Where are walkable neighborhoods (Greenville, Central: for sale, lawyers, buying a home)

[fromCT]

My wife and I are scouting out possible places to retire in a few years. We visited Greenville last fall and found the city to be lovely. It is at the top of our list.

One question we have has to do with walkable neighborhoods. We have an adult son who lives with us who, due to vision problems, cannot drive. Currently we live in a Hartford suburb much like those around your own city. As is the case there, one must drive to nearly everything. We drive our son to work, to his clubs, basically everywhere. When we retire, however, we want to be in an area where not only he but all of us can walk to basic neighborhood services: grocery store, drug store, barber shop, dry cleaners, library, etc. He would also need access to a bus line to get to work. Also we would like to avoid having to cross any really wide streets. Driving around last fall some commercial streets seemed to be 8 lanes wide at their intersections, definitely not pedestrian friendly.

While we were there we checked out the North Main and Augusta Road neighborhoods. There seemed to be a conglomeration of shops around the Augusta Rd/Faris Rd intersection, but I didn't see a food store. North Main was very nice too, but there seemed to be only a smattering of stores along Stone Ave. We did, however, note a food store on W. Park Ave.

The question I have is this: Did I miss any potential neighborhoods that might suit our needs? I have read most of the Master Plans that have been developed for the area, including the Greenville Foward initiative. There seems to be an enphasis (or at least a desire) on developing traditional neighborhood centers. If what we are looking for doesn't exist now, can anyone tell me what the likely sites are for such developments in the future. It will be a few years before we move.

Sorry for the long post. It's my first, and I've been "lurking" for a year, reading almost everything having to do with Greenville. It is so pretty and progressive that we WANT to find a way to make it work for us.

Thanks!

wanting to be fromCT

[Skyliner]

If you can afford the price, I highly recommend the Pettigru Historic District, which is easily within walking distance to McBee Station and the Central Business District.

A more detailed description of the district.

A map of the district boundaries (the areas surrounding it are nice as well).

Photos of some historic homes in the district.

[fromCT]

Skyliner, thanks for the suggestion and the links. We actually did drive around that neighborhood, and I could see how that could work. I did note however that many houses had shingles of various sorts on the front lawns indicating that the houses were occupied either by lawyers or CPAs or other professionals. I guess I would prefer a neighborhood where most of my neighbors didn't leave at 5 o'clock to go to their real homes, especially walking around at night. More "eyes on the street", so to speak. The City of Greenville's own website states, "Recently there has been some commercial encroachment, and the Pettigru District today is about half residential, half commercial." I'm not sure if that encroachment can continue of if there is some limit specified in the zoning.

As to affording, our 4 bedroom colonial on an acre of land will probably fetch $300,000. I know that will buy less house in Greenville proper, but we want to downsize anyway. We might be able to add $50,000 or $100,000 to that.

Thanks again for the suggestion though. I've read your very many replies to other posters and know them always to be sensible.

[pgriss]

Have you looked into the Hampton Pinckney historic area?

[fromCT]

Thanks for the suggestion, pgriss. I have read about this neighborhood, but we didn't visit it when we were there. Do you know where the people in this neighborhood would shop for groceries if they didn't drive. Would the Publix over on East McBee be the closest?

Thanks.

[pgriss]

I am not sure if that is the closest or not but I hear there are plans to do some revitalizing on Washington St. Not sure what the plan is yet. Good question! I will check it out for you the next time I'm downtown. I think McBee is the closest.

[Eldemila]

If you have a question about a certain area/address you can go to WALKSCORE.COM

When I was looking for homes I'd put in the address and see how "walkable" a home was. We ended up buying a home with a walkscore of 65, 100 being the best. I have tons of places less than 2miles near my home which I can easily walk to.

[Skyliner]

If a person plans to walk most places and has no desire to cross wide, busy streets, then I would not recommend the Hampton-Pinckney Historic District because of Academy Street, Buncombe Street, and College Street. I have been saying for years that a pedestrian bridge is needed over that busy street (Academy), which would provide better access between Main Street and Heritage Green. Fortunately the City has recently discussed about the possibility of narrowing it and adding pedestrian-friendly landscaping.

[fromCT]

Thanks, for the suggestion, Eldemila. I actually have used Walkscore for help in zeroing in on potential neighborhoods. Unfortunately sometimes the stores or services shown as being nearby are not really acessible, because they are on a street without sidewalks, often a busy commercial street. I've taken to using Walkscore together with Google Maps, zooming in on potential neighborhoods and looking for sidewalks in Google's street view. I know that the imagery there can be several years old and that the city has a plan in place to build several thousand feet of sidewalks each year. Does anyone know if a map exists showing which streets have sidewalks and if the annual sidewalk extension plan is set up in such a way that streets to get sidewalks are specified and scheduled, or is that just determined on the fly?

Also, I have a question about the Cleveland Forest neighborhood. We drove around there and thought it was very nice. On realtor websites I see houses coming up for sale there from time to time which seem surpisingly affordable. I can see that it is convenient to downtown, and close to the McBee Station development. However the only way out of that neighborhood to the north is via the few streets that cross Cleveland Park. We walked around there and found it to be absolutely beautiful during the day, but what is it like at night? Do people walk home from work or from the bus stop through the park or is that something which one really shouldn't do at night? I also forgot to take note of whether there were street lamps in that area. Our own streets here in my town are dark and sidewalkless, so you take your life in your hands walking on the road at night. Want to avoid that in our next life.

Thanks to all for your comments and help!

[Hobo7396]

They should have a "muggable" score to go with the "walkable" score on "Google".

Downtown Greenville can be an interesting place at times. Especially at night,

Destructo Deviations » Ch ch ch Changes…. (http://missdestructo.com/2009/07/ch-ch-ch-changes/ - broken link)