[Durham INC] Link Between Walkability and Social Capital

[Reyn Bowman]

I don't but I see it is March 2007 and I grabbed an old one by mistake from
the comprehensive community-wide database DCVB keeps on its site so folks
have a one-stop place to keep up to speed......there are newer ones there.

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 11:22 AM, <bragin at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> It may be that the Atlantic report is flawed in some way, Reyn, or that
> they're filtering cities by population without stating so.
>
> Jacksonville makes both lists in the Atlantic report, yet Walkscore.com
> gives them a 36 rating, below Durham's. Their population is 730K, so it may
> be that Durham is simply not big enough tohave been included on that list.
>
> Anything below 50 on Walkscore.com gets the "car dependent" notation; above
> 50 is "slightly walkable"; above 70 is "very walkable."
>
> Do you have a link to the Prevention article?
>
> Barry Ragin
>
> ---- Reyn Bowman <reynbowman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> =============
> I believe they used the same methodology Barry - we have more than we think
> once you include those around Northgate and The Streets at Southpoint,
> South
> Square, up beteen Hope Valley/MLK, down around Fayetteville/MLK, Woodcroft
> etc. We tend to think mostly of those surrounding Dowtown and Ninth
> Street but the methology may go further.
>
> I wasn 't meaning to indicate we'd reached any exaltation for walkability,
> but we do sore very well on most areas of social capital...
>
> The study and I cited though when complete will provide some good incentive
> to help us think much differently about physical enviornment...
>
> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 10:38 AM, <bragin at nc.rr.com> wrote:
>
> > Reyn - I'd be really interested in how Prevention managed to place Durham
> > in the top 37 walkable cities.
> >
> > This article in the Atlantic this week (
> >
> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/americas-most-walkable-cities/67988/)
> does not show Durham in the top 40 walkable cities in the US, either by
> > walkscore, or by percentage of above average walkable neighborhoods.
> >
> > Walkscore.com grades Durham as a 40, barely above the average NC
> > municipality score of 38, and behind such localities as Henderson (44),
> > Greeenville (46), and Elizabeth City (52). ( http://www.walkscore.com/NC)
> >
> > By contrast, California's average municipal score is 53 (
> > http://www.walkscore.com/CA ), Idaho's is 48 (
> http://www.walkscore.com/ID), New York's is 62 (
> > http://www.walkscore.com/NY ), even Kentucky has a higher average score
> > than NC, and the city most comparable in size to Durham, Lexington,
> scores a
> > 49. (I should also note that walk scores in my neighborhood are skewed by
> > Walkscore.com's insistence that a tavern, the Bugtussle Saloon, exists at
> > the corner of Camden and Colonial. In fact, what's there is the Geer
> > Cemetery.)
> >
> > There may be a couple of neighborhoods that are somewhat walkable in
> > Durham, but outside of King's Red and White and, maybe, Los Primos, is
> there
> > a grocery store in town that is not surrounded by a parking moat at least
> > twice the footprint of the store itself? And the proposed widening of
> Alston
> > Ave. will pretty much take away the last vestige of walkability for Los
> > Primos. Even the new Durham Central Market proposed site plan features a
> > parking lot bigger than the store itself, in part because the steering
> > committee doesn't believe it can generate enough revenue without so much
> > parking. Sadly, they're probably right. And let's not even get started on
> > the number of intersections or street crossings within a mile of City
> Hall
> > that lack the most basic pedestrian amenity, the crosswalk, or the near
> > total lack of enforcement of crosswalk violations committed by drivers in
> > Durham virtually every hour of every day.
> >
> > It's only 14 years since Durham voters approved a bond issue that was
> > designed, in the city's words, "to construct a sidewalk along at least
> one
> > side of every major thoroughfare" in town, and five years after the
> adoption
> > of the Durham Walks! pedestrian plan, we're finally starting to see
> sidewalk
> > construction in some of our core neighborhoods that were initially built
> > without them. If only improving walkability was as high a priority for
> our
> > government leaders as fixing potholes.
> >
> > Barry Ragin
> >
> > ---- Reyn Bowman <reynbowman at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > =============
> >
> >
> http://reynblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/link-between-walkability-and-social.html
> >
> > --
> > Reyn Bowman
> > 2203 Shoreham St
> > Durham, NC 27707
> > 919-381-1497
> > www.bullcitymutterings.com
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Reyn Bowman
> 2203 Shoreham St
> Durham, NC 27707
> 919-381-1497
> www.bullcitymutterings.com
>
>


-- 
Reyn Bowman
2203 Shoreham St
Durham, NC 27707
919-381-1497
www.bullcitymutterings.com
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