No. 115
Armed with pedometers, three New Yorkers logged every step they took during a recent week.
Elissa Hyman
Upper East Side
Owner of Elissa’s Personal Best Gym
Age: 47
Total Miles: 27.9
Hyman lives, works, and primps on the Upper East Side. She walks back and forth from her building, where she lives and also trains her clients, several times a day: making house calls, exercising at Equinox (she visited three different locations during the week), and running beauty errands. She gets her hair blown out at the salon around the corner, walks another block for a manicure, under five blocks to her chiropractor, and only half a block for Botox injections. Hyman insists she makes it downtown sometimes. “This wasn’t a date week,” she says. “When I go out at night, I go downtown.”
Seth Laughlin
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Private-wealth researcher at Merrill Lynch
Age: 26
Total Miles: 44.83
Laughlin runs across the Williamsburg Bridge every day—“it makes working out easy,” he says. His route takes him through Williamsburg, the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and the financial district. The whole trip takes just 35 minutes, which he insists is faster than the train. He takes a change of clothes in a backpack and showers at a gym near his office at the World Financial Center. Laughlin tacks on another 3.5 miles on the weekend, along the Brooklyn waterfront. At night, he unwinds at Lower East Side bars like The Magician.
David Perez
Chelsea
Account executive at Peppercom PR
Age: 25
Total Miles: 12.5
“The train just sucks,” says Perez, who walks from his apartment in Chelsea to his Park Avenue South office five days a week. He likes to cross through Madison Square Park (the view from the park is his favorite part) and then window-shop on Fifth Avenue. When he’s not walking to work, Perez hangs around Chelsea (most of his friends live there) and never, ever goes uptown. “It’s like being in another city up there,” he says. “Everything I need is below 34th Street.”
—Yael Kohen
… In Great Shoes
No. 116
We are the only Americans left who walk to the market, the bank, and to brunch with our friends, and still, we are the Americans who wear the least practical shoes. Isn’t it great? New Yorkers know that black most certainly does not go with everything, that three-inch heels are perfectly appropriate for day, and that it’s totally normal to leave the house each morning armed with several pairs, none of which are sneaks. For those who question our extravagance: No matter how much you spend, even lizard Louboutins are cheaper than a car.
—Amy Larocca Next: Because Our Doctors Can Give a Two-Pound Baby…