Walink' in Brooklyn: How Far I've Walked plus a Quarterly Update

I've walked the streets of Brooklyn my entire life. I had to -- we didn't have a car. Oh, the bus and train were available, but they cost money and didn't always go where we needed to go. And sometimes, walking was just faster. And walking lets you cut through parks and walk on the walls and stuff.

Anyway, sometime back in 2019, I started keeping track of the streets I was walking along. Before that, I mostly walked a triangle or rectangle of blocks near my house and sometimes ventured down to the Coney Island Boardwalk (taking a train there and a bus back on the same fare!).

In the six and a half years since then, it has exploded thanks to encouragement from people online. And, yes, I took some of their taunts as challenges.

When I started going north to south, I also started making my way east, but not fast enough for some people. This past summer (2025), I traveled out to East New York and started walking west. It turns out Brooklyn isn't as big and scary as it seems.

In the past year, I finished walking the lengths of Bedford Ave, Church Ave, and Kings Highway -- that last one shorter than I expected! Yes, I still have Flatbush, Atlantic, and Linden Blvd, but I'll be at them when the weather is warmer and the days are longer.

Below are two images. The first is where I walked in the past three months, and the second is the parts of Brooklyn I've completed as of January 1, 2026.

After that is some commentary that will get posted on reddit (r/Brooklyn) at some point.

The following is the first draft of what will be posted on reddit:

The days were getting shorter and colder, but I managed to get in 18 walks in the past three months.

There should've been a couple more, but the wind chills in the last week were too much for a 5-mile walk, and the one day that it was in the 40s again, my phone predicted heavy rain (which my area didn't get).

Another consideration is that after all this time, I had my first fall, tripping over a raised lip of concrete. Ironically, it happened while I was out on my lunch hour. My hands were in my jacket pockets, and I couldn't pull them out fast enough to get my balance. My palms and my knee did break my fall (I still have marks over a month later but somehow didn't tear my slacks.) I didn't hit my head or anything. However, I had a lot of loose change in my pocket along with a small bottle of hand sanditizer, which didn't break, so my leg was sore for a week.

I had one more interview, this time with Currents TV, which is run by the Archdiocese of Brooklyn. It hasn't aired yet. We will look silly when it does because it was in the 60s that day. The reporter, Katie Vasquez, is a friend of Hannah Kliger of CBS who did the last interview.

Looking at the map, I finished up more streets in Greenpoint (and could've done more but it was cold) and mixed up Jewel with Newel, which was two blocks away. And I walked down to the Bedford L train so I could get this tiny half-block near the highway that I'd missed before.

I also passed posting for several TV productions and there were trailers all over. I think Elsbeth films over there.

The section of East Williamsburg I walked was industrial without much to see except a lot of trucks and garages.

More Bushwick, and I walked Bushwick Ave all the way to the Jackie Robinson, and then figured out how to get back to get back to Broadway Junction so I could get home.

I'll check the map again, but I think I'm finished with Bed-Stuy.

More inroads into Crown Heights as well. I basically have Atlantic and Herkimer pass all those one-block long streets that I have to coordinate when it gets warmer.

I have a couple of trips by Holy Cross Cemetery but didn't wind up inside it. I found Ave A, which I knew existed but wasn't sure where.

The black line on 86th street was me beating the bus down to Spirit Halloween on Nov 2. The store was picked clean, but I got a really cool steampunk coat. Not what I was looking for but I couldn't pass it up for half price.

I'm hoping for slightly warmer temps next week. I'd planned walking the streets between Holy Cross and Kings County Hospital for a week now but it was too cold to be out for an hour and a half. Soon.

Where should I go next?

"Logically", I should continue down the L train from work and walk west. At some point though, when its warmer and not dark early, I have to head east again. And I still have to get to Cypress Hills.

Thank you, all, again for the support over the past 6 1/2 years.

All of the above photos and videos, unless otherwise stated, were taken by Christopher J. Burke and are subject to copyright.

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