Surprise! Atlanta not such a walkable city
Los Angeles is more walkable than Atlanta! So is Las Vegas!
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Walkscore.com has ranked Atlanta No. 22 among the top 40 cities in the U.S. in terms of walkability.
I’m actually surprised it scored that high. The Web site ranked Five Points as the city’s most walkable neighborhood. Click on the link to see how 32 neighborhoods around Atlanta rank.
Five Points beat out Midtown, which came in at No. 4 (more on that after the jump).
According to Walk Score, “The top 2 neighborhoods in Atlanta are Walkers’ Paradises. 27% of Atlanta residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. 49% have a Walk Score of at least 50—and 51% live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods.”
By comparison, only 19% of Denver’s residents live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods. (And don’t say the cities are not comparable: Walk Score only takes into consideration the core city, not the suburbs, so Atlanta is listed as having a population of less than 420,000, while Denver has about 559,000).
But is it news that 51 percent of us live in car-dependent neighborhoods? Probably not. Yet I like seeing the info out there so we can admit we have a problem and take steps to fix it.
It’s interesting, or depressing, you pick the adjective, to look at the cities that beat Atlanta. As I said, it’s not just the usual suspects (New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago) but also cities such as Los Angeles, Seattle and Albuquerque that like Atlanta are often considered car-dominated cities.
Like a good grade-school teacher, the ranking points out the negatives and the positives. Okay so you only ranked No. 22, but you do have some neighborhoods that are walkable!
The problem is, who lives in what Walk Score deems Atlanta’s most walkable neighborhood, namely Five Points? Walk Score lists the population of Five Points as 1,089 and rates the neighborhood a 95 on its walkability scale.
What the experts consider the most walkable neighborhood in Atlanta is not where the majority of people live. Not even close to the majority.
According to the Web site, 63,000 people live in Buckhead and it received an abysmal Walk Score of 61!
I know from my days as a newspaper reporter that there are thousands of surveys about cities and towns, and it’s easy to report on a survey as though it’s news, when really it’s just one more silly survey.
But I think it helps to see how other cities are faring, and the reality is, nowadays the cities that thrive are the ones that are walkable.
Young people don’t graduate from college saying, I want to go live somewhere where I must drive absolutely everywhere! Remember: The so-called Generation Y folks – the people born between 1979 and 1996 – plan to live in “urban cores,” according to RCLCO, a real estate consulting firm with offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Orlando (77 percent of those surveyed said so).
And hey business community: these folks are coming of age, and will soon be entering the real estate market, first as renters, then as buyers.
Related posts:
- Let’s walk over to the Plaza and catch a flick [caption id="attachment_3204" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Photo credit: Karla Jean Davis via...
- The perfect city building? I think so. I love this building at Peachtree and Fifth. It...
- No sidewalk, no bike, no MARTA but we love Atlanta! As I wrote last night, Maria Saporta’s questions at Tuesday’s...
- ITB/OTB Thoughts from my Beltline walk continue to trickle out, and...
- Push it all together and make one good city Actress Jasmine Guy said the following about Atlanta, where she...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Comments
3 Comments on Surprise! Atlanta not such a walkable city
-
Jonathan Peterson on
Thu, 9th Jul 2009 9:48 am
-
Jeanne Bonner on
Thu, 9th Jul 2009 10:25 am
-
Surprise! Atlanta not such a walkable city | My Green ATL on
Sun, 12th Jul 2009 10:21 am
You’re not wrong about the importance of walkability and quality of life to long term city growth and health, but it’s worth noting that the walk score website is based on distance to various things you might want and doesn’t take into consideration significant walkability issues like tree cover, good sidewalks, lighting and safety.
Poncey-Highland and Sweet Auburn both rank much higher than Virginia-Highland and Ponce de Leon Ave is a swath of bright green walkability. Really?
Neighborhood dimensions are somewhat bizarre as well – Buckhead includes not only the very walkable buckhead village, but extends north all the way to 75 and Mt. Paran and windsor parkway
Hi Jonathan. You make good points. I’d like to add that I plugged in an address on Highland Ave. to get its Walk Score and it turned up a list of amenities that, as you say, inform the Walk Score.
The problem is the “amenities” it turns up are either not quite what Walk Score says they are (i.e. for library, it listed the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library; well, I’m not sure that’s where most people should go if they want to check out the latest Stephen King novel), or may not even exist.
Like I said, lots of surveys are just silly. I think what’s not silly is the walkability issue.
What I worry about is what I presume to be a lack of resources to make neighborhoods more walkable — simple changes that could a long way. Does Atlanta even have the money to install more crosswalks, new sidewalks, lighting (as you note) or audible walk/don’t walk signs?
Thanks again for posting.
[...] See the rest of this story at Atlanta Unsheltered. [...]
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Our new website!
