So Far and Yet So Close

So what's the deal with New Yorkers exaggerating the distance between everything?

The other day I went uptown and asked a hot dog vendor the way to Amsterdam Avenue. He pointed it out to me but said "It's at least a 30-minute walk, you'd better take the subway". 5 minutes later I was there.

I remember a similar incident happened last year in Midtown. when I complained about it to a New-York-dwelling friend of mine she said "Oh, but the avenues, they tend to be really far apart". My cousin suggested that, because I was asking for directions, they assumed I was a tourist and wasn't used to getting around on foot.

I thought this city was the American capitol of walking everywhere. What gives?