Yes, the Carolina Hurricanes play at PNC Arena in Raleigh. I "knew" this because I researched PNC for my NBA/NHL Arenas video (th-cam.com/video/Tpg7atI59A0/w-d-xo.html). Bottom line: if you're planning on walking to a Hurricanes game from Fourth Ward in Charlotte. leave early. Like real early!
Lol. I’m a Raleigh resident and came here to say this. I think downtown Raleigh should have been an honorable mention though. Raleigh has an overall walkscore of 31, but my apartment downtown has a walkscore of 97 and a bikescore of 92. Plus a bus hub a few blocks away and an Amtrak station within reasonable walking distance :)
@@SteadyStew Every city in NC could easily have been on the list. All of them have walkable neighborhoods tucked away in a city that is otherwise overly car-dependent. I think Charlotte was picked because of specific attributes it has on the walkscore site.
I grew up in Columbus, the arches pay an homage to the ones that Columbus used for streetcar electric wires in the late 19th/early 20th century that gave Columbus the nickname “arch city” at the time. I love the progress in the short north but I wish a streetcar could be run up high street again-still a 5 lane road with no bike or transit infrastructure.
They recently redid High Street through the Short North and shrunk it down to one travel lane in each direction with wider sidewalks and protected parking spaces. Much more pleasant to walk now but it did slow transit times unfortunately due to the congestion. Underground light rail would be phenomenal, but probably will never happen
The arches were originally installed for lighting during a civil war reunion, then were used for streetcars. They’ve recently widened the sidewalks along High St. There’s still five lanes, but the outer lanes are pretty much all parking. The effect is traffic crawls along by design.
High Street in Cbus is such a good opportunity to shut down the street to traffic. They have 3rd and 4th that work as high volume one way pairs just to the east, and you could totally use those as ways to drop ppl in the short north or near campus
It's not even fair to give Columbus a walkscore of 40 because there's so much sprawl within city limits compared to other Midwestern cities where those areas would be suburban. Large areas of the city are old and densely built, not to mention that several suburbs have nice downtowns as well.
When I want to convince people that walkability is important and cars are destructive to the structure of a city, I show them car-centric cities in north america. If you've never been to such a place it's hard to imagine how you can be in a city that's not actually a city, but just a huge collection of places (usually single properties) where you move from one place to the other with your car. It's like a colony on a hostile planet where you move from one shelter to another and in between there's a hostile environment where you can't survive outside of your vehicle (and also don't want to be at, because there is nothing there).
We basically have had 70 years of car-centered transportation design. Only Russia and China have such a large population combined with large stretches of unpopulated land. We really need to rethink our intercity and interstate travel, as well as our goods distribution.
@@jorymil Even Russia and China had the Siberian express that goes across the large stretch of mostly unpopulated land, either through Siberia or the Gobi desert.
Living in Houston...in a near-downtown, very walkable neighborhood... The Houston area is a great example of compact areas that are both drivable and walkable, with the benefits of a large metro, where you can drive to find most any type of commodity or experience. The car has given humanity the personal freedom that the train and bus never can - in any size city, you can go anywhere, at any time of day. You don't need to be on a route, at a specific time. You can sing along to your favorite music, without offending a bus full of people. Nothing wrong with good transit connecting dense point A to dense point B via dense point C. But when you look at the amazing permutation of trips possible to take in all that a large urban center offers, there's nothing wrong with walkable, parkable, drive-between-able megalopolises.
I just realized why I like this channel so much: I enjoy exploring cities on street view but the control is so tedious sometimes and you just do it for us! love it :D
Do you realize how much time I spend curating cool street views and how many takes I need to get a smooth screen grab? Urbanist TH-cam is not for the faint of heart!
@@CityNerd its so clunky and behaves differently everytime, I spend way too much time "traveling" on SV and google earth :D makes me appreciate the smooth camera pans so much more!
I’m not sure how good the US-wide coverage is… but I was using Apple Maps on desktop the other day and was blown away by the smoothness of their street view.
I'm a transit planner professionally, and this series was like catnip for my brain! 100% agree with the selection of Columbus' Short North. Another few selections that might make your list include Midtown in Atlanta, the Alameda in San Jose, Midtown in Sacramento, Montrose in Houston, or Bishop Arts District in Dallas.
I lived in the Bishop Arts District in the 1980s, before it was the Bishop Arts District. Plenty of decent restaurants even then, now more upscale-type choices. I've been back several times, and while I miss the old vibe they've done a pretty good job of keeping it pleasant. The parks are beautiful (Stevens and Kidd Springs) and the average lot size is pretty large for the older houses.
I recently moved into a downtown area with a Walk Score of 96. We downsized from 2 cars to 1 and my wife now takes light rail to work while I work from home. She had a pretty short commute previously and the light rail actually takes a bit longer but the reduction in stress she has seen from not having to deal with traffic everyday cannot be overstated. Not sure what data exists out there but it would be interesting to do a video that digs into the effects of stress from traffic commutes and how it compares to people who don’t own cars or commute regularly. When you consider the noise, cost, danger, time, stress, and environmental damage of automobiles, it feels like we could solve so many societal problems just by rethinking how we build cities and transit through them.
Nashvillian, and I think that's definitely right for the cost of East Nash. It's what's been the "hip" neighborhood for the longest and seen the the largest increase in prices the last few decades. Probably only slowing down as neighborhoods like Germantown, North Nashville, the Nations, etc. have grown in popularity more recently. It shows that there's so much demand for that sort of neighborhood here but just no willingness to actually build or develop it further.
Loved this video and your understanding of walkability by neighborhood status. I have lived car-free for 15 years in a dozen US cities all with walk scores below 50, but at the neighborhood level you can find livable gems. I do wish you'd focus on smaller cities (50k-259k) for a future video along these lines though.
Sounds like another vote for z similar video on smaller cities. Perfect population boundaries, too -- it'd be off-brand for me to look at anything under 50K. There's definitely be a video coming, but man, I have a major backlog!
Can I ask from your personal experience your suggestion of walkable neighborhoods? I grew up in NYC and never learned to drive by the age 52. I love to walk outdoors yet cannot afford a home in prime walkable cities. Where I live now is killing me with things 4 mile walks in sometimes weeks long 60 mph winds, reckless drivers impatient that I exist and aggressive homeless people literally hiding behind signs to panhandle.
@@CityNerd It may be off brand, but those looking both for a walkable/bikeable life and outdoor pursuits as well, may wish to look at small cities, some of which have a surprising range of amenities, and aren't that far from larger metropolises that have even more. It's a different kind of city life, but for many, the right one. (I've lived in various cities with populations from thousands to millions. Each has its benefits, and nowadays, even the smallest cities have a range of good cafes and restaurants, and small shops, and big, plus one day delivery by Amazon, fast Internet and good 5G cell coverage.)
Having grown up and lived in Columbus for 27 years, The Short North is definitely where you’ll see where the diversity of culture is centrally located. It’s a great place to spend and afternoon and the go to place for night life. You could walk from Old North to OSU Campus to Short North to the arena district to the scioto mile and see some very interesting and fun galleries, shops etc.
I've lived in West Campus in Austin for a few years. It is definitely very walkable, with many people not having cars at all. I feel like the median sale price in the 300k's is a little low, especially in recent years. Something that is important to know is that this area is almost 100% UT students who need to live close to go to class, so people moving to Austin for work are definitely not moving to West Campus. A lot of the housing is corporate owned student housing with rent that exceeds $1000/bed per month, so that could be messing with the sale price since those units are not for sale.
Former UT student / West Campus resident here. Dominic has everything right. It should also be added that the neighborhood has no grocery store (unless something has changed recently) and is extremely prone to noise especially on weekends, and unfortunately petty theft. It's ideal for students given the proximity to campus but very few non-students would ever consider living there.
@@CaeserOct hook ‘em horns! And yeah, as someone else who has recently lived in West Campus, some of the things considered “necessary” for a neighborhood (like grocery stores) are missing completely. But there are good connections to other options-Dobie market right across Guad has an entire target, there are a plethora of corner stores and restaurants, and even UT has some stuff. Also, the H‑E‑B at Red River isn’t too far by bus or a quick carpool with friends. Also, it’s important to note that the biggest reason WC made it to this list is because of Austin’s relatively young “University Neighborhood Overlay”/SMART Housing program. So many of those big, price-gouging dorm companies are eager to build as big as they can and offering 1 or 2 “affordable” units allows them to do so as of 2014. The neighborhood really is developing its own skyline apart from downtown and the Capitol complex.
This (and the responses to this) explains a lot. I figured a lot of it was student housing of different kinds, but it was also, I think, the largest "neighborhood" geographically on this list, and probably by a good margin. Seems like there would be more of a variety of housing types (and residents) there -- but I don't know the city that well!
@@CityNerd You gotta cave into the hype and go visit but honestly, don't go to WC as a tourist haha. Great videos and I'm finding myself binging through the videos.
@@ClementinesmWTF Didn't realize that there's a Target in Dobie now. Wow that's gotta be amazing and terrible for student wallets. The HEB at Red River is the closest one but I had to rely on my roommate with a car to ever get out there.
The "Lower East Side" neighborhood of Milwaukee, which is centered around Brady St. and touches Water St and North Ave is an amazing walkable neighborhood. Lots of parks, river trails, lake parks, shopping, bars/restaurants. In the spring/summer/fall it's an amazing and beautiful place to live.
just one of the reasons i love this channel is that you don't dismiss the most car-dependent cities and actually show what they have to offer. not that i like car-dependency, but people live in these places and writing them off is a little unfair.
Great vid. Charlotte is a very suburban city, but it has a few pretty walkable neighborhoods. Fourth Ward is really just a part of downtown by most locals' definitions. Southend would be the most walkable non-downtown neighborhood, and arguably the most walkable even including downtown because it not only has 2 full sized grocery stores and a great deal of offices, but it also has a lot more entertainment options, and the transit (light rail) is just as good as it is in Uptown. I personally live without a car in Southend.
I was going to say the same thing. Fourth Ward is so small, it's not really thought of as a separate neighborhood but rather just a part of uptown. SouthEnd should definitely be number one. If it was affordable, I'd love to live there. I've lived car-free in Charlotte for many many years and I love the density of SouthEnd; it's so easy to get to multiple places quickly.
I live in Charlotte and 4th ward is probably the best neighborhood in the city if you were to live car free. I’d say the low average home price is due to there being lots of older (‘80s) garden style condos in the area. But I would consider 4th ward to be part of Uptown (what we call the downtown).
And also the South being really good at building lots of housing owing to easier regulations leading to generally lower prices throughout its cultural sphere of influence.
I grew up in Lincoln, NE, and in the 1980s it was an incredibly walkable city overall, which was especially important as a kid. Lincoln has an abundance of neighborhood schools, which meant I walked to school through high school. It has lots of parks, and an amazing system of bike trails. Like many mid-western cities, it is laid out on a 1 mile grid, so most of the time commercial hubs were no more than 1/2 mile +/- from the center of residential neighborhoods. And the university is right next to downtown, which keeps downtown walkable and vibrant. Unfortunately, most of the growth that the City has undergone in the past three decades or so has been in the form of car-oriented, suburban sprawl style development on the outskirts of the city. Considering my experience growing up there, I was surprised to find out the city only has a Walk Score (tm) of 45! It's such a shame that a City I found so walkable in my youth is slowly losing that identity
great video as always. i know this wouldn't qualify for the video for at least two reasons, but hayward, california comes to mind. it's a very stroady, largely postwar suburb of oakland, and although downtown is also plagued with some one-way stroads, i've found it to be rather a pleasant place to be a pedestrian. a healthy commercial district anchors a BART station, a park, some municipal buildings (including a neat library), and quite a bit of new-build mid-density housing. there's even a full grocery store!
As someone who grew up in San Leandro (right between Oakland/Hayward), I've always been a bit jealous of the downtown experience Hayward has in comparison to ours. At least SL has the marina, so there's that...?
Yeah, there's a whole category of "walkable neighborhood" I kinda disqualified by ignoring cities under 250K and downtowns -- which is suburbs with intact downtown fabric and newer TOD mixed in. Hayward's a great example.
Downtown Hayward is definitely shocking to me at least for the area. The southern portion of the east bay is relatively suburban but the amount of density in the downtown is unusually good. However it's not surprising due to the fact that these areas were settled pretty early on as railroad suburbs, so I guess there is a large amount of medium density.
I've been weaning off of city planning videos because they make me so depressed about living in the US, but this gave me some hope! Not officially a district, but I'd like to nominate all of Hoboken, NJ. It's a 1-mile grid where you can walk to do just about anything, and somehow my commute to midtown Manhattan is shorter and easier than when I lived in each borough of NYC. Its walk score is an astronomical 98.
west campus is not going to work unless your a UT student. it is walkable and dense but your going to be the only non enrolled person in the area, basically a city within a city. its called west campus(for a reason) because your in the area zoned for university housing west of the campus. i would wanna live far away from UT. i believe it would be more convenient living closer to downtown or other densified areas with work near by and with closer access to essential places like grocery stores. makes for an easier commute. i love all your videos and thanks.
Since I'm on the topic of Ohio urbanism, (and I'm from there), I figured I'd say this about cities in that state. The 3Cs (Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland) all have at least one aspect that is great, but is like missing an aspect that the other major C has. Cincinnati has incredible walkable neighborhoods, gorgeous Victorian architecture, high quality legacy institutions (some amazing parks and old school arts orgs) but is missing a willingness to embrace new ideas and transit. Columbus is the most progressive of the 3 cities with the university allowing the place to be more diverse and willing to try new things, but past high street it really lacks any great neighborhoods for the most part. Cleveland actually has a good bus / train network, but is missing the economic opportunities that both Cincinnati and esp Columbus have. Combine the strengths of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland into one package and you'd get an amazing city - I'd love a Cincinnati that had a good transit network and a progressive population - probably would be considered one of America's best cities if that reality was true...
sucks with cincy too cus historically it had so many different kinds of transit systems, busses, a canal, street cars, that big incline thing, trains, the river(s)! (the spooky subwya that never made it) if you can find pictures of neighborhoods outside downtown and compare them to now you can see how entire neighborhoods got destroyed by a highway barreling through it. hopefully theres a way to keep the aesthetic architectures while going for better transit systems and infrastructure. and hopefully it stays cheap so locals can stay and get the benefits of this
Dupont Circle in DC is my neighborhood which is very walkable and pedestrian friendly with lots of shops, restaurants, gyms and my health care provider, Kaiser Permanente. I'm only a short walk to Downtown DC, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, West End, Foggy Bottom and Columbia Heights , but the rent is outrageous.
Living in LA, we have a lot of walkable nodes spread out across the vast sprawling region. However, one of the most enjoyable walkable section of LA County is Downtown Pasadena (yes, Big Bang Theory!). A city of about 142,000 people, the downtown is comprised of mostly 4 districts with one of the most beautiful civic centers in the country (the city Hall was used in the TV show Parks and Recs). The downtown has Metro rail access to Downtown LA and has a historic Old Pasadena as well as a financial district along South Lake Ave. Some notable mentions would be: Caltech is here, Norton Simon museum, Vromans Bookstore (oldest and largest independent bookstore in SoCal), Pacific Asia Museum (second largest Asian museum in the country after SF), Playhouse Theatre (official state theater of CA), Ice House Comedy (oldest comedy club in the USA!), the Rose Parade goes down Colorado Blvd every new years. I'm excited that we're beginning construction on our first fully protected bike lane this month in June 2022 finishing in March 2023. And a brand new Playhouse Village Park is opening later this summer creating a beautiful new urban park walkable to a dense walkable neighborhood. It would be great if you considered doing a video about this urban gem within sprawling car oriented LA! If you would like a walking tour, I would love to show you around!
Great video, always interesting to look at other cities. I spent my first 23 years in OKC, left for St. Louis 31+ years ago. Use a power wheelchair to walk/roll around for nearly 14 years. Sidewalks in OKC are very few. I visited once with my wheelchair - arrived via Amtrak after visiting Dallas/Ft. Worth. I had to stay downtown or very close to downtown to safely navigate. The Paseo is very interesting, the developer replatted a corner of existing lots to create the cute commercial street. Lots of great frame bungalows. As a wheelchair user walkable has to include sidewalks, curb ramps, stores with accessible entrances, etc.
I've found St. Louis extremely walkable when I've visited, For a wheelchair user, is the difference between St. Louis and OKC pretty drastic? It seems like it.
Regarding accessibility, I’ve had similar experiences in a suburban town in Virginia called Lynchburg. Once I arrived there on Amtrak, I found myself sticking to the downtown, and anywhere beyond that I often had to take an Uber. Although I don’t use a wheelchair, I agree sidewalks are an obvious must, plus (since I’m visually impaired) pedestrian signals and abundant transit
My rough, generalized understanding of Charlotte is that walkability isn't a really factor when buying/renting. Most people are looking at neighborhoods where the taxes are low (so usually outside of CLT) and/or the schools have a positive reputation. Which is rare for most neighborhoods in CLT, except in the more affluent suburbs. Plus, crime is another big factor and people tend to think our downtown (aka Uptown) is crime-ridden. Not surprisingly, our traffic is pretty terrible, and we are usually in the top 20 for vehicular crashes in the US.
I've lived in Louisville for most of my life and you'd be right to expect more walkability from the satellite imagery and street view. It has great historic bones. Where it misses the mark so often is that there are massive voids of essential retail like grocery stores. Ultimately forcing people to drive for everyday errands regardless of the potential for walkability. For instance, the Highlands area that you highlighted has tons of coffee shops, restaurants, and boutiques, but there is really just one actual grocery store within feasible walking distance for only a portion of the residents. It's the Valu Market in the mid city mall that's surrounded by an enormous parking lot on every side. Then you have a 2.2 mile walk (40 minutes according to Google maps,) down Bardstown road to get to the next Kroger where you can actually buy vegetables and not just a bag of dorritos, a bong, or a vintage derby dress from the 80's. Our downtown is the same story but worse. There are, to my knowledge, almost no essential grocery and general retail in downtown for residents. Just straight up doesn't exist. Which pretty much defeats the potential for walkability when the nearest place to buy groceries is nearly a 45 min walk in one direction.
Totally agree. Louisville has a pretty bad food desert issue, especially in the south and west neighborhoods. I use to live in Old Louisville and frequented the second street Kroger which is now a brewery...
I would imagine a lot of the issue is that WalkScore uses city proper, and Louisville, being a consolidated city-county, incorporates so much of its suburbia in the city proper.
The Short North in Columbus is a very popular District filled with interesting restaurants, bars, shops and art galleries. Twenty or 25 years ago, this area had a very shady reputation. It’s flanked by two historic, but also densifying neighborhoods: Victorian Village to the west and Italian Village to the east. With all the development in Italian Village and adjacent Jeffrey Place, 4th Street has evolved into a major retail street unto itself, with lots of great bars and the Budd Dairy Food Hall. Another highly walkable neighborhood of note in Cbus is German Village. Located just south of downtown, but east of South High Street, German Village was the first privately established historic district in the country. It’s filled with beautiful brick cottages on brick streets and brick paver sidewalks. Well worth checking out!
I currently moved to Columbus. German Village and Italian Village are the only two neighborhoods I would consider living in. Columbus is putting a lot of work into their urban neighborhoods to turn it into a real, identifiable city, but they are still a good 20 years away from making that happen. The massive northern sprawl makes the city feel like a sun belt city and not a Midwestern one.
All of the near-east neighborhoods in columbus have the bones to be amazing, walkable neighborhoods except they currently lack essentials like grocery stores because of disinvestment and redlining. Also it is 100% called The Short North lol
North Carolinian here! 4th ward has a wide mix of housing types, ranging from single family homes to high rise condos in The Vue as you mentioned. The housing price you listed seemed extremely low, and I guarantee you aren't getting one of the houses for that, but that average could be coming from some of the small apartment style condos being sold in that range. A 1-bedroom apartment style condo in that area could go around there, but any of the larger units or townhouses or single-family homes that are all in that area would definitely start at a couple hundred thousand more. Some things worth mentioning, the Wards in Charlotte divide up the central business district (which we call Uptown) 1st -4th, so I'm not 100% sure if they technically count for your criteria of leaving out downtown, but 1st and 4th ward have extensive mixed residential styles and commercial areas so they are great for walking. The walkability gets hurt at the edge of those neighborhoods because of I-277, the ring road around Uptown. Some of neighborhoods just outside of Uptown (like Cherry, Dilworth, South End) would have made your list if 4th Ward didn't, the city as a whole can be pretty poor for walking, which is partly because areas that would be suburbs elsewhere are inside the city limits proper in Charlotte, but a few of the neighborhoods close to the center are decent and trying to improve the walkability/bikeability.
Oh, and P.S. you mentioned NHL as walkable from 4th Ward, the Carolina Hurricanes are in Raleigh not Charlotte, we have the Charlotte Checkers, an AHL hockey team, but they play in Bojangles Coliseum which, sadly, is definitely not walkable from much of anywhere. The Panthers (NFL), the Hornets (NBA), the Knights (Minor league baseball with a great stadium), and soon to be Charlotte FC (MLS) are all exceptionally walkable though so those a big walking perk for those neighborhoods.
Charlotte has like 4-5 inner "neighborhoods" (that are kinda downtown) that would've made this list if I'd decided to include more than one. There is probably no other city in the US with a higher variance between inner neighborhood character and outer neighborhood character.
Short North and the neighborhoods adjacent to it are amazing and some of the most walkable in Ohio! The architecture of the houses is also really beautiful. Sadly the rest of the city is a car-centric hellhole, but that area between Downtown and the university is amazing. I think one thing that you could have put on this list from Ohio is Lakewood, Ohio. It's a really dense and walkable urban city next to Cleveland. Every neighborhood is close to a commercial district, no school busses so kids walk to school, walking distance to Lake Erie, etc. But it's technically a separate city so it wouldn't count on this list.
Just started watching your show, great stuff! I guess it's considered FAIRLY walkable by Walk Score standards, but the Historic Third Ward in Milwaukee is a gorgeous neighborhood just south of the Downtown. Lots of historic renovations, the Public Market, and now a streetcar stop. One of my favorite urban neighborhoods to visit.
In Dayton Ohio, they’ve been making some strides to make it more friendly, but the most walkable place in the whole city is the Oregon District. The only downside to the place is that there isn’t a conveniently placed grocery store anywhere near…
I work in Greensboro, and there have been several high-rise residential developments/re-developments in the past couple few years. The south end of downtown and the area around the baseball stadium have also seen a boom in apartments/condo development. In spite of this, downtown Greensboro doesn't seem terrible vibrant, although that may be slowly changing. As for Charlotte, 20 years ago you couldn't have paid me to live inside the inner beltway. Now, I couldn't afford to live there.
So glad to finally see some Columbus praise albeit a small portion. I recognized short north in the thumbnail right away! I love Columbus but totally recognize there is so much that can be done to improve livability. But for being a car dependent city it’s very effective, travel time is very low and parking isn’t a hassle.
Great video! Speaking of streetcar allignments, perhaps you should do a video on the top 10 streetcar networks in North America. Perhaps not only service quality/system size, but also how well it integrates into the city and how well it is used. It would basically be a bloodbath between Toronto and every other city, but a lot of new streetcar lines are popping up across the US and it would be nice to see which is the best one.
I will do something on light rail at some point -- assuming that's what you mean! I think when we talk about "streetcars" in the US these days, it's almost always a one-off downtown circulator, and not any kind of network.
The only thing that keeps Toronto’s streetcar network from being truly amazing is the lack of priority signals on Spadina, St Clair, The Queensway, and Queens Quay/Fleet St. Oh also the King corridor needs to be more strongly car-free
one of my favorite (fairly) walkable neighborhoods would be candler park in atlanta. there's a small grocery store, multiple restaurants, a large park all within the neighborhood (plus little 5 points immediately to the west within walking distance), along with easy access to transit with a marta station serving it. only downsides off the top of my head would be the lack of density as it is mainly single-family homes, and a golf course taking up a large chunk of valuable space.
Clarksville, Austin (west of downtown) and Montrose, Houston are probably good contenders for this list too IMO. If you do want to include downtowns, I think Sioux Falls, Stamford (CT), and Tulsa all fit the bill pretty well too as both residential-friendly and strong commercial districts.
I was surprised Montrose in Houston didn't make this list, once you consider the size of the land area and the sheer amount of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, 329 to be exact according to walkscore. A lot more offerings than the neighborhoods on this list. However it didn't meet the differential he was looking for. Citywide score 47 Montrose 86 = 39 differential.
Just discovered your channel and wanted to THANK YOU for the work that you do. It’s so valuable and there’s not enough analysis like this. You really put the time in to research and it is much appreciated. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Spenard may not look like much from that view, but it’s one of the most interesting neighborhoods in Anchorage-and other than Mountain View (most diverse neighborhood in US), it probably has the strongest identity. It used to be full of bars and strip clubs but has had a lot of new development in the last several years. They’ve been rebuilding Spenard Road section by section to be more pedestrian friendly with higher density mixed use buildings. The bank on the corner of the intersection you Street Viewed has been looking for an investor to redevelop the corner with a higher density design for a few years now-statewide budget recession might be blamed for lack of movement there. Spenard is home to the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, the state’s largest independent bookstore, plus another great smaller book cafe that hosts authors and musicians, lots of quirky local shops and restaurants, local theatre, and other community gathering and event spaces. It even has its own local newsletter, The Spenardian. So, with only a quick look, it’s not much, but it’s full of history and promise.
DJ Tyson you are right on the money with your Spenard analysis, but don't forget one of the big lame things about Spenard is that it's major residential area to the west is separated from the retail sector by a 45-50 mph 6-7 lane Stroad called Minnesota Blvd. This terrible and dangerous roadway with crosswalks only every 1/4 mile is like a canyon separating retail and residential Spenard.
@@savefishcreek Good point! I have seen an exciting proposed redesign for Minnesota, but I’d imagine that’s years down the line. But that traffic corridor is never going away, unfortunately, even if does get a little more comfortable to walk beside and cross it.
I'd like to see a video comparing the evolution of suburb "urban planning" throughout time and seeing the pros and cons between past and present. Maybe a top 10 most walkable suburbs as you talk about when their main growth occurred and how it compares to the average suburb. Love your videos, by the way!
You can see the difference between a streetcar suburb versus those built for cars where I live in Columbus Ohio. The intersection of N. High Street and Kelso Road was a terminus for a main streetcar line for years (and a location for a great old amusement park).* The streetcar suburb houses were built without garages on small lots. Less than a mile north on N. High St are suburbs developed from the 1930's between West North Broadway and Morse Road. Here there are detached garages and larger lots for the most part. You can see the transition from 2 story houses to sprawling ranches as you go from south of the Whetstone Park of Roses to the north. For maps and photos: * This article by the local PBS station details the rise and fall of streetcars in Cbus. There's a great photo of the electric arches in the Short North dated 1908. news.wosu.org/news/2016-11-23/curious-cbus-what-happened-to-columbuss-streetcars
Hey CityNerd! I personally live in The Short North after graduating and I have to tell you, it’s great! It’s my favorite neighborhood in Columbus next to German Village (another walkable neighborhood, look it up sometime, it’s south of downtown!). There’s a large park with an historic Victorian village surrounding it which hugs high street itself. With Ohio State being along high street a couple miles north, my friends and I would walk down to the short north and explore. Overall a really accessible place for the locals to enjoy.
The Clifton Neighborhood in Cincinnati is great. Lots of little local shops. Only has Buses but they run on schedule. There is an independent grocery store there as well.
I have a job interview in Columbus in a few weeks and I'd love to move there, but was a little worried about the walkability. So i'm glad to see Short North made the list!
The Nashville price seems accurate - it would be higher now! Nashville has prices that almost keep up with expensive coastal cities (I know because I divide my time between DC and Nashville). FWIW, it also has quite a few other walkable neighborhoods, despite the city at large being very unwalkable. You basically drive between cute little neighborhoods and spend your day there. Some, like Belmont-Hillsboro and 12South are even more expensive.
While St. Louis itself probably doesn't score too bad on walkability, (because its borders were fixed in 1876) I still think it applies due to the wider metro being very car-oriented. That said, the older parts of south city are very walkable, beautiful, and still pretty cheap. Soulard and Lafayette Square are decently well known, but a little further out are Benton Park and Tower Grove, which have the city's most diverse commercial corridors along Cherokee and Grand and gorgeous, distinctive architecture.
Yeah, I agree with your assessment -- I was actually "disappointed" to see St. Louis Walk Score as high as it is, because that effectively disqualified it from this list. St. Louis has incredible urban fabric. I love Grand -- actually never been down to Cherokee, but would love to check it out. Benton Park West would've been the neighborhood to show up on here, with Soulard not far behind.
I've done a lot of looking on Redfin at St. Louis and depends on the exact block you're looking at, the walkscore is usually in the 70s, sometimes 80s. There was one house with a walkscore of 90 and a bikescore of 82! Of course it was only 1 block away from grand in TGE. So a Shnucks is also in walking distance for that house.
@@CityNerd The Delmar Loop is another great walkable neighborhood, even though it is technically just outside of the city limits in University City. Since it borders Forest Park it feels like it is part of St. Louis, though.
Thanks. I love South city and it still has so many great neighborhood bars and restaurants that have been there forever. I live in the west end so Euclid and this area is great for walking and biking too
@@CityNerd Cherokee St. east of Jefferson is great--but you go to the part west of Jefferson, and you see a lot of edginess, to the point that it gets too seedy for my taste. I saw someone writhing around on the sidewalk in his underwear, and the police were being called by nearby residents. It's dangerous at night from what I've heard.
Great video! I think San Diego would be an interesting example to look at. As a city, it’s extremely car centric. However, many neighborhoods, especially those in and around downtown/Balboa Park are surprisingly walkable (eg Little Italy, North Park, University Heights).
Same with places around Pacific Beach, OB, etc. Even places in North County have pretty walkable pockets, before getting sucked into the abyss of Carmel Valley/Poway/4S Ranch etc
@@SpencerHeckwolf I would like to switch to biking in SD. I live in Hillcrest and I could get around to all the central stuff fine. But I'm a UCSD student too and getting to la jolla is a pain. They need to improve the light rail system for sure
@@Ignaciombr I live in OB and it's extremely walkable -- it's just that walking isn't a viable way to get up into Point Loma or over to Midway, since it's either too steep or too far. But getting around OB on foot is super easy.
I'm not sure what you consider point to point distance for walkability but if you ever decide to do a small town score. Take a look at Ludington, MI . If you live a block or 3 East of downtown but S of the main drag Ludington Ave. You could easily walk west to downtown , bars, restaurants , touristy stuff , library , court/city hall and the badger. (ferry across the lake to Wisconsin) IF you decide to walk East you'll hit a full line grocery at about 1.2 miles , hospital closer than that and pharmacy about 1/2- 3/4 miles. IF you decided to live car free , the city has door to door bus service (sort of like a cab) for $1-$3 each way depending on your age or if you are handicapped. that will take you to a second pharmacy, urgent care, Walmart, Meijer, and Aldi , Lowes, HD, and two dollar stores in the more big boxy corridor. The downside are the winters for walking since the sidewalks aren't shoveled often enough and you are forced to walk in the actual street that typically get's plowed n salted. But after Labor day that town almost rolls up it's sidewalks and you could easily walk in the street with little fear of getting hit as the tourist population and seasonal home owners have vanished (Most housing is under $300K)
Love it - would also love to see access to public transit added to the list. Some of these neighborhoods look pretty nice, but leave me wondering if the people there have to still own a car to commute based off the distance they fall from office heavy downtown areas or... ugh... suburban office parks.
Since I don't drive at all, Walkscore especially just for a neighborhood feels almost irrelevant. What about employment opportunities, getting to healthcare, everything else in life...
@@liren.varghese Well, you can work remote and for healthcare you can also do it online technically, unless it is to complicated, then you will probably need a car yes.
@@peskypigeonx yes, it depends of course on what type of healthcare you need, and I think most people won't be able to do a regular checkup on themselves, but I honestly have a hard time imagining not having a GP in a short distance, that seems like it should be mandatory or something.. Mental healthcare and things like prescriptions can be done over video calls, though I can understand not everyone might feel comfortable with that.
Late to this video, but I did live in the Spenard neighborhood in the 90’s. And I was car free for the first four years. Within walking distance, I had two grocery stores, a comic book store, sporting goods store, dollar movie theater, restaurants, record store, live music bar, local coffeehouse, and of course, my job. Yes, crossing Northern Lights Boulevard in the winter was a pain.
Among the cities on this list, Charlotte stands out as the only one that has a rail transit system although Austin does have a commuter rail line. Charlotte's Fourth Ward neighborhood is alongside the Gold Line (streetcar) and just beyond the Blue Line (light rail). My understanding is that voters have approved taxes to build a light rail system in Austin, and it is currently in the planning stages.
Rail system does mean anything for walkable. Outside NY, SF, DC metro, people drive to rail station. Usually many cities have rails have terible walkable environment. Well people drive to train stations I dont drive, so i know what It means
@@commentorsilensor3734 At the suburban end of a commuter rail line, walkability is often poor. People drive to the stations. The downtown end is different. You can't take your car with you on the train.
@@gregvassilakos You cannot take car trains. That is what the wa!kability issues in rail stations in suburb. No car rental agency is going to station at every station at suburb. Usually union station surrounding has walk score. In LA, anything along Red line has high walk score. Wait, that area already had high walk score long before construction of Red line That's my rail outside downtown has very low walk scores
@@commentorsilensor3734 So if you live in one of the suburbs on the Metrolink system (low walkability) and work in downtown Los Angeles (high walkability), you drive to the Metrolink station, take the train to Union Station, and transfer to one of the light rail or subway lines that is within walking distance of your job location. Thousands of people do this every day. Perhaps your point is that far more people use Metrolink for commuting inbound to downtown Los Angeles as opposed to commuting outbound to the suburbs or between suburbs. I would agree, but there are exceptions. For many years, my sister used Metrolink to commute from her home in San Bernardino to her job as a librarian at Claremont Colleges.
@@gregvassilakos this is walkwbility. If you have to drive to take puhlic transportation, the walk score has to reduce to 80,%. Walk score means how much you can walk to get to grocery stores. If its too far, how easy it is to utilize public transportation. BTW, outside USA, lower score walkable means take 30 minutes rail, buses , and or walk. Most metrolink stations are more than 30 minute walking distance. Have you seen people taking commuter rail to get gocery, hosptals, getting alcohol, Besides m, no one. It took me 4 hours to get to hospital by taking metrolink, bus n walk 60 minues. That is very walkable forcd to walk. Btw, that is 30 minute driving distance in heavy traffic. You call that high walk score. I can tlk about stupid idea sbout driving to train station n pretend to care about environment, traffic congestion. This topic is about walk score. Driving to station is contradictory to walk score matrix
I’m happy to hear Westport, KC on this list. I live in the next neighborhood over and even though Westport has been known for bars and such, the surrounding neighborhoods are just as walkable. Within 15 mins I can walk to 2 different hospitals, 2 grocery stores, hardware store, countless restaurants, a really nice wooded park and lots more. Soon the streetcar will be expanded within that range as well 🙌🏼
Columbus is actually known as the Arch City! The original arches were build in 1888 from wood and lit by gas lanterns to help decorate the city after being chosen to host the centennial anniversary of the northwestern territory! The arches are obviously now metal with LED lights and can be programmed for special occasions! (rainbow for pride, red white and blue for independence day, etc.) love the attention you give my home town! And yes, I would most certainly say 'THE' Short North! Lol
Charlotte is an interesting case in terms of walk score because it’s such a suburban city. But there are quite a few urban neighborhoods that are super easy to get around, happy to see 4th ward made the top spot on this list!
I've been a tourist in Charlotte a couple times and have enjoyed walking around the downtown area, I even got to ride the Lynx Blue Line extension not too long after it opened, all of it was a good experience.
New to Nashville, but the price for East End makes sense. East Nashville is known for high prices. There's a Kroger near West End and Turnip Truck for a more local type grocer.
The short north is very walkable and influences a lot of areas by it. You have the Victorian and Italian village to the west and east of it. Downtown and German village to the south of it, and campus and old north to the north of it. That entire drag right there, from north to south, is about 5ish miles of walking paradise for a city that is car centeric. Like a lot of old us cities, the arches were apart of the comprehensive tram system that was ripped up by GM in the late 40s. Shortly afterwards, I-670 was built to the airport and regular train service from Amtrak was cut off. In the early 00s, the city spent over 15 million dollars in taxes I believe to restore the historic arches. They’re just an aesthetic and there has been no LRT or even BRT built to go along with them. There was a proposal in 2006/07 from the federal government to connect the three “c’s.” The governor at the time rejected it, saying something like Ohioans aren’t going to spend extra tax dollars to build something they don’t need (shocker, right?!) the money instead went to Portland, Seattle, cinci and I believe Atlanta There were talks from COTA to build LRT/BRT as a flagship if the 3 c’s train corridor was approved and built. Instead, a decade later, we got the shitty CMAX line. It’s faux BRT and only has priority signaling, 10-15 minute headway’s and some fancy stops. Still gets stuck in traffic tho, and there’s still on board payment Anyways, to end the rant, the LRT and 3 c’s corridor would have saved a lot of money for a lot of Ohioans including those who were in Columbus during the 08 recession as more people would have looked to use other modes of transportation. We would have also improved further adding more lines to that existing system today, but alas we are fighting for crumbs to build any sort of transit development in the city. Did you know a lot of our most used bus stops on high street share parking pick ups and drop offs for delivery drivers?? Fucking excellent
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, WA/OR got some of that Ohio HSR money and promptly spent it on a new Portland-Seattle alignment that we still can't use yet because the first train on the first day of service derailed horrifically. (Actually I don't know if that's where the Ohio money went...but it's still absurd.) Thanks for the additional detail.
So happy to see my hometown of OKC on a top 10 list. Most of the city is unfortunately designed for the car and has a very long way to go in terms of urban design, but I love the few pockets of walkable neighborhoods in the Paseo, Plaza, brick town, midtown, and uptown. Hopefully as infill continues and transit improves we can climb the ranks of this list! There's a streetcar downtown and BRT-ish is coming to a very heavily traveled corridor on the NWX/Classen.
I live in Austin Texas in the West University / Hyde Park neighborhood (right on the boundary between) and for a city that's SO car-dependent, this neighborhood is pretty great for walkers and even cyclists. People drive fast and the roads can be a little scary for the latter, though. The city has some plans to bolster the walkability of this neighborhood with a light rail line and improved cycling infrastructure down "The Drag" (Guadalupe), which is the main strip that borders UT and has some awesome dense urban vibes and cool stuff to do Also as far as the Redfin prices go, that number seems fairly out of date. Prices here have ballooned in the last year. You might be able to find a studio condo for $345k, but a house is basically out of the question for that part of town and that price.
Once again, statistically sprawling Oklahoma City gets love from an urbanist for one of its great urban neighborhoods. Sidewalks weren't mandated by the city for decades until several years ago. Paseo is a terrific neighborhood, and that map capture shows some of the food highlights of OKC -- Asian grocery Super Cao Nguyen, nationally-renown Pho Lien Hoa, dynamite southwestern cuisine at Frida, and the upscale comfort-food cafe Cheevers. Stop by the Paseo District on the first Friday of every month for the lively gallery crawl.
Really enjoy your channel and contributions. Moved and to Columbus in 1968. Currently live in an inner rung suburb of Whitehall that has under gone rough economic times, but is is coming back and attracted business increasing an economic base. For over ten years, I have been car free, or shared a car. Surrounded by amenities, such as Walmart, a couple of Krogers, Lowe's, countless restaurant chains, great public transit routes. CVS, Walgreens. Numerous places of worship. Residential density with roads that are walkable and bikeable. Newer apartment buildings with retail space have been built and in the process of being built. A suggestion of a video of once vibrant neighborhoods that experienced hard economic times, but are going through a rebirth that are walkable and bikeable. There is an interesting book on the history of Whitehall, Ohio that has ties to aviation, and 50's and 60's Rat Pack entertainment era.
I think the reason you were surprised by Louisville proper's low walk score was that the city is one of the few that was able to annex much of the surrounding suburbs. So a lot of "Louisville" is sprawl even though the historic streetcar-core is more walkable.
Correction for the record Charlotte North Carolina does not have an NHL team! The Carolina hurricanes play in Raleigh North Carolina. The Charlotte Checkers (AHL team) play in The Bojangles’ Coliseum an hour walk away.
I live in Jacksonville and one of the best walkable neighborhoods here is Riverside. Old homes and buildings on the St. Johns river with a Publix, lots of restaurants, parks, and a museum.
The arches in Columbus, Ohio were erected in 1888 were erected for a convention of union army veterans. A really good info/history documentary about the Short North neighborhood and the arches can be found here: th-cam.com/video/dn9UNZFc2_A/w-d-xo.html The neighborhoods of Italian Village, Victorian Village, and Fly Town are often lumped into the Short North. The Italian Village hosts the Columbus Italian festival every year. Also a couple major arterial COTA bus lines run down high st in the short north which is both a positive and a negative because traffic often creeps along at a really slow pace and makes transit travel times really uncompetitive.
It was fun to see Kansas City's Westport here. I agree with it's walkability. Grocery store, a range of other stores from chains (World Market), independent locals, and dollar type stores, a library, lots of restaurants and bars, a range of housing options ... Another way that an unwaljable city becomes walkable is a good transit option. The streetcar being expanded in Kansas City connects various neighborhoods on the Main Street corridor so if my neighborhood doesn't have a grocery store, I can hop on and take a short ride to one that does.
Saw Columbus in the thumbnail so I clicked it real quick. I live there and go to The Short North quite often. It's the most popular dining and entertainment area of the city. The Long Street is quite walkable but I wish they had more than just housing on the side streets
West Campus I’d largely students. It’s also arguably the densest neighborhood in Texas. With 18,000+ largely in 0.5 square miles. It’s also getting massive infill like you said. Austin’s expensive but it’s only truly expensive compared to other Texas cities. You have the same prices in California and I think it’s more comparable to Sacramento, rather than an L.A/San Diego or San Francisco. The main issue with Austin is the desirable portions are really expensive. But the parts of the city that are less desirable aren’t that bad. Which sounds self-explanatory but even in some parts of L.A and San Francisco that are considered bad are still crazy expensive.
Another benefit Austin gets is that the undesirable places are largely undesirable due to questionable schools, rather than rampant crime. So it’s a city that’s supercharged for Gentrification. So living in a bad area is far more of an option in Austin vs. the other Texas cities were folks simply avoid them as an option unless it’s a gentrifying neighborhood.
Hughes Landing and the Woodlands Waterway are actually very walkable neighborhoods in the north Houston Metro area with lots of restaurants, bars, stores, sidewalks everywhere and even a trolley route that connects the two areas
I think the opposite of this could be interesting - unwalkable neighbourhoods in stereotypically walkable cities. PS: Charlotte Checkers are an AHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes play out of Raleigh :P
Excited to see Greensboro make an appearance in the honorable mentions. I lived in the historic southeastern building right center of downtown and what you said about not seeing a lot of residencies is spot on. Unfortunately the downtown area almost solely serves as a business district during the day and a nightclub/bar scene at night, so it doesn’t feel very much like a community considering the majority of people there at any given time drove there from a suburb. That being said it has a downtown greenway, some nice bikeable streets, and some decent corner stores to shop at within walking distance. Check out the greensboro southern railway station if you’re ever in the area! It’s a beautiful historic station with a lot of its original charm. Keep up the great videos!
Ha, I definitely peeked at the train station when I was exploring on Maps. I will have to check it out -- I'd love to spend more time exploring North Carolina!
I don’t know if you’d consider San Diego unwalkable on a city scale, but South Park is a great example of a walkable neighborhood, with great bike and a decent bus option. Not too much density, but just an absolutely charming neighborhood.
Another outstanding video. I thought maybe Fort Wayne could show up in this one until you said you were excluding downtowns. Oh well. I look forward to a future video where Fort Wayne makes the cut somehow, someday, good or bad!
I had the same thought! West Central could pass, I suppose, simply for its proximity to DT. Unfortunately, it would also fail the grocery store test lol unless you count George's off Broadway.
This technically doesn't follow your criteria but Hamtramck is a small city entirely surrounded by Detroit and it pretty walkable compared to the city as a whole
I have an idea for a video, least pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods in the most walkable cities in the country, basically the opposite of this one. Love all your videos.
I lived in Italian Village in the early 2000's, which is right next to the Short North. The Short North is a wonderful area and is definitely walkable for restaurants and bars. From what I understand, the name Short North was what police use to call it back when it was a pretty bad area. But it started to change. There was (and probably still is) a great LBTQ presence. I had visited Columbus before I moved there and I remember when there was no Short North Cap over the freeway. It felt really separated from downtown since you walked along the street with just a fence overlooking the highway. After they added the cap, it was really nice and completely connected the neighborhoods. It felt like one continuous urban space from the Convention Center and the Farmer's Market up through into the Short North.
I worked at a restaurant on Nationwide Blvd (parallel to the freeway) back in '91 and I agree that the freeway was a big barrier to pedestrian traffic. Not that you couldn't cross it, but it made you not want to.
And back then German Village was the gayborhood, Short North was mostly dive bars and lower end student housing. I used to get into the Flatiron when I was 19 with no problem.
10:48 Hey! Glad to see Laredo mentioned on this channel. I was just about to suggest checking out Laredo or San Antonio. You know, something besides the usual Dallas or Houston that get all the attention. Not sure where the boundaries of the "Central Business District" are since I don't see it on Google Maps, but yeah, it's mostly businesses selling imports from across the border, China, etc. I believe some elderly folks live in the Rialto Hotel just north of the intersection you showed, and the area is totally walkable. There used to be a major grocery store (H-E-B) two blocks east of that intersection, but it closed for seemingly no reason a few years ago. Now the city wants to use it for government offices and parking, and the people that used that store have to drive to a more distant H-E-B or elsewhere. Most customers aren't locals, but instead, people coming from Mexico. The area really suffered since the border was closed until recently, but there are efforts to renew local interest. Stuff like the Outlet Mall or the Siete Banderas restaurant.
Laredoan here too, and I would say the area isn't really walkable anymore. Many of the larger buildings have been set up as senior living in the area, and they really need that grocery store near by. So many businesses have moved out or shuttered that there isn't much left to walk to. From what I can see there isn't much mixed use either. I don't think many locals want to live in the area, at least not as it is. I would love to see the area revitalized with residential spaces included in the now vacant buildings. Right now it just looks like a ghost town.
@@pgarcia78 Yeah, when I said "walkable" , I was a bit too literal. It's walkable in the sense that there are sidewalks, some forrm of public transit (El Metro), and not much in highways, stroads, or overly large parking lots to stop you from walking around. I agree that there isn't anything worthwhile to do there, and the shops, open or not, look run-down. Still don't understand why they closed that H-E-B.
The M streets in Dallas. Quite pricey, but tons of residential, tons of restaurants, bars, an actual grocery store, plus a trolly line that goes up and down Mckinney St. Also very close to world class museums, aquariums, American Airlines center for sports, and extremely close to downtown, plus great transit options.
I live in Charlotte (used to live in 4th Ward), and 4th Ward is considered part of the downtown (or uptown, actually) CBD, so it might not be the best candidate based on your criteria. I think a better candidate for this list would be SouthEnd or Plaza Midwood. Both are serviced by either street car or light rail, both have grocery stores, restaurants, music venues, shopping, etc. And that median sales price for 4th Ward seems low to me too.
One of the places that I found myself loving to walk is Belmont Shore in California. The layout of the streets is incredible. The 2nd Street commercial corridor has intersecting residential streets that are arranged as a series of very narrow one-way couplets. The effect is that the blocks are extremely thin, facing the corridor, and the crosswalks are extremely short. Moreover, each intersection is controlled by a traffic signal, and, because of the one-way car traffic, pedestrians hardly even notice that they are crossing the streets.
I laughed out loud when seeing Downtown Spenard in Anchorage as walkable, because indeed it's a suburban fever dream, but the more I think about it I can't think of many of any other neighborhoods in Anchorage so close to shops, schools and trails.
I'd say Downtown Anchorage (which I'm assuming was disqualified by OP's "no downtowns" rule) is slightly more "walkable" than Downtown Spenard. When I lived in between the two, I would walk to both for shopping or going out to eat. Downtown Anchorage felt like a pedestrian space, while Spenard is 100% built for cars. That's also true of basically every other commercial part of the city as far as I can remember.
Late in finding your videos, but great job as I catch up. I was encouraged by this video with respect to two things: overall walk score for a city must be under 50 to make your list, and your remarks that "if you live downtown, you should already be in a good walking environment." Oxnard, CA (pop 220k, aprox) is generally a car city, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a city-wide walk score of 57 and a bike score of 51 (thought they would be worse). Transit stinks, at 35. However, downtown, where I live, scores 94 for walking, with 45 for transit and 56 for bikes. One thing I appreciate is the lack of pedestrian call buttons (or "beg" buttons) at signalized intersections. I live car-light, but lived for a year completely car free back in 2015. It can be done--even here. :)
The little neighborhood of Ocean Beach in San Diego is awesome. Narrow slow streets, plenty of multifamily housing, corner businesses and anything else you need on the main drag. Stark contrast to the rest of the sprawling metro.
@@r.mariano8118 I agree to a certain extent, but OB is definitely much more pedestrian scale than any other SD neighborhood outside downtown. Hillcrest, North Park, and PB are generally very walkable, but they all also have some massive car arterials going through them (usually even right down the main business district!) that make being a pedestrian pretty dangerous or frustrating. OB is the only neighborhood in San Diego that doesn't have more than one lane of traffic in any direction on any street (if you don't count a couple of turn lanes).
The only downside to OB is that getting in or out with a bike or on foot is pretty difficult. The San Diego River Trail is great but doesn't connect you to anything interesting until Old Town and biking up and over the hills in Point Loma is basically impossible. Voltaire and Loma Portal are improving, but the bike infrastructure is still pretty dangerous without contiguous buffers.
Miami’s coconut grove neighborhood is a walkable oasis in a huge sprawling car dependent city. It has smaller lot sizes, a nice pedestrian shopping district, parks, trees shading sidewalks And decent access to Miami’s metrorail. 💪💪
I'm surprised there weren't more college campuses on this list! I guess not enough college students shop for groceries? For my favorite walkable neighborhood: back in Nashville, the area around Vanderbilt was great 10 years ago - looks like it still is. Lot's of great restaurants and at least 2 grocery stores (Kroger and a Piggly Wiggly). Real estate prices are probably truly insane these days. There was a rumor that Taylor Swift lived in a swanky high rise nearby.
A ton of undergrads (especially freshman and sophomores) live on campus and don’t have access to cooking equipment so they’d have to rely on campus dining (another form of revenue for whatever college they’re at). I personally started cooking when I got a student apartment and it’s significantly cheaper and every student should have at least a community kitchen in their dorm with multiple stovetops and ovens.
They were probably excluded by the city size criteria (only cities >250k people), or the fact that the metric requires a big *differential* between a neighborhood and the city at large. E.G. lots of big college/university campuses are in smaller college towns, or are a major influence on their host city that they raise the citywide average walkscore enough that they wouldn't make the top 10 as a result.
I really enjoyed this video. It is interesting how cities can have decently walk-able neighborhoods even when the cities aren't. That Anchorage neighbourhood though was like a concrete jungle with all those parking lots though! Lol! (It's funny to me though how outside of downtown nowhere else was scored very high in Indianapolis. I was surprised the Broad Ripple neighbourhood wasn't given a higher score by that site though)
Unwalkable neighborhoods in walkable cities could be interesting. I could see Sodo in Seattle being on the list unless it was worse in my memory than it actually is LOL
Not having lived in the U.S. since 1996 (and having visited only infrequently during that span), I just lived in Indy for the past 14 months while on family business. The neighborhood I lived in was terrible, especially as I didn't have a car. To go to the nearest market I had to walk along the edges of a two-lane street with lots of heavy vehicles passing within inches of me. Of course, there were no sidewalks. However, my nephew visited from Chicago and we went to see Broad Ripple and that was literally a breath of fresh air -- loads of shops, small restaurants, and entertainment venues. I was hoping it would make your list.
@@whishtebby maybe thats what makes Broad Ripple seem so much better is that the rest is so awful. I mean sidewalks are hard to find alone lol. And every time im in Indy im in awe of just how bad the transit is. A city that size should have light rail also theres no regional connections to any nearby cities!
The picture of Florence and the covered bridge got me reminiscing! Its great there and I would like to return and see everything I wasn't able to take in last time.
I lived car-free in Westport in KC from 1999 to 2002, mostly commuting by bike. 🚲 It was fine while I was single, but not where I'd want to raise kids. Westport was mostly known as an entertainment district with bars, restaurants, and clubs.
Instead of a Walk Score index, I think what we need is a Streetscape score index. I went to a lecture 30 years ago by a landscape architect from the Bay Area in California. It was eye opening as to how little thought goes into designing the feel of a street. Often while there is intense design of the buildings on either side, the street just winds up being the "space between". He showed how simply planting the same species of tree of the same age on both sides of the street can vastly improve the feel. Or how widening the sidewalks and shortening the block size encourages pedestrian activity. I can't remember his name and I'd always hoped someday I'd find a book which put all these thoughts in one place but it never happened. The only thing that ever came close was Henry F. Arnold's "Trees in Urban Design" although that's not the same guy.
Yes, the Carolina Hurricanes play at PNC Arena in Raleigh. I "knew" this because I researched PNC for my NBA/NHL Arenas video (th-cam.com/video/Tpg7atI59A0/w-d-xo.html). Bottom line: if you're planning on walking to a Hurricanes game from Fourth Ward in Charlotte. leave early. Like real early!
Everything about your video are great and thanks for sharing your great video.
Lol. I’m a Raleigh resident and came here to say this.
I think downtown Raleigh should have been an honorable mention though. Raleigh has an overall walkscore of 31, but my apartment downtown has a walkscore of 97 and a bikescore of 92. Plus a bus hub a few blocks away and an Amtrak station within reasonable walking distance :)
Thank you. I was about to type something, but you beat me to it!
@@SteadyStew Every city in NC could easily have been on the list. All of them have walkable neighborhoods tucked away in a city that is otherwise overly car-dependent. I think Charlotte was picked because of specific attributes it has on the walkscore site.
@@mentalrectangle I agree. In Morrisville, NC, we have a free shuttle with 16 different pick up points.
I grew up in Columbus, the arches pay an homage to the ones that Columbus used for streetcar electric wires in the late 19th/early 20th century that gave Columbus the nickname “arch city” at the time. I love the progress in the short north but I wish a streetcar could be run up high street again-still a 5 lane road with no bike or transit infrastructure.
They recently redid High Street through the Short North and shrunk it down to one travel lane in each direction with wider sidewalks and protected parking spaces. Much more pleasant to walk now but it did slow transit times unfortunately due to the congestion. Underground light rail would be phenomenal, but probably will never happen
Thanks for the detail on the arches. Very cool.
The arches were originally installed for lighting during a civil war reunion, then were used for streetcars. They’ve recently widened the sidewalks along High St. There’s still five lanes, but the outer lanes are pretty much all parking. The effect is traffic crawls along by design.
High Street in Cbus is such a good opportunity to shut down the street to traffic. They have 3rd and 4th that work as high volume one way pairs just to the east, and you could totally use those as ways to drop ppl in the short north or near campus
It's not even fair to give Columbus a walkscore of 40 because there's so much sprawl within city limits compared to other Midwestern cities where those areas would be suburban. Large areas of the city are old and densely built, not to mention that several suburbs have nice downtowns as well.
When I want to convince people that walkability is important and cars are destructive to the structure of a city, I show them car-centric cities in north america. If you've never been to such a place it's hard to imagine how you can be in a city that's not actually a city, but just a huge collection of places (usually single properties) where you move from one place to the other with your car. It's like a colony on a hostile planet where you move from one shelter to another and in between there's a hostile environment where you can't survive outside of your vehicle (and also don't want to be at, because there is nothing there).
Good metaphor. So much of the US is like this, and it's really hard to reconstruct it as anything different.
We basically have had 70 years of car-centered transportation design. Only Russia and China have such a large population combined with large stretches of unpopulated land. We really need to rethink our intercity and interstate travel, as well as our goods distribution.
That’s how i feel about Houston right now
@@jorymil Even Russia and China had the Siberian express that goes across the large stretch of mostly unpopulated land, either through Siberia or the Gobi desert.
Living in Houston...in a near-downtown, very walkable neighborhood...
The Houston area is a great example of compact areas that are both drivable and walkable, with the benefits of a large metro, where you can drive to find most any type of commodity or experience.
The car has given humanity the personal freedom that the train and bus never can - in any size city, you can go anywhere, at any time of day. You don't need to be on a route, at a specific time. You can sing along to your favorite music, without offending a bus full of people.
Nothing wrong with good transit connecting dense point A to dense point B via dense point C. But when you look at the amazing permutation of trips possible to take in all that a large urban center offers, there's nothing wrong with walkable, parkable, drive-between-able megalopolises.
I just realized why I like this channel so much: I enjoy exploring cities on street view but the control is so tedious sometimes and you just do it for us! love it :D
Do you realize how much time I spend curating cool street views and how many takes I need to get a smooth screen grab? Urbanist TH-cam is not for the faint of heart!
@@CityNerd its so clunky and behaves differently everytime, I spend way too much time "traveling" on SV and google earth :D makes me appreciate the smooth camera pans so much more!
I’m not sure how good the US-wide coverage is… but I was using Apple Maps on desktop the other day and was blown away by the smoothness of their street view.
I'm a transit planner professionally, and this series was like catnip for my brain! 100% agree with the selection of Columbus' Short North. Another few selections that might make your list include Midtown in Atlanta, the Alameda in San Jose, Midtown in Sacramento, Montrose in Houston, or Bishop Arts District in Dallas.
I agree with midtown Atlanta and Decatur in Atlanta area
I lived in the Bishop Arts District in the 1980s, before it was the Bishop Arts District. Plenty of decent restaurants even then, now more upscale-type choices. I've been back several times, and while I miss the old vibe they've done a pretty good job of keeping it pleasant. The parks are beautiful (Stevens and Kidd Springs) and the average lot size is pretty large for the older houses.
Transit planner in the US! I am surprised you even have a job! Even Canada is better for public transport.
Lived in Midtown Sacramento! Such a joy to walk there.
Thanks for the alameda, SJ shoutout. Imo there’s several neighborhoods around the South Bay (especially near dtown SJ) that could make this list
I recently moved into a downtown area with a Walk Score of 96. We downsized from 2 cars to 1 and my wife now takes light rail to work while I work from home. She had a pretty short commute previously and the light rail actually takes a bit longer but the reduction in stress she has seen from not having to deal with traffic everyday cannot be overstated. Not sure what data exists out there but it would be interesting to do a video that digs into the effects of stress from traffic commutes and how it compares to people who don’t own cars or commute regularly. When you consider the noise, cost, danger, time, stress, and environmental damage of automobiles, it feels like we could solve so many societal problems just by rethinking how we build cities and transit through them.
Nashvillian, and I think that's definitely right for the cost of East Nash. It's what's been the "hip" neighborhood for the longest and seen the the largest increase in prices the last few decades. Probably only slowing down as neighborhoods like Germantown, North Nashville, the Nations, etc. have grown in popularity more recently. It shows that there's so much demand for that sort of neighborhood here but just no willingness to actually build or develop it further.
Loved this video and your understanding of walkability by neighborhood status. I have lived car-free for 15 years in a dozen US cities all with walk scores below 50, but at the neighborhood level you can find livable gems. I do wish you'd focus on smaller cities (50k-259k) for a future video along these lines though.
Sounds like another vote for z similar video on smaller cities. Perfect population boundaries, too -- it'd be off-brand for me to look at anything under 50K. There's definitely be a video coming, but man, I have a major backlog!
What cities/neighborhoods did you like living in the most without a car?
@@griffina2340 Ann Arbor, Michigan! I just wish it were more affordable.
Can I ask from your personal experience your suggestion of walkable neighborhoods? I grew up in NYC and never learned to drive by the age 52. I love to walk outdoors yet cannot afford a home in prime walkable cities. Where I live now is killing me with things 4 mile walks in sometimes weeks long 60 mph winds, reckless drivers impatient that I exist and aggressive homeless people literally hiding behind signs to panhandle.
@@CityNerd It may be off brand, but those looking both for a walkable/bikeable life and outdoor pursuits as well, may wish to look at small cities, some of which have a surprising range of amenities, and aren't that far from larger metropolises that have even more. It's a different kind of city life, but for many, the right one. (I've lived in various cities with populations from thousands to millions. Each has its benefits, and nowadays, even the smallest cities have a range of good cafes and restaurants, and small shops, and big, plus one day delivery by Amazon, fast Internet and good 5G cell coverage.)
Having grown up and lived in Columbus for 27 years, The Short North is definitely where you’ll see where the diversity of culture is centrally located. It’s a great place to spend and afternoon and the go to place for night life. You could walk from Old North to OSU Campus to Short North to the arena district to the scioto mile and see some very interesting and fun galleries, shops etc.
I've lived in West Campus in Austin for a few years. It is definitely very walkable, with many people not having cars at all. I feel like the median sale price in the 300k's is a little low, especially in recent years. Something that is important to know is that this area is almost 100% UT students who need to live close to go to class, so people moving to Austin for work are definitely not moving to West Campus. A lot of the housing is corporate owned student housing with rent that exceeds $1000/bed per month, so that could be messing with the sale price since those units are not for sale.
Former UT student / West Campus resident here. Dominic has everything right. It should also be added that the neighborhood has no grocery store (unless something has changed recently) and is extremely prone to noise especially on weekends, and unfortunately petty theft. It's ideal for students given the proximity to campus but very few non-students would ever consider living there.
@@CaeserOct hook ‘em horns! And yeah, as someone else who has recently lived in West Campus, some of the things considered “necessary” for a neighborhood (like grocery stores) are missing completely. But there are good connections to other options-Dobie market right across Guad has an entire target, there are a plethora of corner stores and restaurants, and even UT has some stuff. Also, the H‑E‑B at Red River isn’t too far by bus or a quick carpool with friends.
Also, it’s important to note that the biggest reason WC made it to this list is because of Austin’s relatively young “University Neighborhood Overlay”/SMART Housing program. So many of those big, price-gouging dorm companies are eager to build as big as they can and offering 1 or 2 “affordable” units allows them to do so as of 2014. The neighborhood really is developing its own skyline apart from downtown and the Capitol complex.
This (and the responses to this) explains a lot. I figured a lot of it was student housing of different kinds, but it was also, I think, the largest "neighborhood" geographically on this list, and probably by a good margin. Seems like there would be more of a variety of housing types (and residents) there -- but I don't know the city that well!
@@CityNerd You gotta cave into the hype and go visit but honestly, don't go to WC as a tourist haha. Great videos and I'm finding myself binging through the videos.
@@ClementinesmWTF Didn't realize that there's a Target in Dobie now. Wow that's gotta be amazing and terrible for student wallets. The HEB at Red River is the closest one but I had to rely on my roommate with a car to ever get out there.
Really love your content. Please keep up the great work!
Much appreciated!
The "Lower East Side" neighborhood of Milwaukee, which is centered around Brady St. and touches Water St and North Ave is an amazing walkable neighborhood. Lots of parks, river trails, lake parks, shopping, bars/restaurants. In the spring/summer/fall it's an amazing and beautiful place to live.
just one of the reasons i love this channel is that you don't dismiss the most car-dependent cities and actually show what they have to offer. not that i like car-dependency, but people live in these places and writing them off is a little unfair.
Great vid. Charlotte is a very suburban city, but it has a few pretty walkable neighborhoods. Fourth Ward is really just a part of downtown by most locals' definitions. Southend would be the most walkable non-downtown neighborhood, and arguably the most walkable even including downtown because it not only has 2 full sized grocery stores and a great deal of offices, but it also has a lot more entertainment options, and the transit (light rail) is just as good as it is in Uptown. I personally live without a car in Southend.
I was going to say the same thing. Fourth Ward is so small, it's not really thought of as a separate neighborhood but rather just a part of uptown. SouthEnd should definitely be number one. If it was affordable, I'd love to live there. I've lived car-free in Charlotte for many many years and I love the density of SouthEnd; it's so easy to get to multiple places quickly.
I live in Charlotte and 4th ward is probably the best neighborhood in the city if you were to live car free. I’d say the low average home price is due to there being lots of older (‘80s) garden style condos in the area. But I would consider 4th ward to be part of Uptown (what we call the downtown).
And also the South being really good at building lots of housing owing to easier regulations leading to generally lower prices throughout its cultural sphere of influence.
isn't this neighborhood getting the gateway transit center‽
@@pureessenceofgaming1745 Kind of. It'll be right on the edge of 4th Ward.
As someone who lives in the not walkable nice part of town I feel conflicted by winning this list
He skipped over the Charlotte lynx system completely
I grew up in Lincoln, NE, and in the 1980s it was an incredibly walkable city overall, which was especially important as a kid. Lincoln has an abundance of neighborhood schools, which meant I walked to school through high school. It has lots of parks, and an amazing system of bike trails. Like many mid-western cities, it is laid out on a 1 mile grid, so most of the time commercial hubs were no more than 1/2 mile +/- from the center of residential neighborhoods. And the university is right next to downtown, which keeps downtown walkable and vibrant. Unfortunately, most of the growth that the City has undergone in the past three decades or so has been in the form of car-oriented, suburban sprawl style development on the outskirts of the city. Considering my experience growing up there, I was surprised to find out the city only has a Walk Score (tm) of 45! It's such a shame that a City I found so walkable in my youth is slowly losing that identity
I lived in Lincoln for grad school without a car. The disadvantage is that you have to live in the conservative hellhole that is Nebraska.
@@Patrick_from_TH-cam Very true.
Just went to Lincoln a few years ago and really blew me away.
great video as always. i know this wouldn't qualify for the video for at least two reasons, but hayward, california comes to mind. it's a very stroady, largely postwar suburb of oakland, and although downtown is also plagued with some one-way stroads, i've found it to be rather a pleasant place to be a pedestrian. a healthy commercial district anchors a BART station, a park, some municipal buildings (including a neat library), and quite a bit of new-build mid-density housing. there's even a full grocery store!
As someone who grew up in San Leandro (right between Oakland/Hayward), I've always been a bit jealous of the downtown experience Hayward has in comparison to ours. At least SL has the marina, so there's that...?
Yeah, there's a whole category of "walkable neighborhood" I kinda disqualified by ignoring cities under 250K and downtowns -- which is suburbs with intact downtown fabric and newer TOD mixed in. Hayward's a great example.
Downtown Hayward is definitely shocking to me at least for the area. The southern portion of the east bay is relatively suburban but the amount of density in the downtown is unusually good. However it's not surprising due to the fact that these areas were settled pretty early on as railroad suburbs, so I guess there is a large amount of medium density.
Still….those stroads are just awful. Vacancy rate post Covid is for the momentvbad
If you want walkability, why live in Hayward when you could live in Oakland?
I've been weaning off of city planning videos because they make me so depressed about living in the US, but this gave me some hope!
Not officially a district, but I'd like to nominate all of Hoboken, NJ. It's a 1-mile grid where you can walk to do just about anything, and somehow my commute to midtown Manhattan is shorter and easier than when I lived in each borough of NYC. Its walk score is an astronomical 98.
west campus is not going to work unless your a UT student. it is walkable and dense but your going to be the only non enrolled person in the area, basically a city within a city. its called west campus(for a reason) because your in the area zoned for university housing west of the campus. i would wanna live far away from UT. i believe it would be more convenient living closer to downtown or other densified areas with work near by and with closer access to essential places like grocery stores. makes for an easier commute. i love all your videos and thanks.
Since I'm on the topic of Ohio urbanism, (and I'm from there), I figured I'd say this about cities in that state. The 3Cs (Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland) all have at least one aspect that is great, but is like missing an aspect that the other major C has. Cincinnati has incredible walkable neighborhoods, gorgeous Victorian architecture, high quality legacy institutions (some amazing parks and old school arts orgs) but is missing a willingness to embrace new ideas and transit. Columbus is the most progressive of the 3 cities with the university allowing the place to be more diverse and willing to try new things, but past high street it really lacks any great neighborhoods for the most part. Cleveland actually has a good bus / train network, but is missing the economic opportunities that both Cincinnati and esp Columbus have.
Combine the strengths of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland into one package and you'd get an amazing city - I'd love a Cincinnati that had a good transit network and a progressive population - probably would be considered one of America's best cities if that reality was true...
sucks with cincy too cus historically it had so many different kinds of transit systems, busses, a canal, street cars, that big incline thing, trains, the river(s)! (the spooky subwya that never made it) if you can find pictures of neighborhoods outside downtown and compare them to now you can see how entire neighborhoods got destroyed by a highway barreling through it.
hopefully theres a way to keep the aesthetic architectures while going for better transit systems and infrastructure. and hopefully it stays cheap so locals can stay and get the benefits of this
Contrarian call. Canton, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Harbor East, Charles Village & Bolton Hill. All in Baltimore, MD which has >200 neighborhoods.
Dupont Circle in DC is my neighborhood which is very walkable and pedestrian friendly with lots of shops, restaurants, gyms and my health care provider, Kaiser Permanente. I'm only a short walk to Downtown DC, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, West End, Foggy Bottom and Columbia Heights , but the rent is outrageous.
Living in LA, we have a lot of walkable nodes spread out across the vast sprawling region. However, one of the most enjoyable walkable section of LA County is Downtown Pasadena (yes, Big Bang Theory!). A city of about 142,000 people, the downtown is comprised of mostly 4 districts with one of the most beautiful civic centers in the country (the city Hall was used in the TV show Parks and Recs). The downtown has Metro rail access to Downtown LA and has a historic Old Pasadena as well as a financial district along South Lake Ave. Some notable mentions would be: Caltech is here, Norton Simon museum, Vromans Bookstore (oldest and largest independent bookstore in SoCal), Pacific Asia Museum (second largest Asian museum in the country after SF), Playhouse Theatre (official state theater of CA), Ice House Comedy (oldest comedy club in the USA!), the Rose Parade goes down Colorado Blvd every new years. I'm excited that we're beginning construction on our first fully protected bike lane this month in June 2022 finishing in March 2023. And a brand new Playhouse Village Park is opening later this summer creating a beautiful new urban park walkable to a dense walkable neighborhood. It would be great if you considered doing a video about this urban gem within sprawling car oriented LA! If you would like a walking tour, I would love to show you around!
Great video, always interesting to look at other cities.
I spent my first 23 years in OKC, left for St. Louis 31+ years ago. Use a power wheelchair to walk/roll around for nearly 14 years.
Sidewalks in OKC are very few. I visited once with my wheelchair - arrived via Amtrak after visiting Dallas/Ft. Worth. I had to stay downtown or very close to downtown to safely navigate.
The Paseo is very interesting, the developer replatted a corner of existing lots to create the cute commercial street. Lots of great frame bungalows.
As a wheelchair user walkable has to include sidewalks, curb ramps, stores with accessible entrances, etc.
I've found St. Louis extremely walkable when I've visited, For a wheelchair user, is the difference between St. Louis and OKC pretty drastic? It seems like it.
This is great information. As a fellow wheelchair user, thanks!
Regarding accessibility, I’ve had similar experiences in a suburban town in Virginia called Lynchburg. Once I arrived there on Amtrak, I found myself sticking to the downtown, and anywhere beyond that I often had to take an Uber. Although I don’t use a wheelchair, I agree sidewalks are an obvious must, plus (since I’m visually impaired) pedestrian signals and abundant transit
My rough, generalized understanding of Charlotte is that walkability isn't a really factor when buying/renting.
Most people are looking at neighborhoods where the taxes are low (so usually outside of CLT) and/or the schools have a positive reputation. Which is rare for most neighborhoods in CLT, except in the more affluent suburbs. Plus, crime is another big factor and people tend to think our downtown (aka Uptown) is crime-ridden.
Not surprisingly, our traffic is pretty terrible, and we are usually in the top 20 for vehicular crashes in the US.
I was really surprised to see Charlotte on this list, but I'll have to have a walk-around in the 4th ward and check it out
I've lived in Louisville for most of my life and you'd be right to expect more walkability from the satellite imagery and street view. It has great historic bones. Where it misses the mark so often is that there are massive voids of essential retail like grocery stores. Ultimately forcing people to drive for everyday errands regardless of the potential for walkability. For instance, the Highlands area that you highlighted has tons of coffee shops, restaurants, and boutiques, but there is really just one actual grocery store within feasible walking distance for only a portion of the residents. It's the Valu Market in the mid city mall that's surrounded by an enormous parking lot on every side. Then you have a 2.2 mile walk (40 minutes according to Google maps,) down Bardstown road to get to the next Kroger where you can actually buy vegetables and not just a bag of dorritos, a bong, or a vintage derby dress from the 80's. Our downtown is the same story but worse. There are, to my knowledge, almost no essential grocery and general retail in downtown for residents. Just straight up doesn't exist. Which pretty much defeats the potential for walkability when the nearest place to buy groceries is nearly a 45 min walk in one direction.
Totally agree. Louisville has a pretty bad food desert issue, especially in the south and west neighborhoods. I use to live in Old Louisville and frequented the second street Kroger which is now a brewery...
I would imagine a lot of the issue is that WalkScore uses city proper, and Louisville, being a consolidated city-county, incorporates so much of its suburbia in the city proper.
That applies to Nashville[-Davidson] too; I'm sure the core neighborhoods don't look like what you'd expect from 28 walkscore
Miss walking along high street!
The Short North in Columbus is a very popular District filled with interesting restaurants, bars, shops and art galleries. Twenty or 25 years ago, this area had a very shady reputation. It’s flanked by two historic, but also densifying neighborhoods: Victorian Village to the west and Italian Village to the east. With all the development in Italian Village and adjacent Jeffrey Place, 4th Street has evolved into a major retail street unto itself, with lots of great bars and the Budd Dairy Food Hall. Another highly walkable neighborhood of note in Cbus is German Village. Located just south of downtown, but east of South High Street, German Village was the first privately established historic district in the country. It’s filled with beautiful brick cottages on brick streets and brick paver sidewalks. Well worth checking out!
German Village would've made this list if I'd included more than one neighborhood from each city.
yeah Short North was sketchy AF in the 90s
I love German Village in Columbus! Thanks for mentioning.
I currently moved to Columbus. German Village and Italian Village are the only two neighborhoods I would consider living in. Columbus is putting a lot of work into their urban neighborhoods to turn it into a real, identifiable city, but they are still a good 20 years away from making that happen. The massive northern sprawl makes the city feel like a sun belt city and not a Midwestern one.
All of the near-east neighborhoods in columbus have the bones to be amazing, walkable neighborhoods except they currently lack essentials like grocery stores because of disinvestment and redlining. Also it is 100% called The Short North lol
I’m so flattered you used my idea. The formula for the analysis was perfect. 👍
It was a great idea! Every city has its good parts...even cities in Oklahoma!
North Carolinian here! 4th ward has a wide mix of housing types, ranging from single family homes to high rise condos in The Vue as you mentioned. The housing price you listed seemed extremely low, and I guarantee you aren't getting one of the houses for that, but that average could be coming from some of the small apartment style condos being sold in that range. A 1-bedroom apartment style condo in that area could go around there, but any of the larger units or townhouses or single-family homes that are all in that area would definitely start at a couple hundred thousand more.
Some things worth mentioning, the Wards in Charlotte divide up the central business district (which we call Uptown) 1st -4th, so I'm not 100% sure if they technically count for your criteria of leaving out downtown, but 1st and 4th ward have extensive mixed residential styles and commercial areas so they are great for walking. The walkability gets hurt at the edge of those neighborhoods because of I-277, the ring road around Uptown.
Some of neighborhoods just outside of Uptown (like Cherry, Dilworth, South End) would have made your list if 4th Ward didn't, the city as a whole can be pretty poor for walking, which is partly because areas that would be suburbs elsewhere are inside the city limits proper in Charlotte, but a few of the neighborhoods close to the center are decent and trying to improve the walkability/bikeability.
Oh, and P.S. you mentioned NHL as walkable from 4th Ward, the Carolina Hurricanes are in Raleigh not Charlotte, we have the Charlotte Checkers, an AHL hockey team, but they play in Bojangles Coliseum which, sadly, is definitely not walkable from much of anywhere. The Panthers (NFL), the Hornets (NBA), the Knights (Minor league baseball with a great stadium), and soon to be Charlotte FC (MLS) are all exceptionally walkable though so those a big walking perk for those neighborhoods.
@@stephenjoshd2 Yep, I got the NHL location wrong for sure.
Charlotte has like 4-5 inner "neighborhoods" (that are kinda downtown) that would've made this list if I'd decided to include more than one. There is probably no other city in the US with a higher variance between inner neighborhood character and outer neighborhood character.
Short North and the neighborhoods adjacent to it are amazing and some of the most walkable in Ohio! The architecture of the houses is also really beautiful. Sadly the rest of the city is a car-centric hellhole, but that area between Downtown and the university is amazing. I think one thing that you could have put on this list from Ohio is Lakewood, Ohio. It's a really dense and walkable urban city next to Cleveland. Every neighborhood is close to a commercial district, no school busses so kids walk to school, walking distance to Lake Erie, etc. But it's technically a separate city so it wouldn't count on this list.
Just started watching your show, great stuff! I guess it's considered FAIRLY walkable by Walk Score standards, but the Historic Third Ward in Milwaukee is a gorgeous neighborhood just south of the Downtown. Lots of historic renovations, the Public Market, and now a streetcar stop. One of my favorite urban neighborhoods to visit.
In Dayton Ohio, they’ve been making some strides to make it more friendly, but the most walkable place in the whole city is the Oregon District. The only downside to the place is that there isn’t a conveniently placed grocery store anywhere near…
I work in Greensboro, and there have been several high-rise residential developments/re-developments in the past couple few years. The south end of downtown and the area around the baseball stadium have also seen a boom in apartments/condo development. In spite of this, downtown Greensboro doesn't seem terrible vibrant, although that may be slowly changing.
As for Charlotte, 20 years ago you couldn't have paid me to live inside the inner beltway. Now, I couldn't afford to live there.
So glad to finally see some Columbus praise albeit a small portion. I recognized short north in the thumbnail right away! I love Columbus but totally recognize there is so much that can be done to improve livability. But for being a car dependent city it’s very effective, travel time is very low and parking isn’t a hassle.
Great video! Speaking of streetcar allignments, perhaps you should do a video on the top 10 streetcar networks in North America. Perhaps not only service quality/system size, but also how well it integrates into the city and how well it is used. It would basically be a bloodbath between Toronto and every other city, but a lot of new streetcar lines are popping up across the US and it would be nice to see which is the best one.
He actually mentioned in a previous video he doesn't like streetcars.
@@Coltoid Ha, I like riding them! I don't know that they're the best public investment.
I will do something on light rail at some point -- assuming that's what you mean! I think when we talk about "streetcars" in the US these days, it's almost always a one-off downtown circulator, and not any kind of network.
The only thing that keeps Toronto’s streetcar network from being truly amazing is the lack of priority signals on Spadina, St Clair, The Queensway, and Queens Quay/Fleet St. Oh also the King corridor needs to be more strongly car-free
one of my favorite (fairly) walkable neighborhoods would be candler park in atlanta. there's a small grocery store, multiple restaurants, a large park all within the neighborhood (plus little 5 points immediately to the west within walking distance), along with easy access to transit with a marta station serving it. only downsides off the top of my head would be the lack of density as it is mainly single-family homes, and a golf course taking up a large chunk of valuable space.
L5P is pretty rad
Love the Flying Biscuit and the Lake Claire Land Trust, too.
I love the concept of looking at these types of areas that contrast the rest of the city
Clarksville, Austin (west of downtown) and Montrose, Houston are probably good contenders for this list too IMO. If you do want to include downtowns, I think Sioux Falls, Stamford (CT), and Tulsa all fit the bill pretty well too as both residential-friendly and strong commercial districts.
i was going to say Montrose, too! I lived there and it was surprisingly walkable, despite lack of sidewalks.
I would say Galveston too. Also I think magnolia park is even more walkable than montrose.
What are your thoughts about Sioux Falls, do you mean in South Dakota?
@@andrejka_talking_out_loud yes, in SD. downtown is walkable but the rest of the city / state is not.
I was surprised Montrose in Houston didn't make this list, once you consider the size of the land area and the sheer amount of bars, restaurants, and coffee shops, 329 to be exact according to walkscore. A lot more offerings than the neighborhoods on this list. However it didn't meet the differential he was looking for. Citywide score 47 Montrose 86 = 39 differential.
Just discovered your channel and wanted to THANK YOU for the work that you do. It’s so valuable and there’s not enough analysis like this. You really put the time in to research and it is much appreciated. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Spenard may not look like much from that view, but it’s one of the most interesting neighborhoods in Anchorage-and other than Mountain View (most diverse neighborhood in US), it probably has the strongest identity. It used to be full of bars and strip clubs but has had a lot of new development in the last several years. They’ve been rebuilding Spenard Road section by section to be more pedestrian friendly with higher density mixed use buildings. The bank on the corner of the intersection you Street Viewed has been looking for an investor to redevelop the corner with a higher density design for a few years now-statewide budget recession might be blamed for lack of movement there.
Spenard is home to the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, the state’s largest independent bookstore, plus another great smaller book cafe that hosts authors and musicians, lots of quirky local shops and restaurants, local theatre, and other community gathering and event spaces. It even has its own local newsletter, The Spenardian.
So, with only a quick look, it’s not much, but it’s full of history and promise.
DJ Tyson you are right on the money with your Spenard analysis, but don't forget one of the big lame things about Spenard is that it's major residential area to the west is separated from the retail sector by a 45-50 mph 6-7 lane Stroad called Minnesota Blvd. This terrible and dangerous roadway with crosswalks only every 1/4 mile is like a canyon separating retail and residential Spenard.
@@savefishcreek Good point! I have seen an exciting proposed redesign for Minnesota, but I’d imagine that’s years down the line. But that traffic corridor is never going away, unfortunately, even if does get a little more comfortable to walk beside and cross it.
@Zaydan Naufal Haha, no. Not the same. 😁
Was that blue building in the video once a wings n things?
@@markbajek2541 Negative. Before it was a hobby/craft store, it was an art supply store.
I'd like to see a video comparing the evolution of suburb "urban planning" throughout time and seeing the pros and cons between past and present. Maybe a top 10 most walkable suburbs as you talk about when their main growth occurred and how it compares to the average suburb. Love your videos, by the way!
Cool idea, thanks!
You can see the difference between a streetcar suburb versus those built for cars where I live in Columbus Ohio. The intersection of N. High Street and Kelso Road was a terminus for a main streetcar line for years (and a location for a great old amusement park).* The streetcar suburb houses were built without garages on small lots. Less than a mile north on N. High St are suburbs developed from the 1930's between West North Broadway and Morse Road. Here there are detached garages and larger lots for the most part. You can see the transition from 2 story houses to sprawling ranches as you go from south of the Whetstone Park of Roses to the north. For maps and photos:
* This article by the local PBS station details the rise and fall of streetcars in Cbus. There's a great photo of the electric arches in the Short North dated 1908. news.wosu.org/news/2016-11-23/curious-cbus-what-happened-to-columbuss-streetcars
Hey CityNerd! I personally live in The Short North after graduating and I have to tell you, it’s great! It’s my favorite neighborhood in Columbus next to German Village (another walkable neighborhood, look it up sometime, it’s south of downtown!). There’s a large park with an historic Victorian village surrounding it which hugs high street itself. With Ohio State being along high street a couple miles north, my friends and I would walk down to the short north and explore. Overall a really accessible place for the locals to enjoy.
The Clifton Neighborhood in Cincinnati is great. Lots of little local shops. Only has Buses but they run on schedule. There is an independent grocery store there as well.
I have a job interview in Columbus in a few weeks and I'd love to move there, but was a little worried about the walkability. So i'm glad to see Short North made the list!
You’re gonna love it here!
The Nashville price seems accurate - it would be higher now! Nashville has prices that almost keep up with expensive coastal cities (I know because I divide my time between DC and Nashville). FWIW, it also has quite a few other walkable neighborhoods, despite the city at large being very unwalkable. You basically drive between cute little neighborhoods and spend your day there. Some, like Belmont-Hillsboro and 12South are even more expensive.
While St. Louis itself probably doesn't score too bad on walkability, (because its borders were fixed in 1876) I still think it applies due to the wider metro being very car-oriented. That said, the older parts of south city are very walkable, beautiful, and still pretty cheap. Soulard and Lafayette Square are decently well known, but a little further out are Benton Park and Tower Grove, which have the city's most diverse commercial corridors along Cherokee and Grand and gorgeous, distinctive architecture.
Yeah, I agree with your assessment -- I was actually "disappointed" to see St. Louis
Walk Score as high as it is, because that effectively disqualified it from this list. St. Louis has incredible urban fabric. I love Grand -- actually never been down to Cherokee, but would love to check it out. Benton Park West would've been the neighborhood to show up on here, with Soulard not far behind.
I've done a lot of looking on Redfin at St. Louis and depends on the exact block you're looking at, the walkscore is usually in the 70s, sometimes 80s. There was one house with a walkscore of 90 and a bikescore of 82! Of course it was only 1 block away from grand in TGE. So a Shnucks is also in walking distance for that house.
@@CityNerd The Delmar Loop is another great walkable neighborhood, even though it is technically just outside of the city limits in University City. Since it borders Forest Park it feels like it is part of St. Louis, though.
Thanks. I love South city and it still has so many great neighborhood bars and restaurants that have been there forever. I live in the west end so Euclid and this area is great for walking and biking too
@@CityNerd Cherokee St. east of Jefferson is great--but you go to the part west of Jefferson, and you see a lot of edginess, to the point that it gets too seedy for my taste. I saw someone writhing around on the sidewalk in his underwear, and the police were being called by nearby residents.
It's dangerous at night from what I've heard.
I really liked that you included real estate prices on this list!
Great video! I think San Diego would be an interesting example to look at. As a city, it’s extremely car centric. However, many neighborhoods, especially those in and around downtown/Balboa Park are surprisingly walkable (eg Little Italy, North Park, University Heights).
Same with places around Pacific Beach, OB, etc. Even places in North County have pretty walkable pockets, before getting sucked into the abyss of Carmel Valley/Poway/4S Ranch etc
Lots of walkable neighbors in SD. Very similar to Austin; perfect city for scooters and e-bikes.
@@SpencerHeckwolf I would like to switch to biking in SD. I live in Hillcrest and I could get around to all the central stuff fine. But I'm a UCSD student too and getting to la jolla is a pain. They need to improve the light rail system for sure
@@deathtosquids lmao OB is not walkable, especially going up to Point Loma, it's horrible
@@Ignaciombr I live in OB and it's extremely walkable -- it's just that walking isn't a viable way to get up into Point Loma or over to Midway, since it's either too steep or too far. But getting around OB on foot is super easy.
I'm not sure what you consider point to point distance for walkability but if you ever decide to do a small town score. Take a look at Ludington, MI . If you live a block or 3 East of downtown but S of the main drag Ludington Ave. You could easily walk west to downtown , bars, restaurants , touristy stuff , library , court/city hall and the badger. (ferry across the lake to Wisconsin) IF you decide to walk East you'll hit a full line grocery at about 1.2 miles , hospital closer than that and pharmacy about 1/2- 3/4 miles. IF you decided to live car free , the city has door to door bus service (sort of like a cab) for $1-$3 each way depending on your age or if you are handicapped. that will take you to a second pharmacy, urgent care, Walmart, Meijer, and Aldi , Lowes, HD, and two dollar stores in the more big boxy corridor. The downside are the winters for walking since the sidewalks aren't shoveled often enough and you are forced to walk in the actual street that typically get's plowed n salted. But after Labor day that town almost rolls up it's sidewalks and you could easily walk in the street with little fear of getting hit as the tourist population and seasonal home owners have vanished (Most housing is under $300K)
Love it - would also love to see access to public transit added to the list. Some of these neighborhoods look pretty nice, but leave me wondering if the people there have to still own a car to commute based off the distance they fall from office heavy downtown areas or... ugh... suburban office parks.
Since I don't drive at all, Walkscore especially just for a neighborhood feels almost irrelevant. What about employment opportunities, getting to healthcare, everything else in life...
@@liren.varghese Well, you can work remote and for healthcare you can also do it online technically, unless it is to complicated, then you will probably need a car yes.
@@adelaide7822 Healthcare…. Really…
@@peskypigeonx yes, it depends of course on what type of healthcare you need, and I think most people won't be able to do a regular checkup on themselves, but I honestly have a hard time imagining not having a GP in a short distance, that seems like it should be mandatory or something..
Mental healthcare and things like prescriptions can be done over video calls, though I can understand not everyone might feel comfortable with that.
Late to this video, but I did live in the Spenard neighborhood in the 90’s. And I was car free for the first four years. Within walking distance, I had two grocery stores, a comic book store, sporting goods store, dollar movie theater, restaurants, record store, live music bar, local coffeehouse, and of course, my job. Yes, crossing Northern Lights Boulevard in the winter was a pain.
Among the cities on this list, Charlotte stands out as the only one that has a rail transit system although Austin does have a commuter rail line. Charlotte's Fourth Ward neighborhood is alongside the Gold Line (streetcar) and just beyond the Blue Line (light rail). My understanding is that voters have approved taxes to build a light rail system in Austin, and it is currently in the planning stages.
Rail system does mean anything for walkable.
Outside NY, SF, DC metro, people drive to rail station.
Usually many cities have rails have terible walkable environment. Well people drive to train stations
I dont drive, so i know what It means
@@commentorsilensor3734 At the suburban end of a commuter rail line, walkability is often poor. People drive to the stations. The downtown end is different. You can't take your car with you on the train.
@@gregvassilakos You cannot take car trains. That is what the wa!kability issues in rail stations in suburb. No car rental agency is going to station at every station at suburb.
Usually union station surrounding has walk score.
In LA, anything along Red line has high walk score. Wait, that area already had high walk score long before construction of Red line
That's my rail outside downtown has very low walk scores
@@commentorsilensor3734 So if you live in one of the suburbs on the Metrolink system (low walkability) and work in downtown Los Angeles (high walkability), you drive to the Metrolink station, take the train to Union Station, and transfer to one of the light rail or subway lines that is within walking distance of your job location. Thousands of people do this every day. Perhaps your point is that far more people use Metrolink for commuting inbound to downtown Los Angeles as opposed to commuting outbound to the suburbs or between suburbs. I would agree, but there are exceptions. For many years, my sister used Metrolink to commute from her home in San Bernardino to her job as a librarian at Claremont Colleges.
@@gregvassilakos this is walkwbility. If you have to drive to take puhlic transportation, the walk score has to reduce to 80,%. Walk score means how much you can walk to get to grocery stores. If its too far, how easy it is to utilize public transportation.
BTW, outside USA, lower score walkable means take 30 minutes rail, buses , and or walk. Most metrolink stations are more than 30 minute walking distance.
Have you seen people taking commuter rail to get gocery, hosptals, getting alcohol,
Besides m, no one.
It took me 4 hours to get to hospital by taking metrolink, bus n walk 60 minues. That is very walkable forcd to walk. Btw, that is 30 minute driving distance in heavy traffic. You call that high walk score.
I can tlk about stupid idea sbout driving to train station n pretend to care about environment, traffic congestion.
This topic is about walk score. Driving to station is contradictory to walk score matrix
I’m happy to hear Westport, KC on this list. I live in the next neighborhood over and even though Westport has been known for bars and such, the surrounding neighborhoods are just as walkable. Within 15 mins I can walk to 2 different hospitals, 2 grocery stores, hardware store, countless restaurants, a really nice wooded park and lots more. Soon the streetcar will be expanded within that range as well 🙌🏼
Columbus is actually known as the Arch City! The original arches were build in 1888 from wood and lit by gas lanterns to help decorate the city after being chosen to host the centennial anniversary of the northwestern territory! The arches are obviously now metal with LED lights and can be programmed for special occasions! (rainbow for pride, red white and blue for independence day, etc.) love the attention you give my home town! And yes, I would most certainly say 'THE' Short North! Lol
The arches are really cool and distinctive.
Check on the Congaree Vista section of Columbia, SC. Of the places you listed, it's probably similar to Short North in Columbus.
Charlotte is an interesting case in terms of walk score because it’s such a suburban city. But there are quite a few urban neighborhoods that are super easy to get around, happy to see 4th ward made the top spot on this list!
I've been a tourist in Charlotte a couple times and have enjoyed walking around the downtown area, I even got to ride the Lynx Blue Line extension not too long after it opened, all of it was a good experience.
The downtown yea but that’s it
New to Nashville, but the price for East End makes sense. East Nashville is known for high prices. There's a Kroger near West End and Turnip Truck for a more local type grocer.
The short north is very walkable and influences a lot of areas by it. You have the Victorian and Italian village to the west and east of it. Downtown and German village to the south of it, and campus and old north to the north of it. That entire drag right there, from north to south, is about 5ish miles of walking paradise for a city that is car centeric. Like a lot of old us cities, the arches were apart of the comprehensive tram system that was ripped up by GM in the late 40s. Shortly afterwards, I-670 was built to the airport and regular train service from Amtrak was cut off. In the early 00s, the city spent over 15 million dollars in taxes I believe to restore the historic arches. They’re just an aesthetic and there has been no LRT or even BRT built to go along with them. There was a proposal in 2006/07 from the federal government to connect the three “c’s.” The governor at the time rejected it, saying something like Ohioans aren’t going to spend extra tax dollars to build something they don’t need (shocker, right?!) the money instead went to Portland, Seattle, cinci and I believe Atlanta
There were talks from COTA to build LRT/BRT as a flagship if the 3 c’s train corridor was approved and built. Instead, a decade later, we got the shitty CMAX line. It’s faux BRT and only has priority signaling, 10-15 minute headway’s and some fancy stops. Still gets stuck in traffic tho, and there’s still on board payment
Anyways, to end the rant, the LRT and 3 c’s corridor would have saved a lot of money for a lot of Ohioans including those who were in Columbus during the 08 recession as more people would have looked to use other modes of transportation. We would have also improved further adding more lines to that existing system today, but alas we are fighting for crumbs to build any sort of transit development in the city. Did you know a lot of our most used bus stops on high street share parking pick ups and drop offs for delivery drivers?? Fucking excellent
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, WA/OR got some of that Ohio HSR money and promptly spent it on a new Portland-Seattle alignment that we still can't use yet because the first train on the first day of service derailed horrifically. (Actually I don't know if that's where the Ohio money went...but it's still absurd.) Thanks for the additional detail.
So happy to see my hometown of OKC on a top 10 list. Most of the city is unfortunately designed for the car and has a very long way to go in terms of urban design, but I love the few pockets of walkable neighborhoods in the Paseo, Plaza, brick town, midtown, and uptown. Hopefully as infill continues and transit improves we can climb the ranks of this list! There's a streetcar downtown and BRT-ish is coming to a very heavily traveled corridor on the NWX/Classen.
I live in Austin Texas in the West University / Hyde Park neighborhood (right on the boundary between) and for a city that's SO car-dependent, this neighborhood is pretty great for walkers and even cyclists. People drive fast and the roads can be a little scary for the latter, though.
The city has some plans to bolster the walkability of this neighborhood with a light rail line and improved cycling infrastructure down "The Drag" (Guadalupe), which is the main strip that borders UT and has some awesome dense urban vibes and cool stuff to do
Also as far as the Redfin prices go, that number seems fairly out of date. Prices here have ballooned in the last year. You might be able to find a studio condo for $345k, but a house is basically out of the question for that part of town and that price.
Once again, statistically sprawling Oklahoma City gets love from an urbanist for one of its great urban neighborhoods. Sidewalks weren't mandated by the city for decades until several years ago. Paseo is a terrific neighborhood, and that map capture shows some of the food highlights of OKC -- Asian grocery Super Cao Nguyen, nationally-renown Pho Lien Hoa, dynamite southwestern cuisine at Frida, and the upscale comfort-food cafe Cheevers. Stop by the Paseo District on the first Friday of every month for the lively gallery crawl.
Paseo has such a unique feel to it.
Really cool idea! Good job coming through with the stats and research - really interesting.
Really enjoy your channel and contributions. Moved and to Columbus in 1968. Currently live in an inner rung suburb of Whitehall that has under gone rough economic times, but is is coming back and attracted business increasing an economic base. For over ten years, I have been car free, or shared a car. Surrounded by amenities, such as Walmart, a couple of Krogers, Lowe's, countless restaurant chains, great public transit routes. CVS, Walgreens. Numerous places of worship. Residential density with roads that are walkable and bikeable. Newer apartment buildings with retail space have been built and in the process of being built. A suggestion of a video of once vibrant neighborhoods that experienced hard economic times, but are going through a rebirth that are walkable and bikeable. There is an interesting book on the history of Whitehall, Ohio that has ties to aviation, and 50's and 60's Rat Pack entertainment era.
Hopefully, politicians in the US can see the success of walkable neighborhoods and will implement them more
Highland Park / Lakeview in Birmingham Alabama is where I’ve lived for the last year. I’m kinda surprised it didn’t make the cut! Great video 👍
I think the reason you were surprised by Louisville proper's low walk score was that the city is one of the few that was able to annex much of the surrounding suburbs. So a lot of "Louisville" is sprawl even though the historic streetcar-core is more walkable.
Used to live near Paseo , OKC when I was in college and now my son lives just off The Drag , Austin while he's in college. Like your videos!
Correction for the record Charlotte North Carolina does not have an NHL team!
The Carolina hurricanes play in Raleigh North Carolina.
The Charlotte Checkers (AHL team) play in The Bojangles’ Coliseum an hour walk away.
I know, I totally blew that -- and after I had researched Raleigh for my NHL/NBA video!
@@CityNerd this is probably going to be the only time I have the personal knowledge to actually correct you so I am savoring it.
Love your videos.
I live in Jacksonville and one of the best walkable neighborhoods here is Riverside. Old homes and buildings on the St. Johns river with a Publix, lots of restaurants, parks, and a museum.
The arches in Columbus, Ohio were erected in 1888 were erected for a convention of union army veterans. A really good info/history documentary about the Short North neighborhood and the arches can be found here: th-cam.com/video/dn9UNZFc2_A/w-d-xo.html The neighborhoods of Italian Village, Victorian Village, and Fly Town are often lumped into the Short North. The Italian Village hosts the Columbus Italian festival every year. Also a couple major arterial COTA bus lines run down high st in the short north which is both a positive and a negative because traffic often creeps along at a really slow pace and makes transit travel times really uncompetitive.
It was fun to see Kansas City's Westport here. I agree with it's walkability. Grocery store, a range of other stores from chains (World Market), independent locals, and dollar type stores, a library, lots of restaurants and bars, a range of housing options ... Another way that an unwaljable city becomes walkable is a good transit option. The streetcar being expanded in Kansas City connects various neighborhoods on the Main Street corridor so if my neighborhood doesn't have a grocery store, I can hop on and take a short ride to one that does.
Saw Columbus in the thumbnail so I clicked it real quick. I live there and go to The Short North quite often. It's the most popular dining and entertainment area of the city. The Long Street is quite walkable but I wish they had more than just housing on the side streets
towson/circle east maryland 21204 new whole foods just opened up insane development
West Campus I’d largely students. It’s also arguably the densest neighborhood in Texas. With 18,000+ largely in 0.5 square miles. It’s also getting massive infill like you said.
Austin’s expensive but it’s only truly expensive compared to other Texas cities. You have the same prices in California and I think it’s more comparable to Sacramento, rather than an L.A/San Diego or San Francisco. The main issue with Austin is the desirable portions are really expensive. But the parts of the city that are less desirable aren’t that bad. Which sounds self-explanatory but even in some parts of L.A and San Francisco that are considered bad are still crazy expensive.
Another benefit Austin gets is that the undesirable places are largely undesirable due to questionable schools, rather than rampant crime. So it’s a city that’s supercharged for Gentrification. So living in a bad area is far more of an option in Austin vs. the other Texas cities were folks simply avoid them as an option unless it’s a gentrifying neighborhood.
Hughes Landing and the Woodlands Waterway are actually very walkable neighborhoods in the north Houston Metro area with lots of restaurants, bars, stores, sidewalks everywhere and even a trolley route that connects the two areas
I think the opposite of this could be interesting - unwalkable neighbourhoods in stereotypically walkable cities.
PS: Charlotte Checkers are an AHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes play out of Raleigh :P
Oh man, I can't believe I messed that up. I actually looked at the arena in Raleigh for my NHL/NBA arenas video! Thanks for the idea, too.
Plus the Checkers play in the….wait for it… Bojangles Coliseum!!
We have a good few of these in south brooklyn
Excited to see Greensboro make an appearance in the honorable mentions. I lived in the historic southeastern building right center of downtown and what you said about not seeing a lot of residencies is spot on. Unfortunately the downtown area almost solely serves as a business district during the day and a nightclub/bar scene at night, so it doesn’t feel very much like a community considering the majority of people there at any given time drove there from a suburb.
That being said it has a downtown greenway, some nice bikeable streets, and some decent corner stores to shop at within walking distance. Check out the greensboro southern railway station if you’re ever in the area! It’s a beautiful historic station with a lot of its original charm.
Keep up the great videos!
Ha, I definitely peeked at the train station when I was exploring on Maps. I will have to check it out -- I'd love to spend more time exploring North Carolina!
I don’t know if you’d consider San Diego unwalkable on a city scale, but South Park is a great example of a walkable neighborhood, with great bike and a decent bus option. Not too much density, but just an absolutely charming neighborhood.
Glad you have something nice to say about KC at long last. It's one of my favorite cities, I've found its central areas quite walkable and pleasant.
Another outstanding video. I thought maybe Fort Wayne could show up in this one until you said you were excluding downtowns. Oh well. I look forward to a future video where Fort Wayne makes the cut somehow, someday, good or bad!
I had the same thought! West Central could pass, I suppose, simply for its proximity to DT. Unfortunately, it would also fail the grocery store test lol unless you count George's off Broadway.
Poplar wasn't far off from making this list!
I think your dry delivery is hilarious. Love your work!
This technically doesn't follow your criteria but Hamtramck is a small city entirely surrounded by Detroit and it pretty walkable compared to the city as a whole
I have an idea for a video, least pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods in the most walkable cities in the country, basically the opposite of this one.
Love all your videos.
I lived in Italian Village in the early 2000's, which is right next to the Short North. The Short North is a wonderful area and is definitely walkable for restaurants and bars. From what I understand, the name Short North was what police use to call it back when it was a pretty bad area. But it started to change. There was (and probably still is) a great LBTQ presence. I had visited Columbus before I moved there and I remember when there was no Short North Cap over the freeway. It felt really separated from downtown since you walked along the street with just a fence overlooking the highway. After they added the cap, it was really nice and completely connected the neighborhoods. It felt like one continuous urban space from the Convention Center and the Farmer's Market up through into the Short North.
Thanks for the comment. More on freeway caps coming soon!
I worked at a restaurant on Nationwide Blvd (parallel to the freeway) back in '91 and I agree that the freeway was a big barrier to pedestrian traffic. Not that you couldn't cross it, but it made you not want to.
And back then German Village was the gayborhood, Short North was mostly dive bars and lower end student housing. I used to get into the Flatiron when I was 19 with no problem.
*"For those of you not familiar with walk score, here's how it works: Zero is bad, 100 is good"*
😂😂😂😂😂😂 I don't know why that got me so good
10:48 Hey! Glad to see Laredo mentioned on this channel. I was just about to suggest checking out Laredo or San Antonio. You know, something besides the usual Dallas or Houston that get all the attention. Not sure where the boundaries of the "Central Business District" are since I don't see it on Google Maps, but yeah, it's mostly businesses selling imports from across the border, China, etc. I believe some elderly folks live in the Rialto Hotel just north of the intersection you showed, and the area is totally walkable. There used to be a major grocery store (H-E-B) two blocks east of that intersection, but it closed for seemingly no reason a few years ago. Now the city wants to use it for government offices and parking, and the people that used that store have to drive to a more distant H-E-B or elsewhere. Most customers aren't locals, but instead, people coming from Mexico. The area really suffered since the border was closed until recently, but there are efforts to renew local interest. Stuff like the Outlet Mall or the Siete Banderas restaurant.
Yeah, I looked for a grocery store and only really came up with Oxxo!
Laredoan here too, and I would say the area isn't really walkable anymore. Many of the larger buildings have been set up as senior living in the area, and they really need that grocery store near by. So many businesses have moved out or shuttered that there isn't much left to walk to. From what I can see there isn't much mixed use either. I don't think many locals want to live in the area, at least not as it is. I would love to see the area revitalized with residential spaces included in the now vacant buildings. Right now it just looks like a ghost town.
@@pgarcia78 Yeah, when I said "walkable" , I was a bit too literal. It's walkable in the sense that there are sidewalks, some forrm of public transit (El Metro), and not much in highways, stroads, or overly large parking lots to stop you from walking around. I agree that there isn't anything worthwhile to do there, and the shops, open or not, look run-down. Still don't understand why they closed that H-E-B.
The M streets in Dallas. Quite pricey, but tons of residential, tons of restaurants, bars, an actual grocery store, plus a trolly line that goes up and down Mckinney St. Also very close to world class museums, aquariums, American Airlines center for sports, and extremely close to downtown, plus great transit options.
I live in Charlotte (used to live in 4th Ward), and 4th Ward is considered part of the downtown (or uptown, actually) CBD, so it might not be the best candidate based on your criteria. I think a better candidate for this list would be SouthEnd or Plaza Midwood. Both are serviced by either street car or light rail, both have grocery stores, restaurants, music venues, shopping, etc. And that median sales price for 4th Ward seems low to me too.
Maybe NoDa
One of the places that I found myself loving to walk is Belmont Shore in California.
The layout of the streets is incredible.
The 2nd Street commercial corridor has intersecting residential streets that are arranged as a series of very narrow one-way couplets.
The effect is that the blocks are extremely thin, facing the corridor, and the crosswalks are extremely short.
Moreover, each intersection is controlled by a traffic signal, and, because of the one-way car traffic, pedestrians hardly even notice that they are crossing the streets.
I laughed out loud when seeing Downtown Spenard in Anchorage as walkable, because indeed it's a suburban fever dream, but the more I think about it I can't think of many of any other neighborhoods in Anchorage so close to shops, schools and trails.
I'd say Downtown Anchorage (which I'm assuming was disqualified by OP's "no downtowns" rule) is slightly more "walkable" than Downtown Spenard. When I lived in between the two, I would walk to both for shopping or going out to eat. Downtown Anchorage felt like a pedestrian space, while Spenard is 100% built for cars. That's also true of basically every other commercial part of the city as far as I can remember.
Weirdly, Walk Score gives Spenard a much better rating (80) than Downtown Anchorage (66). I can't quite figure out why.
Late in finding your videos, but great job as I catch up. I was encouraged by this video with respect to two things: overall walk score for a city must be under 50 to make your list, and your remarks that "if you live downtown, you should already be in a good walking environment." Oxnard, CA (pop 220k, aprox) is generally a car city, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a city-wide walk score of 57 and a bike score of 51 (thought they would be worse). Transit stinks, at 35. However, downtown, where I live, scores 94 for walking, with 45 for transit and 56 for bikes. One thing I appreciate is the lack of pedestrian call buttons (or "beg" buttons) at signalized intersections. I live car-light, but lived for a year completely car free back in 2015. It can be done--even here. :)
The little neighborhood of Ocean Beach in San Diego is awesome. Narrow slow streets, plenty of multifamily housing, corner businesses and anything else you need on the main drag. Stark contrast to the rest of the sprawling metro.
@@r.mariano8118 I agree to a certain extent, but OB is definitely much more pedestrian scale than any other SD neighborhood outside downtown. Hillcrest, North Park, and PB are generally very walkable, but they all also have some massive car arterials going through them (usually even right down the main business district!) that make being a pedestrian pretty dangerous or frustrating. OB is the only neighborhood in San Diego that doesn't have more than one lane of traffic in any direction on any street (if you don't count a couple of turn lanes).
The only downside to OB is that getting in or out with a bike or on foot is pretty difficult. The San Diego River Trail is great but doesn't connect you to anything interesting until Old Town and biking up and over the hills in Point Loma is basically impossible. Voltaire and Loma Portal are improving, but the bike infrastructure is still pretty dangerous without contiguous buffers.
Miami’s coconut grove neighborhood is a walkable oasis in a huge sprawling car dependent city. It has smaller lot sizes, a nice pedestrian shopping district, parks, trees shading sidewalks And decent access to Miami’s metrorail. 💪💪
Miami actually has a really strong citywide walk score rating, so there was no way any of it's neighborhoods was going to make this list!
I'm surprised there weren't more college campuses on this list! I guess not enough college students shop for groceries? For my favorite walkable neighborhood: back in Nashville, the area around Vanderbilt was great 10 years ago - looks like it still is. Lot's of great restaurants and at least 2 grocery stores (Kroger and a Piggly Wiggly). Real estate prices are probably truly insane these days. There was a rumor that Taylor Swift lived in a swanky high rise nearby.
A ton of undergrads (especially freshman and sophomores) live on campus and don’t have access to cooking equipment so they’d have to rely on campus dining (another form of revenue for whatever college they’re at). I personally started cooking when I got a student apartment and it’s significantly cheaper and every student should have at least a community kitchen in their dorm with multiple stovetops and ovens.
They were probably excluded by the city size criteria (only cities >250k people), or the fact that the metric requires a big *differential* between a neighborhood and the city at large.
E.G. lots of big college/university campuses are in smaller college towns, or are a major influence on their host city that they raise the citywide average walkscore enough that they wouldn't make the top 10 as a result.
I’ve walked on Northern Lights blvd and old Benson Hwy. it certainly is walkable, but you gotta love the snow, and Ford 150s roaring by!
I really enjoyed this video. It is interesting how cities can have decently walk-able neighborhoods even when the cities aren't. That Anchorage neighbourhood though was like a concrete jungle with all those parking lots though! Lol!
(It's funny to me though how outside of downtown nowhere else was scored very high in Indianapolis. I was surprised the Broad Ripple neighbourhood wasn't given a higher score by that site though)
Unwalkable neighborhoods in walkable cities could be interesting. I could see Sodo in Seattle being on the list unless it was worse in my memory than it actually is LOL
Not having lived in the U.S. since 1996 (and having visited only infrequently during that span), I just lived in Indy for the past 14 months while on family business. The neighborhood I lived in was terrible, especially as I didn't have a car. To go to the nearest market I had to walk along the edges of a two-lane street with lots of heavy vehicles passing within inches of me. Of course, there were no sidewalks. However, my nephew visited from Chicago and we went to see Broad Ripple and that was literally a breath of fresh air -- loads of shops, small restaurants, and entertainment venues. I was hoping it would make your list.
@@whishtebby maybe thats what makes Broad Ripple seem so much better is that the rest is so awful. I mean sidewalks are hard to find alone lol. And every time im in Indy im in awe of just how bad the transit is. A city that size should have light rail also theres no regional connections to any nearby cities!
The picture of Florence and the covered bridge got me reminiscing! Its great there and I would like to return and see everything I wasn't able to take in last time.
I lived car-free in Westport in KC from 1999 to 2002, mostly commuting by bike. 🚲 It was fine while I was single, but not where I'd want to raise kids. Westport was mostly known as an entertainment district with bars, restaurants, and clubs.
It’s changed a lot since then. Much more to do in the whole area. Just don’t be at the bars past 11pm…
@@katieevensen8387 - good, but I'm not going back if I can help it.
Instead of a Walk Score index, I think what we need is a Streetscape score index. I went to a lecture 30 years ago by a landscape architect from the Bay Area in California. It was eye opening as to how little thought goes into designing the feel of a street. Often while there is intense design of the buildings on either side, the street just winds up being the "space between". He showed how simply planting the same species of tree of the same age on both sides of the street can vastly improve the feel. Or how widening the sidewalks and shortening the block size encourages pedestrian activity. I can't remember his name and I'd always hoped someday I'd find a book which put all these thoughts in one place but it never happened. The only thing that ever came close was Henry F. Arnold's "Trees in Urban Design" although that's not the same guy.