What makes for “walkability”?

The good people at the “Canada” forum on skyscraperpage apprised readers of a site that allows you to see the “walk score” of your (or any) neighbourhood (in North America); 0 is worst; 100 is best. Among some of the places I’ve lived:

- My house where I grew up, on Spruce Street in Hammond, Indiana: 65.
- The last place I lived in college, on SE Long and 39th, Portland: 66.
- My last apartment in Madison, on South Hancock: 97.
- My apartment on South Limestone in Lexington, Kentucky: 86.
- My apartment in Mobile, Alabama, on Old Shell Road next to Spring Hill College: 55.
- Our house at Follis and Bathurst in Toronto: 86.
- Our first apartment in Calgary, Century Garden, at 8 and 8 SW: 98.
- Our home, now: 85.

Now, let me make something completely clear: I am a walker. I find walking to be an intensely pleasurable thing, and I get edgy and depressed when I can’t walk, for whatever reason. So I find it vindicating that the highest score among my previous addresses was not in the pedestrian paradise that one can find in Portland (but not, really, in that part of the Southeast section), but here in Calgary. I love to walk around here, because the amenities that are most important to encourage my walking are actually not the ones considered at that walk score site.

First, Calgary is dependably sunny and usually dry. Even if it’s bitterly cold, I can usually manage a walk without getting clammy or experiencing hot-and-humid conditions that make me suicidal.

Second, the topography of the city is varied- it can be super-challenging for my fitness level, or I can choose a walk that’s perfectly flat, aside from the hill that our house sits on. Today I walked to Marda Loop to have lunch at Myhre’s Deli (no website yet) and had a great “roasted turkey,” which is like a Cubano- ham, turkey, havarti, red pepper sauce (the Hungarian stuff you can get at most groceries now), and grilled on the sandwich press. With chips and outstanding cole slaw, it was a nice lunch, but I had to eat it outside because of the paucity of tables inside- it would be good to have a bar counter type of arrangement there. Anyway, this walk was a beautiful experience. There are hills, lots of up and down, so it’s good exercise.

One doesn’t traverse any retail strips of interest (just a corner store or two), but what’s amazing is witnessing the amount of residential development, especially in the South Calgary part of the journey (south of 26th Ave). Every block has infills, and they’re leapfrogging over each other for luxe-ness. Because of the elevation there, views of the skyline must be devastating from upper floors. So, I’m in heaven, because I’m walking along a street (let’s say 31st Ave) that is riddled with construction sites- not a “service” in view, but sidewalks a plenty (naturally in older inner-city area like this) and I’m witnessing all this CHANGE. It made me realise that the pleasure of walking, there in South Calgary or in the Beltline or downtown, for me is not just to avail myself of whatever service I’m seeking, but also that I can see the evolution of the city in a way that I could never do in a car. Urban planners and architects speak of “visual interest,” and so for me that would be “walkability” criterion number 3. But my standard is that change, whether we’re talking about demolition, construction, or the giddiness I feel when the windows of a business are papered over, is what I find “visually interesting.”

Okay, on that note, I have to mention some things going on in my neighbourhood. First, the former Second Cup at Wellington Square (15th Ave and 14 St SW) is becoming a Starbucks- “coming soon” is plastered on the awning. I am no fan of the coffee at Starbucks- in fact, I am completely offended by it, especially with the advent of those horrible super-automatic espresso machines. However, I deeply appreciate the role Starbucks can play in urban renewal, in encouraging pedestrian presence, and I actually kinda sorta like their iced teas, so this is good for the neighbourhood. Second, Jaro Blue, the tapas place that I mentioned as coming soon in an earlier post, is now open: Grand Opening was last night. Brian and I stopped there on the way home from the farewell party for our friend Lisha at Original Joe’s, Kensington (do NOT get their “Philly Cheesesteak” for it is an abomination and displeases me). The very nice owner (one of them) let me take a menu home, and I must say it looks promising. Plates are $7, $12, and $15, and they have a sort of “omakase” where for either $20 or $30 per person you let the chef decide on dishes. We didn’t taste a thing and so can’t comment on that, but the interesting menu and especially the brilliant reno of this space fills me with hope.

Finally, Oishii Village has been “opening soon” for what seems like weeks now- the windows are cleared, the place looks ready to go- ITADAKIMASE, people!