Taking A New Neighbor On A Tour of Our Town

images by kalanicut

I met a new neighbor this week who has just moved to our BIG city. In our conversation about her first days here in Los Angeles, I was reminded how overwhelming it can be to move here. At least when you move to New York you can walk and adventure your way around on foot to get to know that big city but in LA you have to drive and that is it's own scary adventure, let alone dealing with parking everywhere you go.

So I decided we should pick up our new friend tomorrow and take her on a little tour of our city and help her find all the fun spots and the best place to park in all those places. We are looking forward to it and glad to be able to help simplify her getting settled process. Here are a few places we'll try to introduce her to:

• Farmer's Market locations & days (we have lots of these, almost one every day within 2 miles)
• Best beach spot & free parking areas and inexpensive but fast parking areas
• Fun parks & gardens
• Best neighborhoods to walk & wander
• Cheap eats & great local hangouts
• Must have resources: hardware store, garden shop, etc.

And we're going to give her a map with spots highlighted so that she can start feeling more comfortable wandering around the city. Now that we're doing this once, I am going to try to be more mindful of new neighbors and how they feel moving to a big, new, expensive and sometimes frustrating city. I remember when I first moved here it was pretty overwhelming. It's so easy to forget that when you've been here for a while and everything has become second nature to you.

So if you have a new neighbor that comes to your town, think about taking them on a "My City 101" tour to help them get the lay of the land and start feeling comfortable in their new surroundings. Some people are just naturally adventurous and can't wait to jump into their new city, for other people, they can use all the help you can give them. Moving is exhausting and overwhelming enough, so anything you can do to help the transition a peaceful one is a blessing for sure.