone.

I’m writing about this here because last night I was thinking about how we’ve planned our various Perfect Lives maps. We’ve got seven locations to get to throughout the day, and we’ve always wanted it to be set up for maximum walkability. We want everyone to be able to flow from one location to the next, so it feels like a small town. In Manhattan & Brooklyn, we had dozens of potential places to choose from, but the closer to the center of the map, the better. That wasn’t possible in the Catskills & Pittsburgh as much, but Jersey City was pretty walkable.

If… when we get to do Perfect Lives again, I think that walkability quality is something I’d like to keep in mind in light of what so many of us are experiencing these days. I like to hold onto the idea that wherever we live, we live somewhere where seemingly mundane locations can be revealed to be rich with culture and creativity, to be the site of the perfect crime, which is also art.

– Dave