[Durham INC] Link Between Walkability and Social Capital

[Shelly Green]

Although Durham as a whole scored a 40 on the Walkscore (slightly above the State average of 38), several neighborhoods scored higher. Here is a snapshot of when we wrote about this index about 18 months ago.   www.dcvb-nc.com/comm/enews/Vol8Issue35/Walkability.pdf 

-----Original Message-----
From: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org] On Behalf Of bragin at nc.rr.com
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 11:23 AM
To: Reyn Bowman
Cc: INC-list at rtpnet.org
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Link Between Walkability and Social Capital

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

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