Archive for the ‘where we live’ Category
What are America’s fittest cities?
Where are the fittest people in the United States? We’re talking about a city, here. not an Olympic training village. I bet you’re not guessing Washington, D.C., are you? Home to all those politicians and government bureaucrats. And yet, according to a recent American Fitness Index study that was released by the American College of Sports Medicine, residents of [...]
Bike friendly cities
In the search for the best places to live, many people would look for a city that is considered bike friendly. It suggests, at a minimum, that fitness and environmental values are important to local citizens. And, if you pick the right home, it also means that you could possibly commute to work on a bike, or at [...]
A suburb without cars. Can it work?
A planned town in Germany is doing just that. Going carless. All the streets, except for a few, belong solely to pedestrians and bicycles. People are not barred from owning a car, but none of the homes have garages or parking spaces, so homeowners must buy a parking spot in a town garage. The goal is [...]
America’s most walkable neighborhoods
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 [...]
Which American states are the happiest?
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 [...]
The geography of the American mind
Where would you like to live? If you could be guaranteed a reasonable facsimile of your current job, family situation and network of friends anywhere in the country, where would you choose? The Pew Research Center did an extensive study on where Americans would like to live, and the top three cities were Denver, San Diego and [...]
Why the mind needs nature
I just came across an interesting article in the Boston Globe’s Ideas section. The main point of the piece is that our brains benefit from time in nature, which is something that fewer of us get these days because a majority of individuals reside in cities. “The mind is a limited machine,”says Marc Berman, a psychologist at [...]
The character of cities
I’ve always been intrigued by the character of different cities. Every urban environment, it seems, has a different vibe, a unique feel. The coffeehouses of Seattle, the universities of Boston, the Latin beat of Miami. Each place has such unique traits that it’s not possible to mistake one for another, and individuals who love one [...]
The benefits of a walkable city
Do you enjoy living someplace that is walkable? It’s important if you like to walk to restaurants and shops, if you harbor a desire to walk to work, or even if you just enjoy walking for fitness. The act of walking may also be helpful in much bigger ways. Paul Krugman has a column in today’s New [...]
Do cities have personality traits?
We often talk about the cultures of different regions of the world. We talk less often about the cultures of different regions of one country, though they certainly exist. But what about the psychological characteristics of geographical regions? Is it actually possible that people in New England, for example, have not only different traditions and foods than [...]
Cafe culture
I was intrigued by a recent article I came across that described the cafe culture of New York City. Not the culture that surrounds the crowded Starbucks on every corner, but the life of the European-style cafes where creative professionals gather and network most mornings over coffee or breakfast. Such are the benefits of belonging to [...]
Expats drawn to Mexico
Anyone who hasn’t been asleep or on a silent retreat for the past month hasn’t been able to avoid the protests and debates over the immigration issue in the U.S., particularly as it relates to immigration from Mexico. But what is less talked about is traffic that goes in the other direction. Mexico has long been a [...]
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Bob Riel is a writer and a traveler. Go here to read more about Bob, his work and the Travels in the Riel World blog.
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