Surprise Surprise... Miami is one of America's most walkable cities. (coastal, winter)

[Nolefan34]

Winterfront-

I cannot disagree with you. I would add Miami and Southeastern cities in general differ from Northeastern cities because A) they are generally newer except for the core downtown since Southern cities had smaller populations back in the old days than Northern cities, and B) Southern cities never had the same amount of manufacturing industries. Miami's core industry was tourism during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. It became a booming retirement area as well. Northern cities like NYC, Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, Detroit, and Chicago had lots of heavy industry that kept the downtown areas booming even as urban decay took place during the 60's and 70's. Southern downtowns became ghosttowns by comparisons.

I think Miami suffered from this urban depression just like many other cities, but has been on the rebound over the last decade or so.

[WINTERFRONT]

More newer generations are going back to the city life. I guess they are realizing how cheaper it is to gentralize a hood (or be part of that gentrification) than to live in a suburb, where you pretty much live hours away from your job, pay for high mortgages, pay for high maintenance (frontyard, backyard), insurances, cars, gasoline, etc... not to mention all the excitement a city has to offer, compared to a suburb, of course. Going back to the city used to be a hipster, yupie, gay, and other bohemian people thing, now pretty much people of all walks of life want to be part of the urban culture.

[checkmatechamp13]

Originally Posted by WINTERFRONT

The city of Miami is not only the CBD and Brickell. It is also Flagami (not walkable), Overtown (not walkable), Model City (Not walkable), Coconut Grove (Who walks there?), Little Haiti (UNWALKABLE), Liberty City (not walkable), West Flager (same again), Coral Way (you know how the story goes), and a few others.

In case you didn't know, this is the Map of Miami proper:

Originally Posted by Rock Newman

I wonder if brutal heat and humidity for seven months of the year are taken into account when conducting these pointless surveys ?

Other than parts of South Beach and Coconut Grove that cater to tourists and partiers ... I do not see many areas of "Miami" with a high volume of foot traffic ... you may see poorer Hispanics or Haitians hiking it to a bus stop or too their duplexes because they have no other choice ... but most "walkable" areas are touristy .

To both of you:

The survey is talking about how close everything is in your neighborhood. It says how close you are to schools, shopping, public transportation, etc. It doesn't account for walking on busy roads, but chances are that if you live in a neighborhood with huge arterial streets all over the place, your neighborhood is going to receive a low walk score anyway.

Why? Because areas built with streets like that (wide and with no sidewalk) generally don't have that much activity anyway. A lot of the stuff is in strip malls that are spread out.

So areas like Little Haiti, Overtown, and Liberty City are dangerous, but still receive a pretty high walk score because much of the stuff is within walking distance. You have buses, local supermarkets/bodegas, schools all within walking distance. You may be scared to walk there, but at least you won't have to walk very far.

It's the same here in NYC. Most of the dangerous neighborhoods are densely built. Our housing projects are tall apartment buildings, not rowhouses like Miami, and those motel-style buildings (I don't know what the technical name is) would be tenement buildings here in NYC.

So because there are a lot of people living close together, you're only a few blocks from buses, trains, schools, shopping, etc. Since it's that much more densely built, the walk score in NYC is that much higher. But conversely, if you go to other cities like Orlando, they are less densely built and therefore their walk score is lower.

So those "poor Hispanics and Haitans" are most likely walking through dangerous areas, but at least the roads aren't too dangerous (in terms of car traffic) and they're not walking too far.

Originally Posted by MiamiRob

Coconut Grove is walkable in the center but much of the Grove is very suburbanish in nature.
Liberty City is walkable. Overtown is walkable. Allapatah, Wynwood, Midtown, the Design district, Little Havana, Little Haiti are all walkable. They have sidewalks everywhere.
This is what the study pointed out as facts. Just because one fears walking in Overtown or Liberty City doesn't diminish there "walkability" factor.

Exactly.

[♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥]

^^^ In many areas in Miami(including areas in little havana and Haiti) you are not at a walking distance from anything besides a bus stop. Those areas also still have a lot of high speed car traffic and are quite unsafe to walk.

[Nolefan34]

Many people are still not getting that Miami's walkability ranking is relative to other U.S. cities. Miami is the most walkable city in the Southeastern portion of the U.S. New Orleans is the only city that is close to Miami in terms of walkability, and in N.O. the French Quarter is the main walkable area.

Does Miami compare with NYC, Boston, Philly, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, or Seattle? No. But it is more walkable than Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, and probably more walkable than L.A. too.

[WINTERFRONT]

Originally Posted by checkmatechamp13

To both of you:

The survey is talking about how close everything is in your neighborhood. It says how close you are to schools, shopping, public transportation, etc. It doesn't account for walking on busy roads, but chances are that if you live in a neighborhood with huge arterial streets all over the place, your neighborhood is going to receive a low walk score anyway.

Why? Because areas built with streets like that (wide and with no sidewalk) generally don't have that much activity anyway. A lot of the stuff is in strip malls that are spread out.

So areas like Little Haiti, Overtown, and Liberty City are dangerous, but still receive a pretty high walk score because much of the stuff is within walking distance. You have buses, local supermarkets/bodegas, schools all within walking distance. You may be scared to walk there, but at least you won't have to walk very far.
.

Miami is not dangerous for me at all. Little do I care about such factor when it comes to walkability. Oh, and only few people do live walking distance from their nearest groceries, btw, especially in those neighborhoods.

[Nolefan34]

Winterfront-

This argument is a little played out now, but you do realize that Miami is WAY more walkable than other FL cities and other Southeastern cities, right? Just the neighborhood of Brickell alone puts it way above Tampa or Jacksonville.

[WINTERFRONT]

Are people skipping my posts??? I've already said that too as well.

[polo89]

Originally Posted by ♥♥PRINC3Ss♥♥

Exactly, they have no other choice but it is still an unpleasant and dangerous walk

Now we all know we have horrible weather so why doesnt the city or county plant more shade trees where there is already some foot traffic? Its either concrete or palm trees. I cant stand those palm trees. They are so tacky and purposeless. Its much easier to walk in the shade, even at 2pm in the summer. 8 st, 27 ave, flagler should look more like miracle mile, but they look more similar to roads in Tampa, Jax and Orlando.

What's so tacky about a palm tree in a coastal tropical city? A palm-tree on Long Island would be tacky.

[WINTERFRONT]

Originally Posted by polo89

What's so tacky about a palm tree in a coastal tropical city? A palm-tree on Long Island would be tacky.

We are not tropical