Walkable Atlanta

Terminal Station previously featured a website which calculated the "walkability" of various neighborhoods. That site, www.walkscore.com, has released a ranking of the most walkable cities in the country. Atlanta, somewhat surprisingly, came in at #22. The map at right shows a much clearer picture, though. Affluent in-town neighborhoods score very well, and surprisingly downtown does too.

The most walkable neighborhood called "Five Points" could just as easily be called "Georgia State", since it runs from Five Points through the eastern core of downtown and up past the new GSU dorms. I don't believe that WalkScore can compensate for the quality of ammenities an area provides, and while downtown does have varied stores and such, the quality is questionable.

I have a friend who live at Five Points, who does not walk around the corner (literally half a block) to the CVS to get her prescription filled. Instead she drives to my neighborhood. She does this because it takes them an hour to fill her prescription downtown, even though she is the only customer.

I think areas like Grant Park and Ormewood have the potential to be just as walkable as Virginia-Highlands and Poncey Highlands, although they lack definable neighbhorhood retail centers to some extent. Hopefully the continued redevelopment of Memorial Dr. will improve this. The exact opposite can be said for some of the other areas in the west and south side. They have neighborhood centers, but no services.

The top ten walkable neighborhoods could double for a list of "places I would like to live":

Rank	Neighborhood	Score
1	Five Points	95
2	Poncey-Highland	93
3	Sweet Auburn	88
4	Midtown	87
5	Atlanta-Inman Park	86
6	Old Fourth Ward	84
7	Downtown	81
8	Virginia-Highland	80
9	Home Park	76
10	Cabbage Town	74