How Walkable is Your Hood?
RDN clued me into the Walk Score which ranks a cities walkablity. My neighborhood of Westover Hills scored a 50 (Somewhat Walkable — Some amenities within walking) distance and ranked #47 in the city. Forest View has the best score in our immediate neighborhood with a 60 (Somewhat Walkable) and #25 city rank.
My ‘hood is considered Westlake Hills and was rated car dependent at 30. We ranked 101 in the city. Interesting since some of my neighbors regularly walk to the Food Lion to shop.
The Forest View score clearly doesn’t take into account either the likelihood of being mauled by 45-in-a-25 traffic should you dare to cross the street or the high probability that you’ll step on a shattered 40 bottle.
Woodland Height gets a 42.
VCU, Fan, etc score highly, but where are the grocery stores, service stations, pharmacy, etc (are they counting Carytown)? The use of the onld map and old neighborhood designations also doesn’t help.
Sundagger, all those amenities can be found along Broad Street between Belvidere and Hermitage.
You are probably right. I don’t get down there much and when I do it is the Main St./Cary St. corridor.
At Broad and Bowe/Lombardy, there is a Kroger (w/pharmacy), 2 gas stations, a couple of sandwich shops and I think a Starbucks.
Stratford Hills is #106 in Richmond with a low score of 27. But I can walk to the park in 5 minutes and to the river in 10, and frankly that is the place I most want to walk of any place I’ve ever lived near.
I do miss the spectacular walkability at Grove & Thompson, but my dog and my wallet are much happier by the river.
The ratings are based on errands/amenities, so they are looking at proximity to grocery shopping and so forth, and not so much recreational activities like parks.
This explains why suburban neighborhoods tend to rank lower: they were planned around vehicular use.
Ugh I would live in one of the least walkable neighborhoods in the City. Westover Hills West gets an earth-shattering 17. At least it’s bikeable.