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Of the ones listed so far, my favorites are Portsmouth, NH; Annapolis, and Burlington, Vt. Of course there are a lot of paces mentioned that I have not been to, so have no opinion.
I just moved to a small city that is quite walkable, and is within the letter of the original poster's criteria of being under 100,000 population, though it is in the heart of a large metro area, so I don't know if this counts in spirit. I am talking about Miami Beach.
I believe about 40 percent of the population of 88,000, lives in South Beach, which is very walkable. Of course the area is filled with tourists, but they provide a lot of street life. I've read that 19 percent of Miami Beach households do not have cars.
Within the roughly 2 square miles of South Beach are three supermarkets, many doctors, a Macy's, other chains such as the Gap, H&M, Best Buy, Office Depot, and 7 Starbucks. Also there are numerous drugstores, dry cleaners, vets, pet stores, and hardware stores for everyday needs.
It may be the only city in the country developed in the 20th century that is so walkable. (?????)
An example I would think would be Ithica, NY. I never been to Ithica and probably 90% or more of America never even heard of it before, but apparently it has a walkable and sizable downtown which is built to pre-WWII style urban environment meaning it isn't an autocentric city like most suburbs built after WWII.
Ithaca, NY definitely qualifies. The only issue is a good chunk of the "practical" retail is in a strip mall zone 2 miles out of the center. Bicycling and/or buses will solve this, but it takes a bit of work. But one can manage most things without a car, especially if you choose your neighborhood well. It's also one of the more scenic places to walk around.
The center has a pedestrian mall that's usually lively.
Keeping an eye on this thread because I am interested as well. And yeah, I like Seattle and all but I wouldn't exactly call it small. Same with Boston LOL.
[quote=I also liked Duluth, particularly West Duluth. Chatanooga, TN and Indianapolis, IN were also very walkable -- at least in their downtown areas.[/QUOTE]
I know the thread is for smaller towns, but I wanted to add my two cents about Indy. I work in downtown Indianapolis and would not consider it very walkable at all, in spite of appearances. While it is true that there are many walkable destinations here (mostly bars, restaurants and Circle Center mall), the streets are wide and drivers are quite aggressive, even in crosswalks. The city is attempting to mitigate this by constructing the Cultural Trail (wider sidewalks and narrower streets) and it has helped, but it is only on a few streets. I still feel very unsafe walking here compared to a city like Portland or even Denver where the scale is a little different and the fight between car and pedestrian is a little more balanced.
That said, there are numerous smaller communities around Indy that I would consider very walkable for everyday things like groceries, restaurants, churches, libraries, etc. Noblesville, Carmel, Plainfield and (further out) Bloomington and Columbus are all very nice smaller walkable communities, each with their own brand of Midwestern charm.
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Indianapolis
