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More businesses = more walkable neighborhoods
01/06/2014 6:15 AM by John M
Walk Score “calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.”, part of an effort to recognize the benefits to our health, the environment, and our communities of living in walkable neighborhoods.
Since we last looked at this in 2010, Richmond (score: 49) has climbed from being the 15th most walkable locality in Virginia to #7, and Fairmount (#15 score:68) has joined Church Hill (#10 score:78) and Union Hill (#12 score:75) among the highest rated neighborhoods in Richmond.
I wish that I had documented the neighborhood scores a few years ago, it would be interesting to see directly the impact of the new restaurants, bakeries, and shops that have come in over the past 3 years.
TAGGED: Walk Score
This is exactly why the ball park should be in the bottom. No one walks to a game at the diamond.
I think a lot of people would walk to a game in the bottom.
John, I think the walk score for 31st and Marshall was around 60 in 2007.
My address still pulls up 65 because weirdly, walkscore is missing a bunch of businesses including WPA Bakery, the barber shop and stores on Marshall, the hair salon on Broad, Urban Farmhouse (which is fair) and the majority of the businesses in the Bottom.
Our walk score hasn’t changed much at all since we bought two years ago but the score doesn’t take into account that what we can walk to is now better stuff. Before the score was inflated by 40 shops and zombie restaurants that weren’t open much.
The hijackable score of most threads around here when it comes to advocates of the ballpark scheme is 95.
As far as algorithms go, Walk Score has some noticeable flaws. Downtown, a place where most everyone drives for one reason or another is rated very high. Besides the residents of Jackson ward, it takes First Friday for everybody else to even think of walking and in some cases they drove as many blocks as they walked. I see a few people out on the streets during lunch or waiting for buses, but otherwise it’s a ghost town. Meanwhile, the major parks are all rated lower than downtown, the diamond, and half of church hill. Even more telling is that short pump is rated highly despite the fact that nobody walks anywhere unless it’s in a parking lot or mall. I wouldn’t be surprised if even the people who live in the whole foods market village don’t walk, let alone cross an 8 lane road.
People will do what is most convenient and immediately enjoyable despite what poorly verified websites tell them.
The stadium in the Bottom will be a GREAT walk when it’s built! Bring it on!
#6- best comment of the day.
#1 – Hi joe
I live in the Fan and frequently walk to the Diamond for Squirrels games.
One person doesn’t mean anything. The bottom is pedestrian friendly the diamond is auto accessible oriented. We don’t need to build facilities that are auto oriented anymore. Its just wrong.
Re: short pump… I think the walkable score measures what people CAN do, not what they actually do. People really could do a lot of walking out there… but the cultural and 8 lane issues are big deterents.
Even with our high scores, there are a lot of things even in the CH area that would make the area even more walkable… fix the 27th Street stairs (which according to unverified rumor, some immediate neighbors oppose), connect the top of the stairs at Taylor’s Hill with the Grace Street overlook, actually put in place one of the several plans for the MLK/Leigh Street bridge…
@Gene- sounds like you’re on the wrong board.