World tour in New York: A man walks through his hometown

In a metropolis full of driven people, Matt Green tries to find an alternative: He walks all over New York, to the furthest corner and to the last wasteland. Unlike a pilgrim and record runner, he has no higher goal. Matt Green just runs because he wants to run.

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In order to get to know a foreign city up close, you have to do one thing above all: walk. Places can be deciphered on foot, their streets, shops and residents, their noises, smells and tastes. In the metropolis of New York, Matt Green has literally gone further. He had resolved to walk every street, every path, every park and every public square in the city. Estimated distance: 12,800 kilometers, roughly the overland route from Berlin to Tokyo.

Green has been on the road for seven years now, adding a few kilometers and road blocks every day. He sleeps with friends on the sofa, sometimes he takes care of their cats or dogs in return. What was born out of the boredom of his desk job as a civil engineer has turned into a long-term study of a metropolis with 8.5 million inhabitants. Green meets people and shakes hands, he discovers plants, takes photos and reads the history of the city. And he keeps everything on his blog. “I’m Just Walkin ‘” is the name of the website, “I just walk.”

Walking and stopping

Walking can be traced back a long way as a religious or political gesture. For centuries, Muslims have made pilgrimages to Mecca, Jews to Jerusalem and Buddhists to Tibet. Freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi marched 400 kilometers through India in 1930 in protest against the British salt tax. And last year more than 300,000 people reached Santiago de Compostela in Spain via the Way of St. James, the most famous pilgrimage route in Europe.

In addition, there are dozens of travelers who cross the United States on foot or the whole world. Dave Kunst became known in 1974 as the first man to circumnavigate the world on foot. The Canadian Jean Beliveau walked eleven years to overcome his midlife crisis over 75,000 kilometers and to promote “peace and non-violence for the benefit of children worldwide”. He wore 54 pairs of shoes and traveled to 60 countries. Others went on very long walks to raise awareness of cancer or Parkinson’s disease.

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But Green is not interested in such a higher meaning, a record or a specific goal. “I don’t really know what the point is,” he says in the new documentary “The World Before Your Feet”. After the action, he did not want to become a city guide or write a book. Green wants to discover the city and just runs because he wants to run. “I am most fascinated by people who just do something because they want to do it,” he says.

Heart, soul and pulse of the city

Even college professor Bill Helmreich, who walked New York from 2008 to 2012, had the big picture and systematic in mind. Green, on the other hand, is about the individual parts, says Helmreich in the film, about forgotten secret routes, construction projects that have been declared dead or where the tallest tree in the city can actually be found. Green discovered coconut halves in water (presumably part of a Hindu ritual) and picked up bristles from street cleaning vehicles. He describes the “heart, soul and pulse” of the city, says Helmreich about Green.

The end result could possibly be the most detailed online city guide that New York has ever had. Because the memorial for Eric Garner, who died after police violence, or the tombstones of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and magician Harry Houdini are also special knowledge for New York connoisseurs. And where else are the estimated 300 official, private, and handcrafted monuments to the city’s September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks cataloged?

Green’s inner-city trip around the world encourages people to travel more slowly. To let the head arrive in peace and quiet where planes, trains, buses and cars have brought the body at high speed. For these passengers, the passing environment will be invisible, explains Green to a school class. With him, the world shows itself with the simplest processes of human motor skills – walking and standing still – from a new, old side: “When you run, you can stop and look at it.”

+++ Read also: “Pan Am – the most iconic airline in the world” +++

Johannes Schmitt-Tegge / DPA

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