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July 15, 2007
How Walkable Is Your Neighborhood?
Green LA Girl is walking every street in Santa Monica and she just discovered this Web 2.0 gem: Walk Score. It calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. to help people find walkable places to live. Pretty awesome, right?
I've always prided myself on my part of Sherman Oaks and it's walkability. Within a 10-minute walk radius I can walk to two bars, four restaurant bars (including Casa Vega!), Starbucks and two other coffee shops, plenty of restaurants (Thai, Lebanese, Mexican, pizza, Chicago hot dogs, Italian, etc), a Metro Rapid stop (plus two other Ventura Blvd. bus lines and the Van Nuys/Studio City DASH), a theatre, a comedy theatre, dry cleaners, a yoga studio and random amenities such as the Psychic Eye Book Store.
So what is my walk score? 66.
66!!!?! I started feeling so jealous of Green LA Girl -- she has a 91 which translates to "Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car." A score of 66 gets me the ranking of "Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a car."
Which I guess can be true. Two major deficits in walkability for me is a grocery store and a movie theatre. A Ralphs is relatively close but I have never walked there to shop. At that distance, I bike it.
So how what is your Walk Score? (Put it in the comments, let's see the collection of neighborhoods) Keep in mind, as one Green LA Girl commenter pointed out, that some places marked on the map do not exist anymore and others are missing.
Happy Walking at www.walkscore.com!
Photo by newrafael via Flickr
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I'm in Brentwood, and got a score of 80.
77/100, or "very walkable" according to the site.
what neighborhood Kemp?
I'm on the western edge of Koreatown. My buddy who lives near the heart of the neighborhood at Wilshire/Normandie got a 92.
Read 'em and weep: 94 out of 100 for the Playhouse District of Pasadena (91101).
I'm just south of Lankershim/Magnolia in NoHo Arts, and scored a respectable 83!!!
I thought Commonwealth and Ambrose in Los Feliz would be better than a 78.
83 for WeHo in the Fairfax / Santa Monica area.
Colfax/Chandler in Valley Village scored a measly 65, and that's with WalkScore's count of a 7-11 as a grocery store and a stage theater as a movie theater.
My new apartment on Martel near Sunset scored an 86!
94, bitches, Rowena & Sunset Drive in Los Feliz. Probably helped by the Vista and Los Feliz 3, the Good Luck, El Chavo (yuck!), Tiki Ti, Rudy's barbershop, and Vons all within spitting distance. Yeah, we're really never going to move. Ever.
Don't forget the 10 most walkable streets in LA.
Hey City Nerd, how walkable is your neighborhood?
So apparently the urban planners have got it all wrong! LA really is eminently walkable, at least if you stay within a few miles of your place.
My end of NoHo (corner of Camarillo and Lankershim) gets an 85; they do however count Le Sexe Shoppe as a bookstore.
got an 85 in West L.A. near Barrington & Santa Monica Blvd. :)
86 in Hollywood, right by La Brea & Melrose.
Why don't I see more people walking around then?
The question is DO YOU WALK? The answer is probably NO. Did you know walking half a mile takes about 10 minutes?
I have always said LA is incredibly walkable around each individual neighborhood. I love this site. So where I live is a 77 in Santa Monica - near Olympic and 20th - but I also walk a lot around where I work on lunch breaks which is near the La Brea Tar Pits in Mid Wilshire and that got an 83. My last place in Venice got an 83 and the hood I'm scoping next - Los Feliz got a 92!
92/100 - Hollywood near Capitol Records - not too bad without a car - bad for car owners and parking.
Ha! I just looked up my old address in Castaic and got a whopping 11.
Another previous address, the CalArts campus in Valencia, scored a little better, but nothing to be proud of at 48. Grocery shopping was still a pain.
Glad to be in Los Angeles now.
my part of los feliz scored an 86. i'd have to say that pretty accurate.
Hillhurst/Franklin -- chalk up another 86 for Los Feliz.
Boo-yeah!
Zach- Sadly, my 'hood is a meager 51; but I think it's wrong.
umm yeah. my SCV address didn't come up. too new of a nabe in the ever-growing Valencia area. but i gave my old address near Hollywood Blvd/Laurel Canyon a looksie and it scored a 71.
94/100 for Pasadena! I also did my hometown in Alabama...a measly 26. I knew I moved out here for some reason.
At National and Overland we score a 83/100
I scored a 91 for Koreatown. I'm too scared to walk anywhere though.
My place in West Adams scored an 80, but they should come up with a site that figures out walkability in terms of resources within a reasonable distance (as this one did) and mashes it up with those crime reporting sites that tell you how many robberies, etc. happen in an area. That would be some useful information.
And fredcamino, YES, I walk (or bike), and TEN minutes is not that long. By the time you get in your car, drive, find parking, park, etc, you're probably almost taking that long anyway. What's the time difference? Two or three minutes? Come on! That's got to be worth it to save some gas (only YOU can fight terrorism) and keep a little more exhaust from getting in our air.
Burbank 78. They count "Immigrant geneology" as a bookstore and include adult day care in the calculation.
I guess it's a good barometer of "Do you have a bar and liquor store within walking distance?"
As someone else mentioned, crime is a big factor for women. Like rape statistics for one. Also temperature, shade, and things like freeway overpasses, factory and warehouse neighborhoods that must be crossed to get to the liquor store. I would walk more if it weren't 98 degrees outside with no shade in the valley.
Belmont Shore, near the pier . . . 68. Lower than I would have thought. I don't walk much though. I bike.
The ability to walk around Pasadena and get everything you need gives a real community feel to the city. It's the reason I continue to live here, but work in Woodland Hills.
Second the Playhouse District for the win!
My old apt in los feliz got a 91- franklin at rodney (bw vermont and hillhurst). I'd say it should be a 100! There was NEVER any reason to get in a car.
Alas it got too damn expensive. Now im at franklin at la brea and that got an 86... While I definitely walk a lot around the neighborhood, I dont think it should score so closely to los feliz because its just not built for pedestrians; you cant even walk directly across la brea on the south side of franklin bc theres no crosswalk. You have to cross the street in the 3 other directions to do it. Pedestrians are not the priority here as they were in Los Feliz.
Waah! I only got a 71. I suppose this would explain why I'm the only person who walks to Walgreens and PetCo.
Only got a 65 - we live on Los Feliz Blvd between Commonwealth and Griffith Park Blvd. We often walk to the Coffee Bean, Albertsons, and other restaurants on Hillhurst, but we're a little stranded up on the Blvd.
The place where I work (Hollywood Blvd & 101 Fwy) scored a 92, which surprised me at first. Then I realized that this is not measuring the QUALITY of the walk; only the distance to shopping and other amentities. Distance is a good start, but real walkability includes things like quality of the sidewalk, shade trees, benches, shopping and restaurant on the sidewalk, etc. You might be able to walk to the store, but do you WANT to? Just the otherday I was walking with a friend and she caught her toe on a huge piece of buckling concrete sidewalk and tumbled to the ground. Yeah...so much for walkability in that area.
6565 Fountain Ave, Hollywood - 85 out of 100. But I don't necessarily agree with all of the stores, theatres etc. Nonetheless, I'm happy because I DO walk around my neighborhood a lot :)
My address on Westmount Drive in WeHo got an 88...that's a solid B+. But I don't drive. Or know how to drive. Or have a driver's license. Or a car. And I get along perfectly so I think my place should have a 95 instead.
80 for west adams, also...
-la bus girl
www.labusgirl.blogspot.com
sadly, atwater village for a 51. i think its bull.
57 in Boyle Heights. Ugh.
I live in the Hollywood/ Hancock Park Area. That website gave my neighborhood a 62, but I would give it a 90! I can walk to Larchmont, La Brea, Melrose, Beverly, Fairfax, The Grove, and LACMA!
I live a block from where ryanjbell works and where he got a score of 92. Why did I get an 86?
I'm off Hollywood and the 101 Frwy and the neighborhood is very walkable. If something is too far, I ride my bike. But my neighbors would not walk. Why?
Because the streets are dirty. Because most of the sidewalks have no trees, only bushes on a stick that give no shade. Because there is not much to look at, so the drivers that are stuck in traffic end up staring at you.
Probably not the most pleasant walk in the city, but it's walkable and you can be without a car. Major bus stops are on Hollywood Blvd. and the Red Line is only .5 miles away.
I can walk to do my grocery shopping at the local mom-and-pop store, I can walk to the movie theatre and to some live theatre as well. I think my neighborhood is a great place to live in and it's a great place to be car-free.
And Enci, you have that thai vegan restaurant there too!
Another 94 for East Hollywood - Lexington and Vermont.
46 in Glassell Park. Eagle Rock Blvd./Verdugo
Glendale= 71, I have to go to Burbank for a movie theater and bookstore. Well they do include schools nearby, but what about hardware store? The one listed nearby, I'd never go to it....
I used to live in Koreatown and being there you become familiar with buses but miss major department store nearby unless you are Korean....
Some areas are served by the Dash lines. That should give extra points for that type of transportation.
Ha! My parent's house they just left in Porter Ranch got a 12! I'm suprised it was even that high!