Take an urban hike!

By: J. David Chapman/November 17, 2022

I enjoy hiking. Actually, my hikes are better classified as walks.

My friend, Matthew Myers, and I spent hundreds of hours hiking together during the pandemic. I suppose it was our way of coping with a difficult situation. I wish I had a transcription of our conversations during those walks. Every day, we discussed the numbers of current COVID-19 cases, hospital occupancy impact, and the general disruption it was causing in business. We made predictions and we made decisions.

I am extremely thankful for our time together. I am confident we made better decisions together than we could have made independently. We also became close friends.

Every day, we decided toward the end of our hike as to the next day’s destination. We would hike at Arcadia Lake, Mitch Park, Hafer Park, Fink Park, or something we referred to as The Urban Hike. The Urban Hike was my favorite. It was conducted through downtown Edmond, traversing the urban grid between Kelly on the west, University on the east, Danforth on the north, and Edmond Road (2nd Street) on the south.

I have been known to take Edmond’s CityLink bus to downtown Oklahoma City, walk a few hours among the tall buildings, and then ride the bus back to Edmond. Exploring cities on foot has much to offer.

I was first introduced to the “urban hike” while instructing the UCO London study tour with Dr. Randal Ice. Dr. Ice had been conducting the tour on foot of London for years and the students would refer to the tour, and the amount of walking, as the “death march.” Some days, we would walk more than 10 miles, taking in everything London had to offer.

In 2018, I did a 12-mile hike amid the skyscrapers of New York City with Dr. David McIlhatton while we were performing research. I have had the opportunity to show UCO real estate students around Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco while attending conferences.

When I hike in nature, I enjoy taking in the trees, lakes, soil and grass. On an urban hike, I am considering the architecture of housing, commercial buildings and government facilities. I am comparing businesses, evaluating roads, alleys, streetscape, bridges and railways. Everyone should get outside and take an urban hike!

J. David Chapman is professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).