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I don't at all see where DC is walkable. This myth mystifies me; I lived there on business for almost six months and I'm not certain exactly what part of it I was supposed to view as "walkable". Everyone drove everywhere.
It's an absolutely stunning region, but not walkable at all.
Where did you live? "Not walkable at all" tells me you didn't get out yourself and be with the DC residents. Perhaps you actually were in Northern Virginia, like Reston or Dulles, instead of downtown DC? Sure, people drive a lot - even the "most walkable" cities are filled with cars. But the sidewalks are full of people, too (not like NYC though, but equal to SF).
I lived in DC for 5 years, now live just outside it in VA. When there, I walked just about everywhere. True that for some things you'd prefer to use transit or drive, but I don't interpret the question "Is place X walkable" to mean "can you get to every interesting part of town on foot within a reasonable distance." To me it means is it easy to walk (good sidewalks, not having sidewalks end or have to cross freeways or go through underpasses), is it pleasant to walk (don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, there are things and people to see), can get to services and amenities without having to drive to a strip mall and park in a giant parking lot, can go from a good neighborhood to another good neighborhood without having to walk through really scary ones. Would you want to walk rather than drive. Could you live without a car. When I lived in DC, I used my car for two things: visiting family in Virginia, and grocery shopping, because my preferred grocery store was not in walking distance (but there was a grocer in my neighborhood).
I walked to Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle every weekend. I'd walk to grab a bagel and a paper, sit in a park watching people strum guitars or play chess. I'd walk to Georgetown. I'd walk to the National Zoo. I'd walk to the White House Ellipse to watch 4th of July fireworks. I'd walk along Rock Creek Park. I didn't typically walk to the National Mall or Smithsonian museums, but I could without obstacles.
I'm not sure why Chicago has such a huge area on the south side that's basically just large lakes and vacant land.
Because historically and geographically most of Chicago by area is part of the rustbelt.
The focus is basically on the one quarter of Chicagos land, (basically the neighborhoods you listed).
The lakes were made into harbors. They were part of the poorly drained glacial lake, and that far southeast side is simply part of the northwest Indiana industrial belt that required a lot of space for its heavy industry.
That is because no one really knows much about Louisville. It was historically a legitamate top 25 city almost its whole existence, and this was pre merger. It was very large, very dense, and at a time, one of the most important cities in the south, along with New Orleans, and to a lesser extent, Richmond and Birmingham.
These cities all got passed after WWII as the so called sunbelt cities boomed and the aforementioned cities were disregarded as old. Well now, some of the south's older cities are seeing a rebirth and their dense urban cores have been revitalized. Louisville has several pedestrian strips where one would think they were in a substantially larger city if it were not for the architecture and people (yes there are still some rednecks even in the city).
Where did you live? "Not walkable at all" tells me you didn't get out yourself and be with the DC residents. Perhaps you actually were in Northern Virginia, like Reston or Dulles, instead of downtown DC? Sure, people drive a lot - even the "most walkable" cities are filled with cars. But the sidewalks are full of people, too (not like NYC though, but equal to SF).
I lived in DC for 5 years, now live just outside it in VA. When there, I walked just about everywhere. True that for some things you'd prefer to use transit or drive, but I don't interpret the question "Is place X walkable" to mean "can you get to every interesting part of town on foot within a reasonable distance." To me it means is it easy to walk (good sidewalks, not having sidewalks end or have to cross freeways or go through underpasses), is it pleasant to walk (don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, there are things and people to see), can get to services and amenities without having to drive to a strip mall and park in a giant parking lot, can go from a good neighborhood to another good neighborhood without having to walk through really scary ones. Would you want to walk rather than drive. Could you live without a car. When I lived in DC, I used my car for two things: visiting family in Virginia, and grocery shopping, because my preferred grocery store was not in walking distance (but there was a grocer in my neighborhood).
I walked to Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle every weekend. I'd walk to grab a bagel and a paper, sit in a park watching people strum guitars or play chess. I'd walk to Georgetown. I'd walk to the National Zoo. I'd walk to the White House Ellipse to watch 4th of July fireworks. I'd walk along Rock Creek Park. I didn't typically walk to the National Mall or Smithsonian museums, but I could without obstacles.
I did walk to the Smithsonian Museums, the WWII Memorial, the Capitol and the Crime Museum and to restaurants when I visited DC in 2008, all within walking distance of my hotel. That's one of the things I really liked about the trip (it was a four-day weekend trip). We drove down from Jersey, parked the car at the hotel, and didn't take it back out until we left.
Not the same as your experience living in the area, of course, but for visitors too, the walkability is great.
This only list neighborhoods in the proprer city limits of the largest city in a metro. Im willing to bet that Cambridge Ma (all of it is walkable) has more walkable neighborhoods than Atlanta or Dallas, and that outside many of the major cities on this list lie suburbs with almost no walkability or in many case, public transit.
In the Boston metro Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Waltham, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Lynn, are all either totally or mostly walkable and have comprehensive public transit as well.
I input some of those in the site and came up with these scores:
I don't at all see where DC is walkable. This myth mystifies me; I lived there on business for almost six months and I'm not certain exactly what part of it I was supposed to view as "walkable". Everyone drove everywhere.
It's an absolutely stunning region, but not walkable at all.
I've never heard anyone not call DC one of the most walkable cities in the country, much less not walkable at all. A lot of the people out here don't even own a car. I drive to work because I'm required to in case I get detailed to another fire house. Other than that I NEVER use my car. If you look on the street of almost any neighborhood, there are always people out. It also helps having the second most used rail system in the country and a pretty good bus system as well.
How is it possible to have the second most used rail system when people are driving everywhere? It doesn't even make sense? On top of that, many of these neighborhoods have some of the top walkscores on walkscore.com. Mine is somewhere around 90.
Capital Hill, Georgetown, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, the National Mall, Downtown, Chinatown, West End, Cleveland Park, Tenleytown, Logan Circle, Friendship Heights, Takoma, Waterfront, Ballpark District are all neighborhoods that are easy to live in without a car. Those are only some.
This ranking is very accurate, from my experience. There are a few things that caused my eyebrow to raise though.
I would have thought that DC would have at least been in the top 5. Long Beach and LA are surprises for me. The fact that Nashville and Jacksonville are on the list, must mean that there are only 40 large cities in the country. Either that or they only rank the "urban cores," since I know first hand that 90% of the official city of Jacksonville is not walkable.
Charlotte's low ranking is really, really surprising, especially considering that it's one of the very few Southern cities with a light rail line (transit usually correlates with walkability).
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