Walkable Communities  I can't think of many people who don't want to live in walkable communities. That's an awkward way of saying that most people want to live in places where you can walk or bike to local stores, parks, and work. And yet we seem to propagate all the actions that have produced non-walkable communities in the past. New schools are located far away from where most people live, we devote most of our transportation funds to motorized travel, etc. Developers and designers are changing, emphasizing mixed-use developments and realizing the importance of providing places to walk and bike in their developments. It's a slow rate of change.

It shouldn't be, and I have a hunch that walkable communities are much more economically viable than most other kinds of communities. Property value have declined in most communities in the past couple of post-real estate boom years. I'd like to compare the rate of decline in walkable vs. other communities.

In searching for a list of walkable communities I came across an excellent article by Dan Burden, founder of BikeCentennial and the consulting company Walkable Communities entitled How can I find and help build a walkable community? Included is a checklist that he uses to evaluate communities: Walkable Communities Have: 1. Intact town centers. 2. Residential densities, mixed income, mixed use. 3. Public Space., etc. At the end of the article is a list of walkable communities in North America.

If you know of a table of property value trends by cities in the U.S., please let me know.
posted by Bruce Wright at 1:23 PM #