There are greenway trails all over town that are wonderful to walk on. Neighborhood walks are also nice. My next door neighbors are 10-15 years older than you and they walk their dogs all over our neighborhood. If you like more hip kinda place, a nice neighborhood to walk around is the Rountree neighborhood. Has a brewery, a couple bars, a coffee shop, tacos, ramen, pizza, etc.

I don’t find Springfield dangerous and I walk or bike most places. Well, other than cars. Be aware when you’re walking of them, even if you have the right of way, make sure they are stopping. Being right doesn’t mean shit if you’re dead. There are homeless, but I’ve never had a bad experience with them here. I’m pretty approachable though so my interactions have always been from people who seem lonely and maybe don’t get looked at in the face by most people.

We have a few farmers markets that are awesome. One on Republic, one next to the mall, and one on Commercial. They’re all on Saturdays and dog friendly. My favorite one is by the mall for prices. It’s the cheapest. But the other two are great too. They all participate in double ing up for EBT so if you use food stamps you can get $10 worth of veggies for $5. Great program we have for those struggling to afford vegetables.

Edit: there’s also fastnight and urban roots farms off the top of my head for local produce during the week. Fassnight I have a special place for because they introduced me and my daughter to canary melons which are now our favorite and we grow them ourselves.