On the outside, I try to project an image of having it all together. But underneath that, I'm kind of a disaster. Hence... the name of the site: GlossyVeneer. During the first year I lived in Las Vegas, I didn’t walk around outside much. After a while I started to take quick walks around my neighborhood, just to break up the monotony of the day and to feel the sun a little. I learned that one loop around my community is barely over a mile. And then as I started to train for a marathon, I began to map out routes that took me further and further away from my house. You can only spend so much time on a treadmill before you feel like screaming. I liked getting out, I felt more connected to the area in which I live by seeing it on foot.
But that still doesn’t change the fact that the walkability in this area sucks.
My husband’s car broke over the weekend, so we had to leave his car at the shop and he took my car to work, leaving me sans transportation. At first I thought, “This is fine. If I feel compelled to go to the grocery store to pick up a few items it’s not that far to walk. I could walk to a drugstore to run errands. I could walk to a 7-Eleven or a bakery and there are even 2 different Starbucks in close range (because those things are available about every 10 feet).”
But then I remembered the health fair at the new hospital in the area. I had thought it would be kind of interesting to check it out. I could get a peek at the new hospital, say hi to Brian since Retro had a table set-up at the fair, eat a mini cupcake then get my blood glucose levels checked, get my blood pressure checked to see if I’m still dead (My last blood pressure check freaked the dentist’s office out it was so low. But then, it was the dentist and they were checking it using a wrist blood pressure cuff and I have little wrists, I didn’t put a lot of worry in the measurement.) and take the opportunity to learn about other businesses in the area. I even checked online at MapMyRun.com to see how far it was to the hospital and realized it was a pretty short distance. (A little more than 4 miles round trip.)
But the bad thing was the fact that the walk would take me along a fairly busy road and there is a good-sized stretch with no sidewalks. Just rocky dirt with a bazillion signs for various home communities planted amongst the weeds. And I just didn’t feel like risking my life with the crazy Vegas drivers to walk to something that would have really served as a time-filler during my mucho alone time.
Have you ever checked the WalkScore of your neighborhood? Mine is checking in at 15, and even that is exaggerated because somehow they are finding amenities that don’t really exist. (Like a movie theatre INSIDE my gated community? Um… no, not reality.)
The American Podiatric Medical Association and Prevention magazine just released info about the best and worst walking cities. They ranked Las Vegas pretty favorably because of pedestrian overpasses on the Strip, but those don’t help most of the normal residents of the city.
Do you walk around your city to run errands? It’s a nice idea that I cling to in theory, but it doesn’t really work in practice for where I live.
