Join Feet First!

UPDATE: Stairway Walks Day was a huge success! Check our Walks and Events Page for future group stairway walk opportunities!

Feet First, the walking advocacy nonprofit, is the organization behind Stairway Walks Day. Feet First is a membership organization, supported by people who value walking and neighborhood walkability. One aspect of Feet First's activities is leading walks around Seattle and the region. These walks are geared to help residents get to know their own and other people's neighborhoods better, and have lots of fun doing it. Feet First relies on volunteer Neighborhood Walk Ambassadors to lead these walks; some of them are pictured below, getting ready for Stairway Walks Day!  

First Supper: Feet First Neighborhood Walking Ambassadors (photo: Maureen Hoffmann, WABI Burien)Here's a thumbnail sketch of what the (small) staff and volunteers at Feet First do: they advocate with legislative and other governing bodies across the state for better walking conditions; raise awareness of walking by publishing walking maps and leading neighborhood walks all over; and they work to increase the number of students walking safely to school, with their "Safe Routes to School" program.

In short, Feet First is a great organization to support with your membership! You can get this cool T-shirt if you join at the $30 level now through February, when the T-shirt swag reverts to the higher membership levels only. To find out more, check out the Feet First link over on the right.

Check out our link to Feet First for more info on how to get this cool T-shirt! (photo: Cathy Jaramillo)

Seattle: City of Stairs

Stairway Walks Day is Saturday, February 9th! Fifteen stairway walks, in neighborhoods across Seattle and environs, will celebrate our valuable legacy of public stairs. The walks start at 10AM, with routes based on the book and led by a Feet First Neighborhood Walking Ambassador. You can still sign up over at the Feet First web site. 

If Seattle has a valuable legacy of public stairs, where exactly do we stand among other stairway-rich cities? To answer that question, we did a survey and found these stairway counts: 

Pittsburgh 712 stairways...

San Francisco 670

Seattle 650

Cincinnati 400

Portland 207*

Los Angeles 200

Hogwarts 142

*Not including private, but publicly accessible, stairways

It looks like we're not quite at the top of the list, but we're right up there with the heavy hitters! The Hogwarts number may be unreliable, as it changes frequently.

Hogwart's ever-changing stairs