[Previous entry: "New City Calendars Available"] [Next entry: "The Greening of Pittsburgh"]

12/01/2007: "Top Ten Metro Areas for Best Walkable Urban Lifestyle Released"

Walkable urbanism is spreading beyond the boundaries of inner cities and into the suburbs as Gen Xers and empty nesters search for communities offering a walkable lifestyle, according to the book The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream.

Top 10 Metro Areas For Best Walkable Communities

1. Washington, DC
2. Boston, MA
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Denver, CO
5. Portland, OR
6. Seattle, WA
7. Chicago, IL
8. Miami, FL
9. Pittsburgh, PA
10. New York, NY

Also released today by the Brookings Institution and visiting fellow and author Christopher B. Leinberger is a first-of-its-kind field survey which ranks the top ten metropolitan areas that offer the best places to live for those who want their homes a short walk from work, entertainment, schools, shops and restaurants. Get the book

This new trend is being driven by demand from Gen Xers, empty nesters, never nesters and singles looking for neighborhoods where cars are not absolutely essential-as opposed to what Leinberger refers to as "drivable sub- urban" developments characteristic of the American landscape since the 1950s.

DC Resident Leinberger, working with his colleague Dr. Stephen Roulac, has also quantified, for the first time, the value of the built environment in the economy. They cite that the built environment (real estate and infrastructure, including government buildings) accounts for 35% of wealth in the U.S. and is the largest asset class in the economy.

Adding more development to emerging and existing walkable urban communities starts an upward spiral of investment returns, tax revenues and quality of life -- what Leinberger refers to as "more is better." In contrast, drivable sub-urban development has shown that as more is built, quality of life is reduced, i.e., "more is less." The phenomenon is the reason for the extreme resistance to new development in many parts of metropolitan America, so-called NIMBYism, since it is a rational reaction to the "more is less" syndrome.

However, federal policies, local zoning codes, our current financing system, and today's real estate development industry's skill-sets have made drivable sub-urban development the de facto domestic policy of the country. Search over 60 million new and used books at Alibris!

Eric Miller, on 12.01.07 @ 10:43PST