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Yeah it's important to note that not every young person wants or cares about living in walkable urban areas. Black people tend to be just fine with living in nonwalkable areas. Thats part of the reason suburban areas in every metro are seeing greater black population growth than city centers, for the most part at least.
Its more than that. Suburbs are more affordable for blacks.
So if that is the case, my problem with walkscore is a building like this is 0.25 miles from Safeway Grocery Store, CVS, Auto Zone, Public Library, Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citi Bank, Flower Shop, Various Restaurants, Clothing Stores, etc. etc. etc. Also, it's 0.25 miles from the Minnesota Avenue Metro Station, and multiple bus routes, however, the neighborhood has a walkscore of 64.
St. Stephen's apartments is closer (0.25 miles) to more amenities than most people in Shaw or U Street. If you want to count amenities, we can do that.
What’s the DC neighborhood in walkscore’s neighborhood ranking where you feel that neighborhood and all neighborhoods ranked above it is definitely more walkable than Benning overall?
What’s the DC neighborhood in walkscore’s neighborhood ranking where you feel that neighborhood and all neighborhoods ranked above it is definitely more walkable than Benning overall?
I don't have a problem with them ranking neighborhoods, I have a problem with them not using an apples to apples size comparison. It's the same problem with our many urban core debates. You can't quantify something unless you use the same area squared. The example in Benning is the perfect example of this.
Walkscore is designed to say what the average person living in an entire neighborhood is close to. That's fine, however, that doesn't tell the whole story when part of the neighborhood is close to everything. Maybe they need to break things down by census tract and census block groups. I don't really know, but it can't be generalized. People living near Minnesota Avenue Metro Station are walking distance to more things than most people in any city. If urban design doesn't matter, that should be reflected.
Shaw, Columbia Heights, Dupont, Penn Quarter, etc. is way larger, but Benning is more intense with more stores and amenities in a closer walking distance. It's like comparing the DC urban core to downtown Boston etc. The difference is size versus intensity.
I don't have a problem with them ranking neighborhoods, I have a problem with them not using an apples to apples size comparison. It's the same problem with our many urban core debates. You can't quantify something unless you use the same area squared. The example in Benning is the perfect example of this.
Walkscore is designed to say what the average person living in an entire neighborhood is close to. That's fine, however, that doesn't tell the whole story when part of the neighborhood is close to everything. Maybe they need to break things down by census tract and census block groups. I don't really know, but it can't be generalized. People living near Minnesota Avenue Metro Station are walking distance to more things than most people in any city. If urban design doesn't matter, that should be reflected.
Shaw, Columbia Heights, Dupont, Penn Quarter, etc. is way larger, but Benning is more intense with more stores and amenities in a closer walking distance. It's like comparing the DC urban core to downtown Boston etc. The difference is size versus intensity.
I get it--it's not perfect as the neighborhoods could be of varying sizes and cover different grounds, though it does look like they combine neighborhoods that are too small in order to try to get parcels that aren't super ridiculous from each other. Even when we're trying to do apples to apples comparison ourselves, there's always something that's a bit off or a point of contention somewhere especially if the neighborhoods are of fairly similar levels of urbanity.
My question was which neighborhood in the Walkscore ranking would you say is unquestionably to you more urban overall than Benning as are all neighborhoods listed above that.
To the OP I would say go for it. Atlanta is home for you and it will always be here. IMHO everyone should experience living somewhere else besides where you grew up. It helps you become more balanced and less dependent. When I was your age I took the plunge and never looked back. Good luck!
I get it--it's not perfect as the neighborhoods could be of varying sizes and cover different grounds, though it does look like they combine neighborhoods that are too small in order to try to get parcels that aren't super ridiculous from each other. Even when we're trying to do apples to apples comparison ourselves, there's always something that's a bit off or a point of contention somewhere especially if the neighborhoods are of fairly similar levels of urbanity.
My question was which neighborhood in the Walkscore ranking would you say is unquestionably to you more urban overall than Benning as are all neighborhoods listed above that.
I believe all the neighborhoods listed on DC’s list are more urban from a design standpoint, but that’s not what walkscore measures. Walkscore measures how close retail is to you on foot. That’s why I made the point I did.
To the OP I would say go for it. Atlanta is home for you and it will always be here. IMHO everyone should experience living somewhere else besides where you grew up. It helps you become more balanced and less dependent. When I was your age I took the plunge and never looked back. Good luck!
Yep, ATL will always be here. Atlanta is changing anyway, even if he don't live in the city of Washington, be in the metro area and get to know it if it's in your hands.
This is also true. The fact is most black Americans can not afford to buy in DC or Harlem or many of the places we discuss on here.
This is why mid-sized cities are also options for people getting priced out of neighborhoods in major cities. So, that may be something else to consider.
Maybe not in this case, unless the OP is open to other capital cities with a relatively high black percentage like say Richmond(48% black), Harrisburg(actually 52% black), Albany(30%), Raleigh(29%), Columbia(42%), Tallahassee(35%) and maybes for parts of Trenton(50%, close to Philly) and Hartford(37%). These cities are more affordable, some will have solid urban areas in his budget, meet the black percentage criteria as a city and allow for careless and/or a short drive to a major city. I know for a fact that Albany, Harrisburg and Richmond have row home neighborhoods.
Might even be able to add Annapolis(due to proximity to Baltimore and DC) and parts of Providence too. Dover may be too small.
This is also why I asked the OP earlier if he would be open to such cities.
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