Readers React: An app that monetizes walking — really, L.A.?

To the editor: While I truly appreciate the need to connect people and to get them walking, especially in Los Angeles, I can’t help but think that an app and paid service to get a walking partner is overkill. There are literally dozens of free walking groups in Los Angeles, and plenty of great places to walk.

In Long Beach, I run a nonprofit dedicated to improving pedestrian safety and building more walkable neighborhoods and corridors. We have walking groups and events of all types, and new ones are being formed all the time. The Beach Cities Health District organizes walking moais, groups that walk together on a regular basis, welcoming all levels of ability. The list goes on.

I suppose this is just a sign of the times where someone needs to use technology and pay for a service to get something we all took for granted as free and just a part of life only a generation ago.

Steve Gerhardt, Long Beach

The writer is executive director of the group Walk Long Beach.

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To the editor: A service for “walking” people is crazy idea, but it is fantastic. Is there a Nobel Prize category for new and innovative ideas such as this that benefit mankind?

If so, People Walker founder Chuck McCarthy is an obvious candidate.

John Snyder, Newbury Park

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