Media on The Great Los Angeles Walk: "Camaraderie, Fresh Air and Close-Up Experiences"

Thanks to NBC LA and Alysia Gray Painter for writing another great piece on this year's Great Los Angeles Walk. Check it out here. An excerpt:

It's free -- of course -- and you can join anywhere along the route -- of course -- and the Great Los Angeles Walk "is not a race" -- nope. It is, however, about camaraderie, fresh air, close-up experiences (vs. things seen through the blur of your windshield), and a deeper connection to an oft-driven slice of our city.

And exercise, too. The walk does happen five days ahead of the afternoon we're all likely to consume a little too much stuffing and gravy.

You can RSVP, because that's nice, to Mr. Schneider, who is nice, just so he can keep a count, which is helpful, but not RSVPing doesn't mean you can't wake up on Nov. 23 and decide to join.

So here's another thing you tell someone considering a permanent move to LA: Clear the Saturday before Thanksgiving for a mega walk to the ocean. There's no better way than to get acquainted with a particular street and a whole bunch of adventuring Angelenos.

Meanwhile, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's blog and writer David Colgan also put together a great piece on the Walk. Read it here. An excerpt:

When it comes to challenging our car culture, massive events like CicLAvia, with its 100,000-plus cyclists, send a loud message about the growing momentum and demand for alternative transportation. But before there was CicLAvia, there was the more modest—but equally committed—Great Los Angeles Walk, which has been putting one foot after the next on L.A.’s most famous streets for the past 8 years.

Michael Schneider has organized the walks since 2006, when about 30 to 40 brave souls met to tackle all 16 miles of Wilshire Boulevard. Walkers now number around 300 each year.

“It always sounds daunting to people who haven’t done it before,” Schneider said. “But it’s not a race. It’s about taking your time and exploring. I come back with hundreds of photos of things that you normally miss.”

See you Saturday!