Walking to Work – Where to Live
July 20, 2008 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Business
If you want to be able to walk to work, it is important to live in a “walkable” city. I work from home, so it isn’t really a problem, but, for example, Wilkes-Barre is NOT a very walkable city – businesses and residential areas are spread out, the area is full of hills, and in many places, there aren’t even good sidewalks.
Recently, a group called Walk Score began to rank America’s cities in terms of walkability. Check out some of their top rankings:
- San Francisco
- New York
- Boston
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Seattle
- Washington, DC
- Long Beach
- Los Angeles
- Portland
Of course, these are all major cities, so it is really no surprise that they are more walkable (walkabler?) than a smaller city like Wilkes-Barre. Check out the Walk Score website, though, since they also rank over 2000 specific neighborhoods.
I’m happy to say that although my area isn’t really walkable in terms of work for most people, my specific neighborhood is very walkable for other things – I can walk to a park, school, a pizza joint, a number of churches, some bars, a fresh produce market, and (if I’m really ambitious) a gas station and a few more bars and restaurants.
How walkable is your neighborhood?
