When I lived in New York, I walked everywhere - on an average day 4-10 miles. This wasn't walking for exercise (I went to the gym for that), this was just normal, getting from place to place walking. Yes, I could have taken the subway, but there is just something special about experiencing NY on foot. I think part of it is the smells. Walking just two miles from work to my apartment led me from Shalimar(elderly theater goers) to urine (Port Authority) to BBQ (Little Korea). Every time I went somewhere I tried to take a different route, thereby getting to see and smell more of the city.
I walk around my area of Los Angeles (Santa Monica, Venice, West LA) quite frequently; partly because I have a dog, and partly because NY has conditioned me to prefer passing things slowly and taking them in, rather than flying by them in a car and having barely enough time to read a store name.
I went for a 5 mile walk with my dog this morning. We started in North Santa Monica, made our way to the Promenade, over to Main Street and Abbott Kinney and then finished with a long walk along what I consider to be the ugliest road in existence: Lincoln Ave. Though I could people watch, though I could find the hidden corners that truly define "place," I could not distinguish smells in the same way I did in NY. I'm not sure if this was because of car pollution, an ocean breeze that brought smells further east or lower buildings that let the smells escape too easily.
This was the first time I truly missed NY.
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