In December 2005, I was living in the Upper East Side of Manhattan and teaching in north Bronx. For reference, "North Bronx" is basically just above the northern tip of Manhattan. My school was on 225th St, and I lived on 86th St. That's 139 blocks, for those who are counting, at about 20 blocks per mile. Most days my commute was about an hour: I'd take a cross-town bus, and then a northbound 1-train. That is, until the bus and subways went on strike.
Now the strike wasn't a surprise. The schools opened on a pre-planned "two-hour delay" and a friend and coworker who lived further south and had a car picked up me and several others and we made it to and from school the first two days. Then I realized that if I left at about 7am (the normal time I'd leave on a regular-commute-day) I could walk the 139 blocks and arrive by 10am--the late-start time. I got 3 friends to join me and we met at a Starbucks in Spanish Harlem to begin the trek.
It was cold. Really cold. But we were prepared with layers and layers of clothing. We first made our way over to Broadway--since it runs a diagonal, it was going to be our shortest route. Then, block by block, we walked north. Stories were told, snowballs were thrown. We made fun of people headed downtown in cars, stuck in traffic. More stops at more coffeeshops along the way. Our layers of clothes came off one-by-one. Yes, walking is work!
Slowly I came to realize I was walking streets that I'd previously only heard of because they were subway stops: 138th St, 145th St., 168th St. It was at 168th Street that I knew I was really having a learning experience. It was a vibrant neighborhood with the gigantic Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, lots of restaurants and retail shops. Then it morphed into Washington Heights. At 181st St, a glance to the west showed the expansive G-W Bridge. At 191st, Broadway became more residential. Then we walked the bridge that we'd been across so many times on the subway, entering the Bronx. And we made it to school with time to spare. The four of us were the talk of the school that day. "You walked from where?" "Why didn't Ms. Bell pick you up today?" Because it was a great trip, I said.
As it turns out, I later moved into the Washington Heights Neighborhood. The GW Bridge remains my favorite NYC icon. And, from there, I often walked to school on any given day. I'd loved to embrace walking as a means of transportation. I never would have found that amazing neighborhood by train--walking helped me discover the city I was living in.
I went on to become something of an urban hiker. Meeting friends on a Sunday morning just to walk a neighborhood. It was a great way to learn about the city past and present.
After four years of NYC, I moved back to Austin, to my house in the Highland Neighborhood. I bought a car and began driving places again.
In October 2013, Lulu and I started looking at locations for our incipient school. We knew we wanted something in this part of town, for several reasons: for one, there are not a lot of preschools in this area, it's relatively affordable, and it's conveniently located to the handful of families that were going to follow Lulu from her old school in Hyde Park. We had lots of considerations: extent of renovation necessary, long term viability, city zoning restrictions.
It was mostly by coincidence that the best option ended up being just four blocks from our house and in the summer of 2014 I began a new phase of my life: the walking commuter. Sure, as the school director, sometimes I have to go to meetings and banks and make other school errands by car, but more often than not my job takes me no further than 4 blocks from home.
I. Love. It.
I once counted 390 steps. I pass 13 oak trees on Northcrest Boulevard. I notice the weeds growing bigger in cracks in the road. I can tell you how there are four prickly pears are in my next-door neighbor's yard. (He cut out 5 last fall.) The folks on the corner can't keep their dogs, rabbits and chickens from escaping and I notice when they are gone and pet them when they're there. I enjoy following the progress of houses getting renovated and I know which others are vacant. When the roads were ice in 2021 the walk took 20 minutes.
Pretty much every time I set out to school--or head back home--I expect to see familiar faces along the way. The nice guy half-way to school has a heart-breaking story that will make you change your mind about the utility of registered sex offender laws. An old man's caretakers can barely keep the bamboo in check. Most of the time when I visit with my across-the-street-neighbors, it's on my way back from school. And sometimes I don't see people. One house is surrounded by a privacy fence and a motorized gate. The duplex across from school has antisocial people living there. Sometimes they smile back.
And, hey, if I'm running late, I'm not subject to the traffic laws--I can run! The 5-minute walk can be a 2-minute jog if it has to be.
Whether it's the plants, the people, the buildings or the hawks above...there is so much to observe on my walk to school. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. After all, as one of my fave bands sings about The Ancient Egyptians: "You get to know things better when they go by slow."
