Since starting this little blog, I've been reading more and more about the city walkability index or
Walk Score. Devised by angel investors (red flag #1)
and a think tank, the site and their products (e.g. apps) helps you (you meaning you and me, and real estate agents -- red flag #2) find a walkable place to live based on their Walk Score, Transit Score, and Bike Score. After clicking on every hyperlink (even those small wayward ones), their mission to "promote more walkable neighborhoods" seems less of a priority than their vision, "for every property listing to read: Beds: 3 Baths: 2 Walk Score: 84" (red flag #3). Three red flags and I am officially skeptical. This thing can't be that accurate when their real schtick is selling their product to real estate agents and firms, can it??
It can and it is. Borderline scary accurate. By the time I entered my fourth previous address, my exclamations were starting to sound like the
Pixies (4th stanza, last line) yet
again. Don't you hate it when technology makes your life slightly better? But what is better when it comes to where you live? If you lived in a city where you could walk a few blocks for your daily errands, yet had to squeeze yourself in a mass transit sardine can twice a day Monday through Friday, would that be better than the city where you walked everywhere most of the time, including times in snow, rain, heat, or the gloom of night*? My cousin and her husband prefer the latter, "You're supposed to walk in a city. Not spend half of your time and day underground in a subway!" Both of them lived in New York City before moving to Philadelphia. And separately, both of them told me, "Philadelphia is a real city. Not New York City."
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| Real Independence Hall |
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| Fake Independence Hall |
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