Making a city is walking it: walkable world

By: Maria Fernanda Orozco/ mfoe93@gmail.com

Consider this page a declaration of love for reading cities with your feet, a call to remember that people must—and can—take part in building better cities.

Walking transforms urban life. It’s how we connect with our cities, find the extraordinary in the ordinary, and build community. This site is dedicated to exploring and celebrating the power of walkability, and to advancing the right to safe, accessible, and stimulating pedestrian environments for everyone.

Welcome to Walkie Talkie — a space born from a passion for creating more livable and equitable cities. As an architect and researcher, I open this window to share my experience, stories, and ideas about how we can build better cities, step by step. Here technical reflections meet personal narratives and street voices: experiences from neighbors, activists, urban designers, and people who simply discovered a shortcut that changed their day. That weave of perspectives is what makes the city alive.

Why this blog can be a turning point

• Because it centers the human: streets are not just infrastructure; they are places to meet, play, trade, and appear.

• Because it blends evidence and poetry: we combine data, design proposals, and everyday stories that show why walkability matters for health, local economies, and equity.

• Because it promotes participation: walking helps us identify real problems and imagine collective solutions. This is a call to action and to imagination.

  
  

What you’ll find on Walkie Talkie

• Urban walking chronicles: routes, observations, and lessons that help understand the city at the pace of footsteps.

• Practical proposals: short- and long-term interventions to improve safety, accessibility, and public space quality.

• Applied research: syntheses of studies, metrics, and international examples we can adapt to local contexts.

• Diverse voices: interviews and testimonies from residents, shopkeepers, activists, and professionals sharing their experiences and solutions.

• Bilingual resources (Spanish and English): so ideas can cross borders and be enriched by other practices and narratives.

  
  

A project with human meaning Walking makes us vulnerable and visible: we meet eyes, find barriers, and celebrate small discoveries. So let’s romanticize cities so people will walk in them—not as a nostalgic gesture, but as a deliberate strategy for urban transformation. When we design with human scale in mind, we create safer, more inclusive, and joyful environments.

I invite you to explore the site — https://www.hacerciudadescaminarla.com/ — to read, comment, and share your experiences. Submit a route that moves you, an intervention that worked in your neighborhood, or an idea you want to try. Walkie Talkie is a resource for ideas, inspiration, and proposals to create more walkable cities. Let’s move toward a better future, together.

This street was the beginning of everything, Puebla, Mexico

Walking is both political and poetic: it transforms bodies, relationships, and urban landscapes. Here we celebrate that practice and work so more people have the real right to move on foot through dignified environments. May this blog be a compass and an embrace for those who, like me, believe the city is built by walking.