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I think there are areas in the south outside of downtowns where you can walk to a lot of stuff.
For example, in Columbia, the Five Points neighborhood , which is the main Uni of SC's bar district, is walkable to established neighborhoods in Shandon. There are some condo/apartment buildings in the area as well. There is a grocery store and office supply store in this area. It isn't a far walk over to downtown Columbia.
There is also housing close to Main Street and the Vista in downtown Columbia, and there is a Publix grocery store.
ANother example is a suburb of Atlanta, Woodstock has a small downtown that is walkable to housing and restaurants and other things.
I think there are areas in the south outside of downtowns where you can walk to a lot of stuff.
For example, in Columbia, the Five Points neighborhood , which is the main Uni of SC's bar district, is walkable to established neighborhoods in Shandon. There are some condo/apartment buildings in the area as well.
There are many cities in the sunbelt that have areas that most would be considered walkable. It's only that these areas are much smaller compared to cities that had their major growth spurts pre-automobile area and those cities were predominantly up in the north either in the northeast or the midwest with a major outlier on the west coast.
In the last couple decades, those walkabble areas have grown for the most part, but that growth is uneven across the US and the south does have relatively fewer large expanses of walkable neighborhoods.
I think the OP's question is pretty well answered though--it's basically historical antecedent for when a city hit its boom periods in population and how large that city is now compared to those boom periods during the pre-automobile era. That seems to be by far the largest common marker for cities with large expanses of walkable areas. There are outliers such as if a city went through a massive nosedive (as in worse than the usual flight to the suburbs during and after the 1950s) or if a city implemented particularly strong policies to build up their urban core (as with Portland, Seattle, SLC, and Denver), but as a general trend it works.
they kind of exclude each other unless you don't mind walking far... as in miles
if each family wanted a decent yard, its going to take up size so each neighbor gets his yard
on my street, there is about 15 houses, and it is about a quarter mile street already
Small yard/small lot houses or a mix of houses with yards and denser development can make it work.
Technically, attached housing can have yards, and they do in much of NYC, but they're all mostly multi-unit dwellings now as it's insanely expensive to own one on your own and these were built in a time when people popped out many children and often had three to four generations living in one house.
Manhattan isn't a good example of the "north" at all because it is so unique, but even the majority of NYC is single family homes with (super small yards)
NYC is easily mostly apartments/condos. Usually in the style of tenements, brownstones, townhouses, highrises, rowhomes, or generic walkups. But they easily outnumber SFHs. The only borough where SFHs rule is Staten Island. Queens would be next as it is very mixed with housing style, but many homes in Queens that appear as SFHs are actually apartments. BK and BX do see them, but they are somewhat of a rarity, and are only really in the far outskirt areas. And then Manhattan has only one SFH on the whole Island. A giant mansion in The UWS.
NYC is easily mostly apartments/condos. Usually in the style of tenements, brownstones, townhouses, highrises, rowhomes, or generic walkups. But they easily outnumber SFHs. The only borough where SFHs rule is Staten Island. Queens would be next as it is very mixed with housing style, but many homes in Queens that appear as SFHs are actually apartments. BK and BX do see them, but they are somewhat of a rarity, and are only really in the far outskirt areas. And then Manhattan has only one SFH on the whole Island. A giant mansion in The UWS.
True, but NYC is a massive outlier. There are a lot of cities in the US now that have decently walkable cores and neighborhoods that do have SFHs with yards in walkable neighborhoods (especially when you count attached homes/rowhouses). What can’t be walkable is a massive number of just SFHs or SFHs on gigantic lots.
Technically, attached housing can have yards, and they do in much of NYC, but they're all mostly multi-unit dwellings now as it's insanely expensive to own one on your own and these were built in a time when people popped out many children and often had three to four generations living in one house.
"communal" yards don't count to me, it's no different than going to a park
Another thing that I would associate with walkability is weather. I think most people tend to not want to walk in cold and/or rainy weather. The southern cities have an advantage in this aspect.
I agree wholeheartedly. It is so much quicker and easier and a heck of a lot more convenient to be outside in 90 degree plus temperatures in nothing more than a t shirt, shorts and flip flops than having to dress in layers of clothing, including gloves, ski mask and snow boots in order to walk around outside in zero degree weather.
I find it so much easier to beat the heat and humidity in the summer than to fight the cold, wind, ice and snow in the winter.
I agree they seem to be in cold climates. I have found San Diego to have a number of walkable neighborhoods. I know I walked all over it when I lived there. Portland, Oregon is not SD warm, but not a total frigid cold climate either. It is very walkable. Your right though most walkable are cold weather northern cities.
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