St. Augustine neighborhoods (Sebastian: insurance, restaurants, floor)

[Rich2010]

Are there any nice, walkable neighborhoods in St. Augustine between Holmes Blvd on the west and the San Sebastian River on the east?

[mawipafl]

I guess a definition of "walkable" is needed ... do you mean to do some errands or just to take a leisurely walk with a dog or something?

[Rich2010]

A "walkable neighborhood" is one in which some or most of your basic stores are within walking distance: grocery store, drugstore, cafe, bakery, dry cleaner.

[Joe 4520832257]

No, your only real bet for true walkability is East of the San Sabastian towards the historic district.

[mawipafl]

Thanks Rich2010 for your definition, and thanks Joe 4520832257 for the response!

[Rich2010]

Originally Posted by Joe 4520832257

No, your only real bet for true walkability is East of the San Sabastian towards the historic district.

Which I see is Zone A ("The Special Flood Hazard Area is the area subject to flooding by the 1% annual chance flood. Areas of Special Flood Hazard include Zones A, AE, AH, AO, and VE.")

I very much appreciate your info, Joe. It looks like either walkability or reduced-flood-risk, one or the other, will need to be scuttled. Before I take that step, however, let me pose another question to those who know the St. Augustine area well:

Let's try expanding our horizons: within five miles or so of St. Augustine, are there any attractive Zone X neighborhoods that are walkable? ("ZONE X - Areas determined to be outside the 0.2% annual chance
floodplain.")

[floridianmama]

There's a pretty cool website, Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address you can type in a specific address and it will show you all the stuff around, as well as rate how 'walkable' an area is.

There aren't any areas in St Aug that I'm aware of which are good residential areas that have a grocery in walking distance.

There are areas in Lincolnville (downtown) San Marco (uptown) that have a convenience store in walking distance, but that's about it. But those areas are in walking distance of great shops, restaurants, bars, sights, so to me, it's a good trade off. We take the car out once or twice a week for errands, and other than that walk everywhere. Publix (grocery) is about a 10 minute drive down US 1. There's a Winn Dixie that's about 5 minutes drive from downtown, but I'm not a fan so I drive farther.

I think that some properties may be elevated on their lot or foundations to the point where you're not required to have flood insurance. I spoke with someone the other week who said this was the case with their Lincolnville home, the first floor is 9' above sea level.

However, many of the streets in downtown and uptown will flood for a few hours with a heavy rain. St Augustine is mostly at or below sea level, so that doesn't help with drainage.

HTH!