Thursday, July 17, 2008

Eat your heart out, San Francisco

To fans of New Urbanism -- the movement for traditional neighborhood design, where work, commerce and home can sit side by side -- it's been a banner year. With the rising gas prices, there have been a number of articles in the national news about people who are choosing to move into a town as a way to be more energy-efficient. This evening it hit Yahoo.

The article mentions Walkscore.com, which is an internet-based parlor game where you type in your address, and it gives you a score based on all the services and amenities within walking distance of your home.

San Francisco claims the title of "Most Walkable City", with a walkscore of 86. But readers of The Middletown Eye won't be surprised to learn that downtown Middletown has them beat, with a walkscore of 100% in our Village District.

Come on down!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lest you become complacent, I would remind you that most of Middletown does not benefit from the glory of the Village District! Most of Middletown is getting subdivisions built WITHOUT sidewalks, without any means other than the damn automobile to get to a city park which may be a block away! Our city planner is proposing to enshrine a policy of small narrow roads leading to subdivisions in the "country". This is anti-walking, anti-bicycles, anti-people.

Stephen H. Devoto said...

My house got a score of 8 out 100. It would be interesting to know the median score of all Middletown residents. I am jealous of the Village District, but I suspect that Middletown has a long way to go before it can be called the SF on the Connecticut.

Anonymous said...

Me,too, an 8 out of 100... I think the criteria were slanted towards city folk, not hicks like me what likes to call Dolly Deer and Tom Turkey, good neighbors!