Travels in the Riel World

Do you know your neighborhood’s walk score?

I recently came across a fascinating website called Walk Score - it ranks America’s most walkable cities and enables you to find the ”walk score” for your own neighborhood. Simply enter your address and it will create a map of all the stores, restaurants, schools, parks and libraries within walking distance of your home and then compute your walk score.

The benefits of living in a walkable environment are fairly obvious, and this is actually a nice follow-up to my last post, “Walk to school, save the planet.” But for what it’s worth, here is how Alan Durning explains the benefits on the Walk Score website:

Compact, walkable communities—the opposite of poorly planned sprawl—are the solution to some of our biggest shared challenges, from childhood obesity to social isolation, from crash deaths to disappearing farmland, from the high price of gas to the architectural blight of strip development.

They’re even one of our most powerful weapons against climate change—they conserve fossil fuels like nobody’s business. (It takes effort to burn gasoline when everything is so close to your front door.) But the main reason to love walkable neighborhoods is their human energy: they’re fun, lively, memorable…not boring.

Here is how they rank 138 “walker’s paradises” - the most walkable neighborhoods in the 40 biggest cities in the U.S. It’s a nice companion piece to Prevention magazine’s own rankings of the best walking cities, which includes such places as Cambridge, MA; Ann Arbor, MI, and Madison, WI, that don’t appear on the Walk Score rankings of larger cities. Between the two, you can come up with a comprehensive list of the best places to live if you enjoy walking and would rather not have to drive everywhere. In the meantime, go to Walk Score and find out how your neighborhood ranks.

That’s the goal these days in Lecco, Italy. Along with combating childhood obesity. It’s a simple idea, really - children who live within a reasonable distance of school should walk there on most days. The children get much needed exercise, the town cuts down on some traffic jams, and the planet gets a very tiny respite from pollution. O.K., so they’re not really saving the planet, but they’re certainly doing their part, and if this could be replicated in town after town in multiple countries then maybe a dent could actually be made in auto emissions. In the meantime, the added exercise and reduced traffic are no small matters for the townspeople of Lecco. The NY Times has the report:

Each morning, about 450 students travel along 17 school bus routes to 10 elementary schools in this lakeside city at the southern tip of Lake Como. There are zero school buses.

In 2003, to confront the triple threats of childhood obesity, local traffic jams and — most important — a rise in global greenhouse gases abetted by car emissions, an environmental group here proposed a retro-radical concept: children should walk to school. They set up a piedbus (literally foot-bus in Italian) — a bus route with a driver but no vehicle. Each morning a mix of paid staff members and parental volunteers in fluorescent yellow vests lead lines of walking students along Lecco’s twisting streets to the schools’ gates, Pied Piper-style, stopping here and there as their flock expands.

At the Carducci School, 100 children, or more than half of the students, now take walking buses. Many of them were previously driven in cars…Although the routes are each generally less than a mile, the town’s piedibuses have so far eliminated more than 100,000 miles of car travel and, in principle, prevented thousands of tons of greenhouse gases from entering the air, Dario Pesenti, the town’s environment auditor, estimates.

The number of children who are driven to school over all is rising in the United States and Europe, experts on both continents say, making up a sizable chunk of transportation’s contribution to greenhouse-gas emissions. The “school run” made up 18 percent of car trips by urban residents of Britain last year, a national survey showed.

I wrote last fall about the Iraq Board of Tourism and its goal of building a tourist infrastructure and attracting foreign visitors to Baghdad and other parts of the country. It seemed like a faraway dream at the time, but in fact Iraq just recently played host to its first Western tourists in six years. According to this story in the International Herald Tribune, the tour group completed a 17-day visit to Iraq, which the newspaper calls “one of the world’s ultimate danger destinations.” Despite the risks, the trip attracted an eclectic group of adventurous tourists, many of whom had previously visited such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen.

Whether Iraq can be described as open is debatable. But Ms. Gilbert is a member of a group, mostly middle-aged and older, that has the honor of being on the first officially sanctioned tour of Westerners in Iraq since 2003 (outside of the much safer enclave of Kurdistan)…

The trip has not been nearly as perilous as most expected. On Friday night, six years after the American invasion began, a white-haired British man and woman bought big bottles of cold Heineken in central Baghdad, walking home in the dark. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which helped arrange the tour, had provided armed guards for the trip, but Mr. Hann said they were too restrictive. So the group had driven around, in a minibus, with little or no security. They have been to Babylon and Basra, Ur and Uruk, the Shiite shrines in Karbala and Najaf, places where, not so long ago, a visit would have made the return ticket unnecessary…

Just about everyone in the eight-person group has been to Afghanistan. (Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone is single.) Insurance, which is not provided by the company, is nearly impossible to come by. For that reason, the tourists on these trips tend to be older because they have financial support networks and, Mr. Hann said, “because in the end you’ve been to places and you don’t really worry as much, if you know what I mean.”

It’s the eternal paradox of tourism. We travel to see exotic places and cultures, allegedly unspoiled by modern influences, and yet the very act of traveling there contributes to the despoiling of the native culture or the natural landscape. In an effort to investigate tourism’s impact on one of the world’s more unique cultures, John Bowe traveled to Bali, Indonesia, and wrote about his experiences for the New York Times travel magazine.

What he found was that tourism - of course - changes a place. But in his conversations with locals, he realized that maybe, in the end, that’s alright. Cultures change, but they survive. Usually.

Here is what Nyoman Purwa Sumantra, a farmer turned businessman, had to say about the changing times in Bali:

When he was a kid, he said, he used to grind sandstone into powder and brush his teeth with a leaf. Now he uses toothbrush and toothpaste. Before it was all natural, and now it’s supposedly better for the teeth. Likewise, in his day, his parents never gave him money. Now his kids have cellphones. One’s been to Australia, another to Singapore and Java. Which way is better, I asked? Neither, he answered. It’s globalization. And it’s O.K.: ‘‘They never forget about their religion, the culture.’’

And here, a conversation with a rice farmer:

When I asked what he thought made so many travelers come to Bali, why they didn’t just go to some other warm place, he answered: ‘‘Because of Bali’s unique culture. No other country has the dancing, the religion, the people making offerings.’’ He wasn’t worried about Bali withstanding the tourists. ‘‘If the parents teach the young generation, the culture will be strong. If not, the culture will be gone.’’

Obviously, travelers must navigate a never-ending juggling act between experiencing and communicating with the world and trying not to co-opt cultures or homogenize the planet. One small but important way of doing this is to frequent local businesses when one travels so as to make sure that tourism profits remain in that economy. But this paradox of travel will always be with us. What are your thoughts and experiences with respect to this topic?

Rick Steves may be famous for his European travel guides, but he’s also a huge proponent of going beyond the tourist trail and using travel as a means to learn about oneself and the world. He went to Iran a while back in order to produce a documentary about that country and recently caught up with Salon magazine to talk about his experiences.

Here is a brief excerpt from the Salon interview, discussing his experience with the Iranians:

 What can your Iran show say to American hard-liners?

When I made the show, I was not interested in endorsing or challenging the complaints we have about Iran’s government. Maybe they do fund terrorism, maybe they do want to destroy Israel, maybe they do stone adulterers. I don’t know. I just wanted to humanize the country and understand what makes its people tick.

When I came home after the most learning 12 days of travel I’ve ever had in my life, I realized this is a proud nation of 70 million people. They are loving parents, motivated by fear for their kids’ future and the culture they want to raise their kids in. I had people walk across the street to tell me they don’t want their kids to be raised like Britney Spears. They are afraid Western culture will take over their society and their kids will be sex toys, drug addicts and crass materialists. That scares the heck out of less educated, fundamentalist, small-town Iranians, which is the political core of the Islamic Revolution and guys like Ahmadinejad…

Do you want your film to have a political impact in the U.S.?

Well, yes. I talked to 2,000 people in Tulsa today. After I explained this to them, I am convinced they now have a little less self-assuredness in thinking that Iran is the evil our government wants us to think it is. I was actually scared to go to Iran. We almost left our big camera in Athens and took our little sneak camera instead. I thought people would be throwing stones at us in the streets. And when I got there, I have never felt a more friendly welcome because I was an American. It was just incredible. I was in a traffic jam in Tehran, a city of 10 million people, and a guy in the next car saw me in the back seat and had my driver roll the window. He then handed over a bouquet of flowers and said, “Give this bouquet to the foreigner in your back seat and apologize for our traffic.”

And some comments on travel and tourism:

Echoing Paul Bowles’ famous line, what’s the difference between a tourist and a traveler?

I’ll give you an example. A few years ago, my family was excited to go to Mazatlán. You get a little strap around your wrist and can have as many margaritas as you want. They only let you see good-looking local people, who give you a massage. There’s nothing wrong with that. But I don’t consider it travel. I consider it hedonism. And I have no problem with hedonism. But don’t call it travel. Travel should bring us together.

That same week, I was invited to go to El Salvador and remember the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. I thought, “I’m not going to be any fun on the beach in Mazatlán, I have to go to San Salvador.” So I went down there and I had a miserable, sweaty dorm bed, covered with bug bites. We ate rice and beans one day, and beans and rice the next day. But it was the richest educational experience. It just carbonated my understanding of globalization and the developing world, and Latin America. I was in hog heaven. And I’ve been enjoying souvenirs from that ever since. Whereas my wife just gained a few pounds on the beach in Mazatlán.

Do you think tourism gets in the way of experiencing a foreign place?

Oh, yeah. But if you’re savvy, you understand the tourism industry just wants to dumb you down and go shopping. So you have to be smart. I was just in Tangiers, which is where all the people go from Spain’s Costa del Sol resorts for their one day in Africa. It’s a carefully staged series of Kodak moments. They have a lunch. They see a belly dancer. They see the snake charmers. They buy their carpet. And they hop back on the boat to Spain. When I see them, I can’t help but think of a self-imposed hostage crisis. They put themselves in the control of their guide and never meet anybody except those who want to make money off of them. It’s a pathetic day in Africa.

Check out the entire Salon article, in which Steves covers many other topics.

If you want to be happy, apparently, it helps to be wealthy, to live in a family-oriented community, or to be surrounded by natural beauty. Those are at least some of the conclusions that can be drawn from the recently released study of well-being scores that ranked Americans by state and congressional district. Utah and Hawaii came out on top in this so-called “happiness study,” while West Virginia ranked last among U.S. states.

Looking for happiness — it’s family-friendly communities for some, tropical paradise or the rugged West for others. A survey of Americans’ well-being … gives high marks to Utah, which boasts lots of outdoor recreation for its youthful population. Speaking of outdoor recreation, the islands of Hawaii took second place and Wyoming was third in the poll that rated such variables as mental, physical and economic health.

By the way, if you enjoy topics like this you might also like to read some other recent posts along these lines:

- Do cities have personality traits?

- The geography of the American mind

- The geography of personality

Here’s what you do: Move to Buenos Aires. Hop in a taxi. Ask the driver to take you to his favorite place to eat. Write about your adventures in a blog. Repeat weekly. Become semi-famous when the Washington Post publishes a feature story about you. I have to hand it to Layne Mosler. It’s a great idea and she’s parlayed it into a nice niche as a freelance food writer. Here is an excerpt from the recent Post article:

It is a method the food writer from California began using two years after she moved to Buenos Aires in 2005 and found garrulous taxistas regaling her with tales about Buenos Aires.

“I thought, well, if they know so much about the city and about the history and about politics, then surely they must know something about food,” said Mosler, 34, who also writes for Time Out Buenos Aires and South American Explorer and is filming her taxi adventures for a potential television show.

By relying on local knowledge, the onetime vegetarian has been introduced to not only infinite varieties of steak and sausage, of course, but also mollejas (the thymus gland, a.k.a. sweetbreads), locro (stew with hominy, peppers and meat parts), lechón (suckling pig), sorrentinos (pasta stuffed with ham and cheese) and chinchulín (cow intestines), which at one restaurant tasted like “rancid sawdust mixed with vegetable shortening — gummy and dry at the same time,” she said.

Her selection of taxis is mostly random, though she varies her departure location. But when she started her blog in May 2007, she considered profiling. “I initially thought maybe I want to pick older guys or guys with a potbelly or guys who look like they know how to eat, but you never really know,” she said.

Take, for instance, the skinny chopstick-chewing 20-something driver with silver-rimmed sunglasses who happened to be a sculptor. He took her to a little corner steakhouse for a transcendent flank steak sandwich that cost $2.

 Follow her ongoing adventures at taxigourmet.com.

If you recall, I recently created a Riel List about some of my favorite cafe cities around the world. Well, now World Hum has come out with the very same story. Hmmm, maybe I should have submitted my idea there first? In any case, they have an intriguing list that includes some overlap with my choices (Rome, Vienna and Buenos Aires) as well as four other worthy cities, two of which I haven’t yet experienced. Here is an excerpt from World Hum’s take on those last two cities - Melbourne, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand.

Melbourne- Australians are fiercely independent when it comes to their java, and Melbourne’s residents even more so. Perhaps the best proof of Melbournian pride in the city’s independent coffee culture came in 2008, when Starbucks was forced to close 16 Melbourne outlets (and scores more throughout Australia) after failing to make robust enough inroads into Australia’s entrenched coffee culture.

Wellington- No surprise that New Zealand’s arts and culture capital is also the most atmospheric city in the Land of the Long White Cloud for enjoying a classic Kiwi coffee drink such as a long black (New Zealand speak for a double shot of espresso over hot water). In the 1950s, there was a bonafide movement by immigrants and locals in Wellington to promote European-inspired coffee culture as an alternative to New Zealand’s rugby racing and beer leanings. Now windy Wellington boasts a roster of esteemed local roasters…And Wellington is said to have more cafés per capita than New York City, so finding a good café, as they say in New Zealand, is “easy as.”

Check out the World Hum article for their entire list. That makes 11 fine cafe cities now between my list and World Hum’s list. What other cities do you think belong here?

Culture is at the root of how we act and how we perceive the world. Whether we like it or not, we are all molded by the assumptions of the culture in which we are raised. So as I read through the news, I like to find examples of actions or statements that can best be understood through the prism of culture. Here are two recent examples:

The case of the Iraqi shoe thrower

Do you remember the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George Bush during a press conference in December? Well, his case has now made its way through the Iraqi court system and he was just sentenced to three years in prison for assault of a public official. In this New York Times story about the sentencing, though, it seems that there are disagreements even among Iraqi journalists about the shoe thrower’s actions.

Among journalists, opinion was divided about whether the sentencing was fair. Some said Mr. Zaidi had been merely expressing his opinion and did not deserve to be jailed, especially since the gesture had not harmed Mr. Bush. Others said Mr. Zaidi had brought shame on Iraq, because in a society where tribal traditions are accorded respect, a host should never insult a guest…

“Internationally, Zaidi’s act is considered a way of practicing democracy, but maybe it is unaccepted in Arab and Middle East countries,” said Ziad al-Ajeeli, the head of the Iraqi Observers of Press Freedom, an organization that supports journalists’ rights.

So he not only threw a show at President Bush but, from a cultural perspective, he also disrespected the Arab tradition of being gracious and generous hosts.

Friends with Libya

The Bush administration often touted, and rightly so, that one of its foreign policy successes was to convince Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program. In return, the U.S. restored diplomatic relations, lifted economic sanctions, and dangled the future promise of military cooperation and cultural ties. According to this International Herald Tribune article, the Libyans are grateful for all of this. However …

Libyans at many levels of the government said that while they appreciated those gestures, they had been promised more…They were also irritated at a recent State Department report that strongly criticized Libya’s record on human rights, saying they expected that a friendly United States would play down the issue.

“You give something, you expect something in return; that’s the Arab way,” (said Khaled Bazelya, a director with Libya’s National Economic Development Board).

So from the U.S. perspective, there was a quid pro quo: you give up your weapons, we’ll lift sanctions and help you out in other ways. But for the Libyans, the deal meant the countries were perhaps becoming friendly. And one doesn’t criticize a friend in public, as the U.S. did with the human rights report.

Just some examples of culture in the news. Do you have any of your own examples?

Marrakesh. The name conjures up images of winding souks, ancient palaces, desert winds, and perhaps even a snake charmer or two. It’s an exotic destination, even more so when you’re visiting with your 11- and 12-year-old children. That’s what Jennifer Conlin and her husband did recently, and their experience is beautifully recounted in this travel article.

It was cocktail hour, and what better place to spend it than on the rooftop terrace of Cafe Arabe, watching the sun set over Marrakesh. With my two companions, Charles and Florence, I settled into one of the plump white sofas decorated with silky orange throw pillows, as above us a patchwork of cream-colored cloth squares, each bordered by the darkening blue sky, fluttered like a hundred sailing kites.

Below us lay a sea of terra-cotta and ruby roofs, interrupted only by the gap of a courtyard, a towering palm tree or a glistening mosque, with the outline of the Atlas Mountains framing the horizon. All of us were mesmerized by the scene in front of us. “Pretty,” Florence said. “Wow,” Charles chimed in.

“Time for a drink,” I declared, thirsty after an afternoon of shopping in the medina below. Moments later, my husband, Daniel, arrived, fresh from carpet bargaining and more than ready to try the minty mojitos I’d just ordered. “Cheers,” Florence said, lifting a concoction of orange, lemon and peach juice. “To more trips like this one,” Charles added, taking a sip of his frothy strawberry and plum drink. “To your first mocktail hour,” I added, clinking glasses with my 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

Though friends had urged us to take a “couple’s” trip to Marrakesh and leave the children behind (it is one of the world’s most romantic places, combining the best of African and European design), we had a different plan in mind…

My worries that the kids were too young for such an exotic trip evaporated the moment we entered the city. Driving past donkeys laden with food baskets and camels saddled for rides, they asked questions about everything from the djellabas, the traditional long, loose-hooded robes worn by the men, to the history of the Seven Saints — seven large, three-story-high towers on the edge of the city that bear the tombs of different saliheen, or righteous men, from the 12th to 16th century. Up one street they noticed a man in a turban carrying a snake, down another a monkey in a fez. All that was missing was a genie flying past on a Berber rug.

On the Great Disruption of 2008 …

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

We can’t do this anymore…

“Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we’re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets,” argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”

One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment — when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once — “The Great Disruption.” …

Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker — the year when ‘The Great Disruption’ began.

                                                                                    - From a Thomas Friedman op-ed column

Well, apparently there can be one upside to losing your job in this cratering economy - providing, of course, that you have sufficient savings to fall back on. You can travel. That is exactly what some out of work financial workers are doing these days. They’re lucky, of course, in that they’re more likely to have financial means squirreled away than the average teacher or assembly line worker who finds him or herself among the unemployed. Nevertheless, this Washington Post story caught up with some recently unemployed financiers who, upon realizing there was no current job market for their skills, decided to hit the road.

When Deutsche Bank determined that strategist Rod Manalo was, in the merciless language of hard times, “redundant,” it was an abrupt and humbling end to a seven-year career in finance.

But Manalo, 30, has not been trudging the gray streets of London where he was based looking for work. This week, he was in the sun-drenched Brazilian resort city of Florianopolis, taking surfing lessons and dancing in throbbing nightclubs amid Carnival revelers. That was after he had snowboarded in the Alps, golfed in Florida and prepared for a year-long world journey that he expects will take him to the Amazon, Antarctica, Australia and beyond.

“Decent finance jobs are nonexistent. Few hedge funds and no investment banks are hiring. If I were to find a job, I’d just fear losing it again, would continue to watch markets drop and would expect little or no bonus,” said Manalo, who was fired in December from his position as a vice president in risk arbitrage. Apart from occasionally watching his investments, he said, “I am fully focused on traveling.”

One byproduct of the economic blood bath of the past several months has been a bumper crop of relatively young and wealthy but out-of-work financiers. Unemployment in the financial sector in the United States doubled from 285,000 in January 2008 to 571,000 last month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are “pink-slip parties” in New York for the newly untethered to mingle and match. Business school applications have soared for those seeking academic shelter.

But some financial refugees have fanned out around the globe in pursuit of leisure, achievement or to explore something, anything, outside a cubicle’s confines. And if a dozen or so lost souls of finance are any indication, many are finding at least a temporary refuge roaming the globe.

Did you know that only 0.3 percent of U.S. college students study abroad? That’s a pitifully low number when considering that even two percent of Chinese students go abroad to study, and the percentage is much higher among some Europeans.

With a little luck, though, the situation could soon be improving. A bill was recently introduced in the U.S. Congress - the Study Abroad Foundation Act - to “expand study abroad opportunities for U.S. undergraduates.” It was sponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The goal is not only to quadruple the number of study abroad students, but also to send more students to Asia, Latin America and Africa, which today account for less than one-third of international student programs.

Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald discussed the issue in a recent column:

While much of the world’s population growth and economic expansion in coming decades will take place in China, India and Latin America, only a tiny fraction of U.S. college students are getting a global education. What’s more, most of them are going to Great Britain, Italy and Spain, supporters of the bill say. If the United States wants to remain competitive, and secure, this has to change, they say.

”I’m afraid we are far behind,” Sen. Durbin told me in a telephone interview. “More and more students from areas like Asia are coming to the United States. Sadly, very few U.S. students are moving in the other direction.” …

”Americans are notoriously uninformed about the rest of the world, compared to people in many other countries,” says Victor C. Johnson, a senior advisor to the Association of International Educators (NAFSA). “We believe that it’s crucial for American students in a global age to have had international experience as part of their education.” …

My opinion: I like this plan.

I like it, too. Americans really, desperately need to better understand the world we live in, and getting more students to go abroad is a good start.

Yes, it’s colder, though not unbearably so. But the rewards are more affordable prices and few tourists. Matt Gross, aka the Frugal Traveler, just experienced the mid-winter charms of Venice with his wife and young daughter. An excerpt from his report:

More important, and less quantifiable, than any of these practical factors was the pleasant aura that descends on Venice in winter. Cleared of tourists, it becomes vastly easier to explore, yet simultaneously more mysterious. The thousands of alleyways twist on without end, drawing you deeper into unknown territory, with no dim, distant roar of humankind to orient you.

Piazza San Marco was nearly deserted, its outdoor cafes’ having packed away their tables. The pigeons pecked about in ones and twos, like confused visitors expecting flocks. When Jean and I walked into St. Mark’s Basilica, it was as if I’d never visited before: without the crowds jostling me, I could relax enough to admire the stern biblical figures adorning the ceiling, and without feet obscuring the floor, I noticed the marvelous mosaics of animals — lions, birds, griffins — below. It felt, to my surprise, like a place I actually wanted to linger, rather than a requisite stop on a tourist itinerary.

In other words, winter gives you time to breathe, to experience Venice at an Italian pace.