Kris Sorensen with the South Renton Connection is helping to connect his neighborhood with his feet.

Sorensen, sitting at his computer on Saturday mornings, coffee cup in hand, is making walkable maps of south Renton.

“This is a tool to connect people to the area and us to other organizations,” said Sorensen.

The project is called Walkable South Renton.

And the mapping project of this city-recognized neighborhood could ultimately help draw customers to downtown businesses by making them feel, for example, that new pair of shoes is just a walk away.

Sorensen will walk off the routes to make sure the times are accurate and a “customer” prints the map.

The neighborhood group’s project comes at a time when the City of Renton is in the midst of preparing a plan for re-imagining downtown. The ideas include protecting downtown’s assets such as its public spaces and cultural venues and rethinking its appearance to give it a distinctive feel.

One of those open public spaces is the Piazza, home to the Renton Farmers Market in the summer. Sorensen and the neighborhood is working with organizers to develop a walking map for the farmers market.

Sorensen has already done a walking map for the Renton History Museum on Mill Avenue South. The museum is just a five-minute walk from the Piazza, a 10-minute walk from the Renton Senior Center and a 15-minute walk from Renton High School.

The Sorensens are living examples of what anyone can do by deciding to rely on their feet, rather than the combustion engine to get around.

Sorensen, 32, and his wife Haunnah, 29, moved to Renton about a year ago. He’s an assistant planner for the City of Renton. They served together in the Peace Corps; they know what it’s like to get around on foot.

They live on Burnett Avenue South, across from the Burnett Linear Park, in one of those cottages that push 100 years old and evoke a sense of Renton’s small-town past.

Their neighborhood has an active association – the South Renton Connection – that has picnics and Easter egg hunts at the park and neighborhood cleanups.

One a recent walk on the Cedar River Trail, the Sorensens came up with a list of what they think makes South Renton the best neighborhood in South King County. Such as:

• It’s got one of the oldest downtowns within it with a great variety of services and eats, the Cedar River, the great people and mix of socioeconomic backgrounds,

• It’s a place you could live at all ages of life,

• It’s the most walkable neighborhood in Renton.

That walkability is good, because they have one car. He likes the extra cash that results.

They like riding their bikes and the ease with which they can put them on a bus at the Renton Transit Center for the trip to downtown Seattle and a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. They leave behind no carbon footprint.

The steam is still rising from Sorensen’s coffee when he arrives at work – Renton City Hall – a short walk from his home.

The Sorensens are sold on footpower.