Running a neighborhood

Learning a neighborhood can be done several ways - by car (least effective), by walking (most effective) and by running (which I often do).


By car:  It's comfortable and easy but whizzing by in 30 mph just doesn't let you learn a neighborhood.  It's 100x better than researching online but everything is relative.

By walking:  This is the best way to learn a neighborhood because it's slow and you are forced to take time.  A good real estate agent in Manhattan should love to walk because walking allows one to see the shops, smell the wind and take in a neighborhood's activities most effectively.  Even better is to enter or eat at the local shops.  You can memorize all the Zagat descriptions but it'll never compare to actually being in a restaurant.

By running:  Second best to walking is running a neighborhood.  It's not substitute for walking a neighborhood but it's second best.  In my case, it's a lot more interesting to run neighborhoods than to just run in Central Park or along the Hudson River.  The picture above was taken after the run the morning after Hurricane Sandy.  Covered Battery Park, West Village and  Tribeca.  The morning after Sandy had very empty streets, closed shops and about 10 fallen trees in the West Village.  It was drizzling and the air was the freshest ever perhaps because I only saw 30 cars during the run.