>>1977050Location: Walk Transit Bike
Where I grew up: 30 18 38
Current city: 59 44 74
Current neighborhood: 74 50 86
The "notjustbikes" video where he talks about getting shot at with an airsoft gun in the back yard of a friend for entertainment, and it being like house arrest until I got a car hit close to home.
Comparing my childhood to my best friend's who grew up in a neighborhood with walk/transit/bike scores of 61/40/69, it's a whole different experience.
I had access to a small, minimal park without playgrounds or a skate park, one nature area with a bike path, a neighborhood Wal-Mart, and enough sticker weeds that a bike tire would get a dozen punctures per mile, and there were areas where they piled up enough that even skateboards and longboards could slip on them. The sticker problem has been eradicated since my childhood there. That Wal-Mart opening up was a huge event in my life for having something to do outside. There was a Wendy's and a taco bell built there when I was in my mid teens.
He had access to in short walking distance two great parks with jungle gyms and skate parks, the closer of them probably being the largest in the state, pools, a movie theater that at that time was cheap, now it's expensive, post office, print services, restaurants, a craft shop, video game shop, bike and board shop, etc. and a tram line that brought him to haunted houses in October, and the largest concert and sports venue in not just the state but the area of many adjacent states as well.
He grew up so socially and independent compared to me.
