I’ll Take 20, But I Won’t Give Them 19
Sacramento comes in at #20 on a newly released list of America’s most walkable cities, according to website WalkScore.com. Perhaps unsuprisingly, San Francisco comes in at #1 with New York running a close second. Boston, Chicago, and Philly round out the top 5. Fresno is, shockingly, #19. Sure, why not.
The site also breaks down Sactown by neighborhood, with Downtown and Midtown coming in . . . second and third? After an area called “Richmond Grove.” Okay, I’ll bite. I’ve only been here for about 7 years, off and on. On the map, it seems to be an area saddling 15th/16th, South of Q. It’s only a point ahead of the tied-for-second Downtown and Midtown, but I wouldn’t think that most Sacramentans would peg that particular portion of the grid as their go-to walking destination. Computer algorithms are tricky things, y’all.
Any Fresno transplants available to comment on the relative walking strengths of the city that, by all reports, we’d be if you took away our Capital City status?
Related posts:
Richmond Grove? More like the State of CA Corrections building…they must be using the Light Rail station and the Naked Lounge in their algorithm. I’ll have to check it out tomorrow–the "grove" part–wherever that is.
In a purely literal sense, I can understand how the raw data supports that ranking. I bet the Safeway puts it over the edge (there’s a lack of really walkable groceries - or small markets - more central on the grid. Kinda. There’s lots of stuff along 16th. But these numbers are definitely quantity over quality!
Up until a few years ago, people just called "Richmond Grove" either part of midtown or part of southside. The name "Richmond Grove" comes from a park that used to sit on Q Street and 20th before the railroad went through, but I don’t think people really call it that.
From the look of that map, and the actual WalkScore numbers for the whole grid area, there isn’t much difference between the top 3 in terms of actual walkability–Richmond Grove got a 95 compared to midtown’s 94–so it’s not like a shut-out victory, more of a "by the nose" that goes by the numbers. The area south of R Street hasn’t received the kind of buzz that midtown north of R has received, due to the comparative lack of swanky condos or overpriced restaurants, but it’s actually a pretty darn nice neighborhood.
Huh? Fresno came above us? Wow. And what exactly is "Richmond Grove" anyway. Don’t they just mean midtown. I swear America’s view of Sacramento is highly distorted I must say.
San Jose came in at #17. I looked at the Neighborhood list and knew that this was computer algorithms ("patent-pending system") and not someone who actually knew the city. Places I would not walk for safety reasons were towards the top of the list and the more friendly areas were lower on the list. They do mention that they do not take into account safety from crime and crashes and a few other criteria. So, why bother? Yet, they have a section where Real Estate agents can include the walkability of properties on their websites. Yikes!
There’s definitely some limits to the computer’s way of crunching the walkability of a neighborhood.
A GOOD realtor would/should be able to use the scores when they would work and skip them when they’d give a false-positive.
I think it’s interesting to learn more of the micro-neighborhood names, as far as Sacramento is concerned. And yes, Richmond Grove isn’t a bad part of town. There are few streets around here I DON’T like walking down.
Overall, it still seems like a good jumping-off point if you’re trying to scope out an area. Looking for more local input, though, totally necessary.
likemic05: The central city is split up into a bunch of neighborhoods, most of which have some name that was either acquired historically or tacked onto it by the developer who built it out: Southside, Boulevard Park, New Era Park, Alkali Flat, Poverty Ridge, etcetera. The area between roughly 12th and 19th south of R Street is known as the Richmond Grove neighborhood on city maps, and there is a Richmond Grove Neighborhood Association, although it’s pretty small. The name comes from a small park that used to be between 19th and 20th near roughly Q to R Street, called Richmond Grove. When Western Pacific went through about a hundred years ago they ran their mainline right through the park, pretty much doing away with it. Part of the neighborhood (the end down near W and X Street) was also known as "Mission Trecho" on some old city maps but that part is mostly under the freeway or otherwise demolished by now.
Here’s a city directory of neighborhood associations in Sacramento:
http://www.cityofsacramento.org/ns/nadb/alpha.cfm
[...] the comments related to our 20th-most walkable city post, commenter wburg included a handy link to a really, really long list of Sacramento neighborhood [...]
[...] the lights went out all over town. I would also like to note that the Bee overlooked the Richmond Grove area of downtown, which also lost power [...]