As a kid I was obsessed with New York City.

The noise. The lights. The chaos. The crowds. The variety of ethnicities. The walk-up apartment buildings. The subway. The narrow streets. The brick buildings. The laundry strung from one 6^th floor apartment window to another. The alleyways.

And I hadn’t even been there yet. My idea of the city was entirely based on movies and probably “Welcome Back, Kotter.”

I grew up out in the country in Clovis, California. Land of orange groves, almond orchards, grapevines, an annual rodeo, tule fog so thick in the winter the only way I knew where to turn to get home was by the Christmas lights the guy on the corner left on his hedges around his property, glowing all winter and only visible once I was within about 20 yards of the turn.

But cities have always beckoned.

I’ve now lived in the Los Angeles area for 28 years.

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I’ve been ignoring this blog for the past year and a half because I’ve been distracted with a different adventure – grad school. That leaves little time (and money) for travel. But I realized, hey, I could still write about city travel. Or other city things.

I live in a city. I travel around a city every day. There’s plenty of city-travel-related-minutia I can obsess about. Actually, I already obsess about it, I just need to start writing about it.

(For instance, when I decided to start commuting again — I recently got myself an office downtown, after working from home for 19 years — I spent hours online looking for the perfect laptop bag.)

Ok, so here I launch what will be this year’s focus – OCDtravel in the City.

All city-related topics are fair game. Not just LA … cities in general. I also happen to be taking an urban design class this semester, so who knows what fun topics will emerge?!

Here’s my first question – when your travel destination is a city, how do you get around?

• Cab
• Uber
• Rent a car
• Public transportation
• Walk

I usually walk as much as possible, and go for public transportation when walking won’t work. I love figuring out a city’s subway system.

What about you?