Aside from IN Richmond, are there any cities with walkable "downtown"/village areas?

[toychri]

Those three area's are some of the worst in the Richmond metro area. Petersburg is trying to come back, but is has a long way to go. Hopewell and Colonial Hts is nothing but ugly strip mall sprawl with the occasional water treatment plant mixed in. I have zero reason to go to any of those places. Just my opionion of course.

[Woodlands]

I would love to see Petersburg come back...its the "gateway" to urbanity depending what direction you are going in... I mean gateway in the sense that the highway passes near the urban core and as you go north.. there is really no other city where that happens on 95 north after I guess... Jacksonville, FL

There are alot of nice historic buildings downtown and the city center is more of your traditional downtown though it may be lacking from a service retail perspective. I have heard that crime may be an issue in Petersburg but that is just the "word on the street".

[felicitile]

Petersburg is coming back, but there's only so far it can come when people only point out the negatives (usually it's coming from people that haven't been here...) and encourage people to avoid the town. Sure, there are absolutely improvements that need to be made. Yep, Petersburg is a long way from being a major (or even minor) tourist destination. The bad parts of town are probably not ones you want visit but they're also not areas you're going to accidentally end up in. But it has good sides too! Old Towne is safe. All of the areas a visitor would want to go to are safe. The restaurants are really good and there's a decent selection. The shops are cute. The buildings are old and renovated or not, they're really fun to look at. It's walkable. The residents are friendly and we want people to like our town! It's worth a look.

eta: There's a difference between something *looking* ugly/bad/dangerous/whatever-word-you want-to-describe-Pburg-with and something *being* ugly/bad/dangerous/whatever. An area isn't bad simply because it looks bad. You know the whole "don't judge a book by it's cover" thing we learned in elementary school. Pburg looks sketchy when you get off 95. You'd be safe walking there but it wouldn't feel nice. If you never look any farther than that then you're selling Pburg short. Petersburg is never, ever, going too look like the nice cookie-cutter developments most people live in around here. It can't happen. But maybe that's a good thing.

[jesrush]

Second the Carytown recommendation. The Willow Lawn residential area can walk to the willow lawn shopping center. Short pump is a possibility -- but the highway through the middle is a major downer.

A good resource for determining walkability potential of a specific location is Get Your Walk Score - A Walkability Score For Any Address