The "Grocery Store" challenge

From Jesse Bailey at the Walkable West Palm Beach blog we have the "Walk to the grocery store challenge". Pick a day, maybe even today, and go to the grocery store without your car. Walk, ride your bike, or take public transportation. If you want you can send a description of your walk and I'll publish it here on my blog: the good, the bad and the downright ugly. In today's car culture the pedestrian had 'taken a back seat' if you will. Take a camera with you too, you'll be surprised what you see.

From the article by Mr. Bailey:

Strong Towns recently issued a challenge for its readers to walk to the grocery store. The idea is to get out of the car and experience this essential activity from a different perspective that doesn’t involve driving, whether it be walking, biking, or taking public transportation. There will be more of these “Strong Citizens” challenges and the hope is to involve increasing numbers of people in everyday ways to make our communities stronger places. If you have a Strong Citizens idea, you can submit it here.
I’m well situated to walk to the grocery store because my neighborhood makes it an easy choice. Notice I didn’t say “I’m lucky to live near a grocery store”. Living in a neighborhood with a high walk score and low car dependency was very much a conscious choice, a lifestyle choice. I would go as far to say that I choose the kind of place I’d like to live, then choose a job in that place or as nearby as possible. This strategy allows one to be rooted in the community, rather than having little ties to the neighborhood because the experience of it is always behind the wheel of a large automobile.