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Nashville's (walk score 29) vibrant areas cant compare with Austin (walk score 48). Nashville only has 2 areas with a 80+ walkscore with under 6000 residents. The areas that are vibrant due to tourism. There is a big difference.
Not sure how old or how they calculate their data but I honestly wouldn't put too much stock into these walkscores. I mean it shows Knoxville and Murfreesboro, TN on par with Nashville and if you have any ground level experience with both you'd know these cities are as surburban as one could get in Tennessee.
Murfreesboro essentially has zero walkable areas unless you count the town square which doesn’t even have a full service grocery store. Possibly the Oakland neighborhood close to MTSU could be a candidate but there’s literally nothing to walk to but at least there’s some nice old homes. The main commercial area is on Medical Center parkway but it’s essentially all suburban sprawl.
Knoxville has a nice compact downtown and some cool areas by UT but gets very suburban pretty quick outside of that. If anything, I'd say the fact that Nashville is consolidated city county hurts it when trying to calculate density figures. Especially when a full one third of the county is undeveloped farm land and nature preserves.
I’d say the main walkable areas in Nashville would be Downtown(includes The Gulch), parts of Midtown, Hillsboro Village, 12 South, 5 points(East Nashville) and Germantown.
Not sure how old or how they calculate their data but I honestly wouldn't put too much stock into these walkscores. I mean it shows Knoxville and Murfreesboro, TN on par with Nashville and if you have any ground level experience with both you'd know these cities are as surburban as one could get in Tennessee.
Murfreesboro essentially has zero walkable areas unless you count the town square which doesn’t even have a full service grocery store. Possibly the Oakland neighborhood close to MTSU could be a candidate but there’s literally nothing to walk to but at least there’s some nice old homes. The main commercial area is on Medical Center parkway but it’s essentially all suburban sprawl.
Knoxville has a nice compact downtown and some cool areas by UT but gets very suburban pretty quick outside of that. If anything, I'd say the fact that Nashville is consolidated city county hurts it when trying to calculate density figures. Especially when a full one third of the county is undeveloped farm land and nature preserves.
I’d say the main walkable areas in Nashville would be Downtown(includes The Gulch), parts of Midtown, Hillsboro Village, 12 South, 5 points(East Nashville) and Germantown.
I think walk score can be used to get an idea of how walkable a city or neighborhood is before relocation. I am having a hard time believing that Nashville belongs in a tier of cities like Miami, New Orleans, Austin Atlanta and Dallas when considering walkscore.
If you take the overall walk score of city and consider the individual neighborhoods and population of those neighborhoods, that seems to be a pretty good idea of what the area is like.
But there again, I live in a neighborhood with 140 restaurants with access to two grocery stores, the walkscore should be higher than a 75. When I type in my address instead of neighborhood name, it comes up to 85 that is more in line with what I see and experience.
I could be wrong but its all about opinion mixed in with facts.
I think walk score can be used to get an idea of how walkable a city or neighborhood is before relocation. I am having a hard time believing that Nashville belongs in a tier of cities like Miami, New Orleans, Austin Atlanta and Dallas when considering walkscore.
You have a hard time believing anything you can't look up on Google.
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If you take the overall walk score of city and consider the individual neighborhoods and population of those neighborhoods, that seems to be a pretty good idea of what the area is like.
This is a terribly flawed metric to determine how walkable a city is. It leaves out any qualitative information. Murfreesboro being ranked a higher density is misleading because I know better. I am from Murfreesboro and live in Nashville. No one, not nan anyone is believing Murfreesboro is more walkable and has the same amenities as Nashville. Murfreesboro has only 55 sq. mi. city limits and mostly single family mega suburbs. Downtown is single family homes and a few condomiums. It will be denser because most of those homes are small and filled with young families, not empty apartments stories tall like more urban cities.
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But there again, I live in a neighborhood with 140 restaurants with access to two grocery stores, the walkscore should be higher than a 75. When I type in my address instead of neighborhood name, it comes up to 85 that is more in line with what I see and experience.
I could be wrong but its all about opinion mixed in with facts.
Good. I'm glad you are happy in your neighborhood.
You have a hard time believing anything you can't look up on Google
Sometimes. I mainly go by what I see when I am in a city. I don't necessarily go to tourist areas when I visit cities. I like to see what neighborhoods have to offer and what the people who live there are like. One of the first things I do is jump on public transit. I am very sociable so I love talking to people.
I think walk score can be used to get an idea of how walkable a city or neighborhood is before relocation. I am having a hard time believing that Nashville belongs in a tier of cities like Miami, New Orleans, Austin Atlanta and Dallas when considering walkscore.
If you take the overall walk score of city and consider the individual neighborhoods and population of those neighborhoods, that seems to be a pretty good idea of what the area is like.
But there again, I live in a neighborhood with 140 restaurants with access to two grocery stores, the walkscore should be higher than a 75. When I type in my address instead of neighborhood name, it comes up to 85 that is more in line with what I see and experience.
I could be wrong but its all about opinion mixed in with facts.
Yeah, there could be some information that could be useful but when it’s showing places like Murfreesboro and Knoxville being as walkable or more then something is wrong. Especially when you have people who have experience in these areas.
>> but they do have a midtown area that the latter two lack
Nashville has a clearly defined Midtown area anchored by Music Row and Vanderbilt University.
Nashville's midtown is currently one of the best in the south, and is poised to become much, much better due to all of the massive development proposals and construction activity there.
It's definitely one of my favorite neighborhood areas in southern cities.
Nashville's midtown is currently one of the best in the south, and is poised to become much, much better due to all of the massive development proposals and construction activity there.
It's definitely one of my favorite neighborhood areas in southern cities.
What are some of the amenities that makes it the best? What are the boundaries?
It's not the "best" in the south--at all. But it is amongst the best--definitely top 10 for southern cities, currently.
Right now, the area is anchored by Vanderbilt University, and music row, and it has good vibrancy and a good mix of amenities. It reminds me, in parts, of Atlanta's midtown in the early to mid 90s.
There are an incredible amount of developments that are proposed/approved/under construction currently, that will completely transform much of the area closer to where it meets I-40 and downtown.
I'd say midtown alone currently sits in the top 10 of the south. But will climb the ranks super fast due to its fast booming development.
I think walk score can be used to get an idea of how walkable a city or neighborhood is before relocation. I am having a hard time believing that Nashville belongs in a tier of cities like Miami, New Orleans, Austin Atlanta and Dallas when considering walkscore.
If you take the overall walk score of city and consider the individual neighborhoods and population of those neighborhoods, that seems to be a pretty good idea of what the area is like.
But there again, I live in a neighborhood with 140 restaurants with access to two grocery stores, the walkscore should be higher than a 75. When I type in my address instead of neighborhood name, it comes up to 85 that is more in line with what I see and experience.
I could be wrong but its all about opinion mixed in with facts.
Out of curiosity, I plugged in some specific addresses I lived to compare scores.
How I'd rank them (walk score):
Madison, WI area (67)
Nashville, TN area (63)
*small gap*
Birmingham, AL area (3)
Charlottesville, VA area 2 (45)
*major gap*
Charlottesville, VA area 1 (43)
*major gap*
Knoxville, TN area (16)
For the most part I'm assuming remote work (since I work remote). If I weren't, Birmingham would jump up to the top of the list with a gap afterwards and the Charlottesville locations would swap with the gap gone (Charlottesville 1 is the only one I'd say where the main downtown is within reasonable walking distance for work. Birmingham was near a huge office park as well as a wide range of other possible employment). Knoxville would get worse.
Birmingham's score was hurt by not all walking paths (and path hopping) not being on the map so everything was circuitous. If it were, it might overdo it with the score, since the area was quite hilly.
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