Liz Olney Arms lives in Minneapolis, but Bloomington is the eighth city where she’s walked every single street. She says she was pleasantly surprised by what she discovered and that walking a community is a way to truly get to know it.
Back in about 2018, Olney ran across a person who was walking through every neighborhood of Minneapolis, and she thought it would be fun to give it a try. Once she was done with Minneapolis, Olney moved on to complete other cities, including St. Paul, Edina, Richfield, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale and West St. Paul.
“Bloomington was an area I didn’t know a lot about. I knew the I-494 strip. I knew Mall of America. I knew Old Shakopee Road. I was really surprised. I had no idea how green Bloomington is,” Olney said. “There are so many parks, so many lakes. Several times when I was walking in Bloomington, I paused and thought to myself, ‘Gosh, I wouldn’t mind living in Bloomington.’”
She started walking Bloomington in April 2023 and completed her goal in October.
“I went back and looked at my numbers. It was about 85 different walks. Took me 500 plus miles or so, a lot of doubling back on a lot of streets,” she said. “I’m high tech and low tech, so I use physical maps and I use apps.”
Olney has two Instagram accounts that feature what she finds on her walks. One account, @mplsmurals, has murals from around Minneapolis. Her other account, @mplsstpaulsidewalkart, is a way for her to memorialize her walks and focus while she was out.
