Our research in Bucharest has identified the most vulnerable areas in the city in case of an earthquake. We used socio-economic data from censuses in 2002 and 2011, earthquake scenarios, and distance to resilience-enhancing points in space (e.g., parks, fire stations, etc.), to achieve a comprehensive picture of where vulnerability hotspots can be found in an urban environment. We propose two underlying reasons for an areas’ vulnerability: education and connectedness. This work discusses the later. We shall argue that distance perception is somehow linked with vulnerability. The mental map of the city, as present in the minds of its inhabitants, is not the same as the one on Google Maps. We hypothesize that persons in vulnerable areas will perceive various points in the city to be significantly further away than they really are, when compared to persons from resilient areas. We can then use these perceived distances to push and pull the real map and generate a ‚distorted’ map showing how the city is represented in the minds of its inhabitants. Several theories, from various fields, are put forward to justify why a relationship would exist between how connected an area feels to the rest of the city and the vulnerability of its people.