Walkability & New Ruralism - Staunton, VA scores!!
Walk this waaay! Talk this waaay! Just gimme a — high score at Walkscore.com!
Yep — it’s true. Tiny Staunton, Virginia, and specifically our Newtown neighborhood, scores 75/100 on the walkability scale. Compare our score of 75/100 to #1 ranking American city San Francisco. Frisco’s overall score was 85/100. (Some neighborhoods scored higher.) Not shabby. At all.
And they don’t even list everything that’s going on here! (For starters, I hear there is a great grocery store coming soon….!) Check out the site to see how your location fares and consider making your voice heard on the 2009 Transportation Bill.
True: you can’t compare apples to oranges. Or this case, large cities to small towns. Or can you — if you’re talking about varying degrees of similar, locally-focused lifestyles?
It got me thinking again about how there is a growing interest in “small town living” — particularly if the area has nearby conveniences and is pleasant to walk. This article also mentions “New Ruralism”, this time as follows:
He describes it as a “new ruralism” concept for people ready to leave the city, but still looking for nearby neighbors and things to do.
“They still like some feel of community and some amenities,” he said.
Jack Lane, a Traverse City real estate agent associated with the project, said it’s a concept that’s relatively new in the Midwest but is popular on the West Coast and in Europe.
“It’s a real return to the rural type of development,” Lane said.
Plans are to convert some of the agricultural buildings on the property into other uses like a cheese shop, bakery and a small post office. Boomer also plans to sell smaller vineyard parcels for people who want to raise grapes without living there.
Again: this term seems to be reserved for retiring baby boomers — when in fact it could signal a shift in what is socially valued.
As I’ve said, I don’t believe a return to “local living” means building new. It’s kind of annoying this term is frequently tossed-about to describe new housing developments.
But I’m aware that history, geography, and economics drove the unintended preservation of Staunton. These are also the factors in the city’s re-emergence. Simply: some areas of the country WOULD have to re-build with a new vision to achieve “new ruralism”, what I’m choosing to call a return to walking, social interaction, and local economy town — and living — system.
Yes: in most places there would be plenty of tear-down and re-building. Unless we start to look at creative re-use of existing structures with walking, social interaction and local economy in mind.
Regardless: high up on the quality-of-life list is the ability to enjoy a human-scale environment with walking access to life’s needs. It’s something simple but profound. I hope increasing gasoline prices drive more people to reconsider how and where they live — for everyone’s health and enjoyment.
katie @ August 18, 2008
This walkscore.com site popped up a few months ago on a local mailing list I’m on. I was surprised that my neighborhood in Brooklyn was ranked 91. I’ve always found it walkable, proved by my 2001 VW with only 16,000 miles on it. But there is an unbelievably high density of cars here nevertheless. People drive three blocks to a store only to spend 15 minutes looking for street parking two blocks away when they come back home with quart of milk. Makes no sense.
My last address, 648 Broadway, NY NY, ranked a perfect score: 100 out of 100. That was a serious walking neighborhood. Literally everything you could ever want was within five blocks, from a dog kennel to motorcycle repair to artisinal cheese… which was a big change from when I moved there out of college in ‘77 and the nearest food of any kind was a mile away. And it was falafel. You also ran the highest risk in the country of being hit by a cab or a bicycle messenger before you got there.
I rushed get the Walkscore for our 1960’s suburb in Elkhart, IN. It was a miserable 12 - totally car dependent, with few sidewalks and basically a mile or two to anything.
The glass is not half empty (or more) This sort of small town could be a poster-child for electric vehicles/carts/scooters and bikes -(even in spite of the rough Midwest winter climate).
Our daily travel patterns are almost entirely within a four mile radius. That’s been one reason we have not moved to one of the newer developments outside of town. Intelligent policy decisions that would mandate sidewalk construction on any road upgrade could upgrade the quality of life considerably.
If a town is struggling to rebuild with new ruralism in mind, some infrastructure to tie in nearby suburbs for electric vehicle, bike and scooter access could go a long way to building community cohesion.
The lucky ones would still get to live downtown.
UPDATE: Our address now registers a score of “77″ — even higher if ranked from the Victorian house. Cool.