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The nearly ubiquitous popularity of walkable neighborhoods has already and will continue to significantly impact the development of the Charleston area.
The nearly ubiquitous popularity of walkable neighborhoods has already and will continue to significantly impact the development of the Charleston area.
What that looks like is different for each demographic. High density urbanization works well for some, suburban centers and neighborhood nodes work well for others.
What that looks like is different for each demographic. High density urbanization works well for some, suburban centers and neighborhood nodes work well for others.
Count me in the type of person that would consider urban living (e.g. walk to work, bike, etc) as pure hell. I would not want this at all. Agree with you completely.
What that looks like is different for each demographic. High density urbanization works well for some, suburban centers and neighborhood nodes work well for others.
Well, what I see happening is the issue of driving. Traffic + parking + time = a less dynamic life. The re-urbanization of the US is (in my opinion) driving innovation, cuisine, health trends, and a lot of positives. If you are stuck out in a track house with a Walmart and chain restaurant, and disuaded from driving because of hassle, you miss a lot.
I see traffic and parking getting worse in all the growing/popular cities I visit, so its even getting harder. The idea of supporting walked neighborhood nodes (which is a term you mentioned) is great, but alot tend to be filled with less inspiring retail, food, business, and public spaces.
From an employment/talent standpoint a big draw is minimum car/traffic time and maximum authentic non-chain environments.
It's much cheaper to drive a car than ride a bike to work.
Let's say you work 20 miles away. That's about 620 calories burned each direction. If you buy high quality power bars, pay about $1.60 per bar for 190 cal. You would need to eat 6.4 bars to make the round trip. That's $10.44 a day by bike.
For a car getting 20mpg's at today's fuel prices, thats less than $4 a day.
It's much cheaper to drive a car than ride a bike to work.
Let's say you work 20 miles away. That's about 620 calories burned each direction. If you buy high quality power bars, pay about $1.60 per bar for 190 cal. You would need to eat 6.4 bars to make the round trip. That's $10.44 a day by bike.
For a car getting 20mpg's at today's fuel prices, thats less than $4 a day.
What's the dollar figure for a 20 mile commute @ 20mpg added to the cost of jamming your piehole full of Chick-fil-a during that same time?
Something that I think is getting misconstrued in this conversation is that walkable doesn't mean urban. No one comes to Charleston expecting to find Boston. You can still keep building under 6-8 floors and have single family houses and all that good stuff. The point is to keep everything interconnected, which means less subdivisions and stripmalls and more multi-use buildings and commercial space that's built up, not out.
The idea is to bring things closer together i.e in walking distance and provide infrastructure like sidewalks and bike lanes that allow people to move around reasonable distances without needing a car. People see the development of downtown-like nodes as a threat to the suburbs and it's not. The two can and do coexist quite successfully.
You must also recognize the difference between a suburb and an exurb. Inside 526 would be considered a suburb, where walkable semi-dense development is quite common and makes sense. The best example of a southern suburb I can think of is what Durham is to Raleigh. Sure Durham is actually a city but so is Mt. Pleasant. An exurb would be North Mt. Pleasant, quite a bit farther from the city where you would find larger lots, less commerce and more of a bedroom community feel.
You must also recognize the difference between a suburb and an exurb. Inside 526 would be considered a suburb, where walkable semi-dense development is quite common and makes sense. The best example of a southern suburb I can think of is what Durham is to Raleigh. Sure Durham is actually a city but so is Mt. Pleasant. An exurb would be North Mt. Pleasant, quite a bit farther from the city where you would find larger lots, less commerce and more of a bedroom community feel.
Durham is not a suburb. Cary, Apex, Fuquay Varina, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough: those are suburbs.
Durham is not a suburb. Cary, Apex, Fuquay Varina, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough: those are suburbs.
I'm not familiar with some of those, but I can tell you some of those are exurbs and not suburbs, which is my point. People often confuse the two.
It's just about distance, it's also about isolation and whether or not there is commerce there.
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