Ed Man Walking

Many of you are probably familiar with my complaint that Nothing Ever Happens In My Neighborhood. True, it’s one of the few remaining affordable places in New York where you’re only a few blocks from the subway; it’s safe, spacious, and relatively quiet; and you can get to most parts of Manhattan within an hour. But being a New Yorker, I want some fun I can walk to, dammit. The North Bronx is, simply put, not a very happening place. Let’s just say there are other boroughs that will show you a far better time than mine.

However, tomorrow morning that will change, at least for a good half hour. Edward Champion, of Reluctant Habits and late of the Bat Segundo Show, has a new project in the works, Ed Walks:

On May 15, 2013, I aim to walk 3,000 miles across America over the course of approximately six months, starting in Brooklyn and ending in San Francisco. I plan to talk with many people along the way, asking them about their lives and writing dispatches as I make my way from town to town.

It’s a wonderfully ambitious project, harkening back, perhaps, to the Federal Writers’ Project of a similarly distressed era nearly 75 years ago. Fortunately for us, though, Champion has no government agency to answer to—which is why he’s funding it through Indiegogo—so I’m expecting something a little more along the lines of the irreverence, iconoclasm, and genuine kindness that made Bat Segundo worth listening to.

And to warm up, he’ll be taking a trial walk on March 22nd from the top tip of Manhattan to Sleepy Hollow, in Westchester County—straight through my otherwise unexciting neighborhood. So how could I not go out Friday morning to cheer him on, wish him well, and maybe even serve as a little local color? I’ll be out bright and early, and there may be some tweeting involved, so I advise everyone to tune in—maybe not turn on, since it’s still a workday—and get what will hopefully be the first dispatch of many.