2011 Miami ranks 8th as ‘most walkable’ city!

[Miami High Rise]

140 West Flagler only gets a walk score of 92, but it gets the bonus Transit Score of 100, no surprise. Transit score has nothing to do with a places walk score, although it should be incorporated.

http://www.walkscore.com/m/score/140-west-flagler

[URBANITY REPORTS]

Originally Posted by spellbound

My "walking" there was straight to the car!

.

[casamagda]

Originally Posted by ftlauddude

Downtown MIA got an 86 and Brickell 83

It depends on how you do it...my apt on Brickell scores 94 Walker's Paradise if you are there and use a mobile device to get a walkscore. If you type the address into their walkscore, the exact same place gets 88 Very Walkable. Manual entry misses the businesses in the building and accross the street. Using the mobile version GPS catches everything.

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by casamagda

It depends on how you do it...my apt on Brickell scores 94 Walker's Paradise if you are there and use a mobile device to get a walkscore. If you type the address into their walkscore, the exact same place gets 88 Very Walkable. Manual entry misses the businesses in the building and accross the street. Using the mobile version GPS catches everything.

Also, one address could be more "walkable" than the other one. The score that I mentioned was for the whole area of Brickell, which includes the south portion of it that pretty much is residential and nothing else...

[Miami High Rise]

Don't let UMdev hear you say that

[dave8721]

Originally Posted by spellbound

I looked up my old Boston address on Hanover St. and it got a 97. Not surprising with so damn much right outside the front door. I wonder if anyplace scores a perfect 100?

I tried addresses all over the county and the best score I could find was in South Miami with a score of 97 for the corner of Sunset and 58th Ave (of course there are no residences there, though i did used to live a block and a half away). I guess by their methodology the downtown South Miami area is the most walkable in the Miami area. It is surprisingly well rounded considering how small it is with shopping, restaurants, bars, movies, hospitals, office biuldings, apartments, and the metrorail all within an area of about 5 blocks by 5 blocks.

I couldnt find a score over 95 in South Beach.

[JOrtiz]

I got a 12 on Walkscore. Smack dab in Pinecrest

[casamagda]

Originally Posted by dave8721

I tried addresses all over the county and the best score I could find was in South Miami with a score of 97 for the corner of Sunset and 58th Ave (of course there are no residences there, though i did used to live a block and a half away).
I couldnt find a score over 95 in South Beach.

Just had breakfast on Lincoln road and stopped by my apartment there. The apartment gets 98 a Walker's Paradise. Most scores were perfect except for Shopping (???), Restaurants and Bars (???), Entertainment (???), groceries, and schools. Schools makes sense, you would have to walk .5 miles to the elementary school for a score of 4.5 out of 6, but I already finished elementary school.

[sobchbud]

The Miami Herald
Posted on Wed, Jul. 20, 2011
Miami ranks 8th as ‘walkable’ city

By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA


Despite its abundance of cars and traffic, Miami is the nation’s eighth most walkable city, according to a new report from Seattle-based Walk Score.

The survey of the nation’s largest 50 cities looked at how easily residents could access goods and services within short distances, using a scale of 100 to rank walkability.

Miami’s rating of 72.5 places it eighth on a list dominated with established walker-friendly cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and may signal an important shift for the city’s housing market.

“Instead of wanting the biggest and newest homes, potential [home] buyers now demand smaller, cheaper homes in more walkable communities,” said Walk Score CEO Josh Herst.

According to research done by the non-profit CEOs for Cities, a slight increase in a neighborhood’s walkability score can add as much as $3,000 to a home’s value, as high gas prices make urban neighborhoods more desirable.

Miami’s most walkable neighborhoods were downtown, Brickell and Little Havana, the report found. Miami Beach notched the highest rating in Florida, but was not included in the top 10 because it is not one of the 50 largest cities.

Of the nation’s largest 50 cities, the city of Miami has one of the smallest land areas, making it one of the more compact locales for walkers, Herst said.

As the city’s downtown condo towers begin to fill up, Miami’s core has closed in on other vertical cities in the area of walkability. New projects like the Brickell Citicentre and the Miami Art Museum aim to make Miami a more cosmopolitan destination, with more residents living near the downtown area.

Still, parts of the city remain difficult to navigate by foot, and the city’s public transportation ranking is far below other cities on the list. According to the report, the least walkable neighborhoods in Miami are Liberty City, Flagami and West Coconut Grove.

Real estate agent Jon Mann said a growing number of his younger clients are opting to buy or rent condos that are walking distance from entertainment, restaurants and parks.

“The live, work, walk environment — younger professionals are really embodying that,” said Mann, whose Five Star International Realty office is in Brickell. “Here, the cost of living is high and wages are low so if you can bypass the $4 gallon [of gas] price tag, it goes a long way.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/1...#ixzz1Sn5r9Ryw

Most walkable cities

1. New York 85.3

2. San Francisco 84.9

3. Boston 79.2

4. Chicago 74.3

5. Philadelphia 74.1

6. Seattle 73.7

7. Washington, D.C.73.2

8. Miami 72.5 WTF?!!

9. Minneapolis 69.3

10. Oakland 68.2

Here is the List from America's Most Walkable Neighborhoods
http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/

I thought I'd never see the day we'd ever make this list, and certainly not as high a placement. At first glance it would seem impossible, but given the small area of the city of Miami limits, and their criteria based on accessible amenities it is quite plausible. The heat, relative lack of shade trees, and the high possibility of getting hit by cars make walking uncomfortable, but it is do-able. I can imagine getting around in many neighborhoods just by walking or using public transit: Little Havana, the Grove, Midtown, Wynwood, Edgewater, the Roads, Little Haiti, Downtown, and Brickell to name a few. My Upper Eastside neighborhood now has sprouted many amenities now accessible by foot.

[QuantumX]

Sobchbud, there is already quite a discussion about this on the Club 50 thread. If the forum feels the subject matter warrants its own thread, then I will consolidate all the pertinent posts into one thread started by the original poster. Otherwise, I will simply move your post to Club 50. This source has me wondering if they think South Beach is part of Miami.

[CrimsonCane]

New to the site. Born and raised in Miami but I've been in Boston for the past 7 years for school.

The apartment I'm moving to in Brickell scored a 92, which is pretty understandable. My wife and I are trying to minimize our need for a car for everyday things, so we explicitly chose a location that would be within walking distance of grocery store and the like.

My previous apartment in Cambridge, MA scored a 95. And, there are some areas of Cambridge that score a perfect 100.

Casamagda, the discrepancy between the online score and the GPS score could be due to a slight difference between where the site thinks the address is located and its actual location. The location it gave me for my Cambridge apartment was a few blocks off of its actual location.

[Miami High Rise]

7 years, you're gonna notice some changes here

[CrimsonCane]

Originally Posted by Miami High Rise

7 years, you're gonna notice some changes here

Oh, I've been in Miami a bunch of times in between. I've worked down here most summers and always drop by for vacations. I've definitely seen and appreciated the changes. It's a totally different city, for the better. When comparing where I grew up in Kendall (which hasn't changed all that much in the interim) to the new apartment in Brickell, it's night and day.

If Miami was the same city today as it was when I left 7 years ago, I wouldn't be moving back down here.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by CrimsonCane

If Miami was the same city today as it was when I left 7 years ago, I wouldn't be moving back down here.

Welcome aboard! Hopefully, this decade will prove to be almost as interesting as the last.

[zach7795]

Originally Posted by CrimsonCane

Oh, I've been in Miami a bunch of times in between. I've worked down here most summers and always drop by for vacations. I've definitely seen and appreciated the changes. It's a totally different city, for the better. When comparing where I grew up in Kendall (which hasn't changed all that much in the interim) to the new apartment in Brickell, it's night and day.

If Miami was the same city today as it was when I left 7 years ago, I wouldn't be moving back down here.

welcome aboard, we have a whole thread on writing about yourself, but its ok that you did it here. enjoy having Argentinian and Venezuelan neighbors!

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by zach7795

enjoy having Argentinian and Venezuelan neighbors!

What do you mean by this?

[zach7795]

Originally Posted by QuantumX

What do you mean by this?

isnt 90% of the units bought downtown bought by wealthy south americans???

[URBANITY REPORTS]

You mean Mexican and Caribbean wealthy (yes, venezuelans count there as well), perhaps... South Americans tend to reside in Key Byscayne and NMB.

[miami305]

Originally Posted by zach7795

welcome aboard, we have a whole thread on writing about yourself, but its ok that you did it here. enjoy having Argentinian and Venezuelan neighbors!

Hey...I am argentinean....what's wrong with us? and why the no no shake smiley face??? if it wasn't for the South Americans and Europeans buying some of these units.....I don't think Miami, FL would be filling up those units as thery are doing now...cause sure the americans are not buying or investing in Miami....

[Miami High Rise]

That's because Americans aren't interested in foreign investment right now