Why a mother of four walked 540 miles of Lansing's streets, dirt roads and sidewalks

LANSING -- Ariniko O'Meara doesn't lack ambition. 

From Oct. 1, 2010 to Oct. 4, 2013, the now-49-year-old mother of four embarked on a journey to discover what her hometown has to offer. 

O'Meara literally pounded the pavement and even the city's dirt roads. 

The result was a 540-mile trek through Lansing.

She wore out seven pairs of shoes, lost 15 pounds and improved her health. She walked 29 miles the last day. 

"Physically, my body got stronger, my muscles got stronger," O'Meara said. "But there was also an emotional benefit as well. I learned all these social skills, like smiling at people, saying 'Hello' before they could." 

O'Meara wrote a 198-page memoir and 109-page photo book with 224 images about the experience.

Both books, entitled "A City Saunter Story" and "The City Saunter Project," are expected to be released in October. 

"I felt like I was Forrest Gumping my way through all these great things," O'Meara said. 

Why did you take on a project like this? 

I felt like I was one of the Love Lansing cheerleaders early on and then realized a lot of the places that I was cheering were a lot of the places everyone else was cheering —Old Town, downtown, The Stadium District. But I felt like you couldn't be a true Love Lansing person if you didn't know what was going on everywhere in Lansing. It was easy to cheer on the easy, (well-known) parts. But I wanted to be a true Love Lansing cheerleader for all of the city, even the little things that were going on that maybe people didn't know about. 

What kept you motivated to walk everywhere? 

A lot of people just really cheered me on. I had a whole group of people who were following along and became interested in what I was finding. Sometimes they would share with me and say "Hey, did check out this park?" or "Hey, did you walk past this?" or "Did you know about this group?" There were a lot of people who were eager to share what they knew about the city because they viewed, from their perspective, that Lansing wasn't as bad as people were making it out to be. Another part of it had to do with me just being stubborn. I'm sort of the person that, if you tell me I can't do it, I'll show you I can. 

What do you think Lansing has too much of? 

Lansing has too much negativity from people who are unwilling to try and make it better, or even see that it's not as bad as they make it out to be. 

What do you think Lansing lacks? 

I remember the Civic Center we used to have. I think having a giant space that allows us to bring in acts would be really amazing, a place where larger audiences can go. 

What's the most overlooked aspect of this city? 

We've got 64,000 acres of park land. I don't think people realize that. This River Trail is amazing, and I think people are just starting to realize that. When I was out there I saw people coming in from other cities to use our river trail. I think we just sort of dismiss it as being broken down or dangerous, and I don't think we actually realize how amazing it is to have. You can't find that in cities around us. Also, what's overlooked are the smaller (community and neighborhood) groups who are working hard. I don't want to say elitism, but the more established groups get a lot of attention while the smaller groups kind of get dismissed or aren't as appreciated. 

Can you point to any areas that shocked you because of their conditions?

One of the things that I found walking that I was shocked about was the lack of sidewalks along these roads. There were some places where the sidewalks were untraversable. Aurelius (Road) didn't even have sidewalks; I was walking in the road a lot of the time along Aurelius. Having the potholes made it even more difficult because if you're walking in the road, cars are swerving around the potholes and you can easily be hit by a car. I noticed the bike lanes along Kalamazoo Street which are a great idea. But if you've ever biked them, they're full of glass and debris and other things. So, even though you have a bike lane, it's not necessarily the safest place to ride. I think the whole road thoroughfare has issues. It's been neglected for a long time. 

What can be done to improve the neighborhoods so the city can thrive as a whole? 

(Getting an answer to that question) was one of the goals of mine. In one of my earlier walks, I noticed neighborhoods where things were really great and others just blocks away where things weren't great. I set out to try and figure out why. Why would this neighborhood have more troubles than that neighborhood? I came down to the conclusion that the neighborhoods that did well had some person who was pushing, organizing, marketing, creating and positively affecting that neighborhood in some way. And sometimes there were groups of people like the Old Town Commercial Association. Sometimes it was just one person out there meeting their neighbors, setting up activities like street parties or garage sales or something like that. But (I noticed) there was always an individual or individuals (in good neighborhoods). It wasn't the government. It wasn't council members or anyone like that. It was a person or persons who were organizing something.  

What did you learn from this experience, something that really stands out about the city or the direction it's headed? 

Something that really stood out to me was attitude (toward Lansing). You can look at Lansing and always concentrate on the bad things — drugs, prostitutes, crime, whatever. If you come at it with an attitude of optimism, hope and appreciation, I think it changes how you view something. If you're constructively trying to make something better through criticism, I think that's OK. But if you're looking (at Lansing) just to shoot it down, just to be critical, that's not a good thing. And I write about that in the chapter about (local filmmaker and Lansing native) Mike McCallum. We felt like we were constantly being the cheerleaders to people who were booing in the stands. What are you trying to get out of that? If you're not looking around trying to see what's good, then I don't know if you're helping too much. More people trying to have a more positive outlook always helps the city. 

The books

For more information on how to pre-order the books, visit kickstarter.com/projects/ariniko/the-city-saunter-books and O'Meara's blog, ariniko.wordpress.com.

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Eric Lacy is a reporter for the Lansing State Journal. Contact him at 517-377-1206 or elacy@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricLacy.

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Lansing by the numbers 

8 - Consecutive years the city's population has grown, according to the U.S. Census. 

20 - Miles of the Lansing River Trail, from Old Town on the city's north side to South Waverly Road. 

30 - Miles of state Department of Transportation trunkline the city maintains. 

69 - Estimated percentage of population that lives in "south Lansing," anything within the city limits south of Interstate 496. 

129 - Number of parks the city owns and maintains, according to its website. 

412.8 - Miles of public streets.

444 - Number of roads the city's Public Service Department clears of snow and salts during the winter months. 

118,427 - Population the Census reported for the city as of July 1, 2018, up from 114,309 on July 1, 2010.