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catherine
1-10-20, 12:36pm
I love living in Grand Isle, no doubt about it.

BUT....

We are here for 6 weeks in Ocean Grove, NJ, my favorite NJ town. I've always loved how walkable it is. Here are a couple of examples from the less than 18 hours we've been here.

This morning I woke up and got the coffee out to make and realized we don't have half-and-half (horrors!!). I spent 10 seconds being dejected until I recalled that there is a market just 4 blocks away. So I put on my sneakers and made the 5 minute walk there and back and had my coffee ready in no time.

Also this morning, the first thing on my to-do list is to deposit a check I received up in Grand Isle. I couldn't mobile deposit it, so I've been holding it for a week. So when I googled directions to the closest branch of the bank that has my business account, I again remembered that it's a 10 minute walk from me.

I can walk to the ocean as well as the train station. I can walk to restaurants and the post office. If I ran out of gas, I can walk to the gas station.

There is definitely something wonderful about walkable places. The Walk Score website rates Ocean Grove a Walker's Paradise (https://www.walkscore.com/score/50-main-ave-monmouth-county-nj-07756)

Do you live in a Walker's Paradise? Is that important to you?

Teacher Terry
1-10-20, 12:53pm
Since moving back into town 8 years ago we can walk downtown which is 1.5 miles. The grocery store is much closer and I could walk there in 10 minutes. I love being able to walk places.

klunick
1-10-20, 1:12pm
Depends on your destination where I live. I live in the boonies. The Chesapeake Bay is about a mile from my house so yes, you can walk if you want to see the water. If you are adventurous, you could walk to the grocery store or Walgreen's but you have to be in good shape. Easily ride your bike there though. There isn't many restaurants nearby so definitely have to drive if you want to eat out.

ApatheticNoMore
1-10-20, 1:32pm
Somewhat. A supermarket is 1-2 blocks away, as is: a pharmacy, a bank branch, restaurants if one isn't picky about going to a particular restaurant, train station it says 14 minutes, I think it's actually longer though, thrift shop is walkable - few blocks away (but not all shopping is). Post office no. Gas station is walkable. A coffee place (not my fav but it's alright). I think one drives in part because one wants to, one is bored of what is walkable.

I do not by any stretch live in walking distance of work though so I'm not downplaying needing a car here for WORKING if not for anything else. Can't be car free and employable!

kib
1-10-20, 1:36pm
I live in a ... hmm. I don't know if I'd call it a paradise. Technically speaking I think everything I need to live is within a three block walk of my house, but it's not places I'd ordinarily shop for my basics. E.g. I wouldn't ordinarily buy milk or catfood at the gas station or Walgreens, my idea of eating out is not Wendy's, I haven't found a hair cutter I actually like in walking distance, the bank and hardware store closest are not the ones I favor either. I will say I'm situated within a 2 mile drive of anything I ever buy, and it's nice to have these other places walkable in a pinch, but I do occasionally think how pleasant it would be to live in a Nice neighborhood that had walkable stores.

ETA: I gotta say, while I idealize the idea of walkable, I'm pretty lazy about it. My grocery store is about a mile away, but no, I don't want to take the 20-30 minutes necessary to walk there and then haul all my food home again. I'm not actually a busy person these days and I should get more exercise, but somehow the idea of an hour spent trudging back and forth with a hand cart seems like a huge and unpleasant waste of time. (and I'm a prima donna in this respect. I don't like walking outside if it's cold, or windy, or raining, or baking hot, and the area I have to go into doesn't seem particularly inviting after dark.

And I realized what a privileged position this is, but it's my reality. I can afford a car and I have the means to be a bit fussy.

iris lilies
1-10-20, 1:45pm
Here in my city neighborhood we have a grocery store also 5 minutes away. As is a coffee shop.

One major criteria for buying a weekend house -now becoming permanent residence— was that I wanted to be able to walk to a coffee shop. In tiny Hermann, two independently owned coffee shops are 20 minutes away, as is a grocery store. This is walking distance. So is the library.

But even better, the winery, one of the country’s oldest, is at the end of my block. It is not a typical winery, it is a gorgeous old victorian 1860’s building. Love that place. If Missouri wine is less than steller, that is ok, I will live with it and drink it in handsome surroundings.

kib
1-10-20, 1:52pm
IL, funny, I was thinking that if I wanted to be in walking distance of anything, it would be the library. I could spend all day there.

ApatheticNoMore
1-10-20, 1:57pm
Oh a library is a block away. Yea spoiled, decent sized supermarket a few blocks away from me, but one needs to go to trader joe specifically for something and so ... there's a walkable gym but one doesn't like it .. yea kinda.

Gardnr
1-10-20, 2:04pm
Nope. I can walk to my haircut just 2 miles. I could walk to the most expensive grocery store around 2.2 miles, but I don't do one-off trips, I stock up. Anything else is 6+ miles. We do have a community library just 1 mile away now in a little planned community. It has turned out to be mostly eateries and high-end retail boutiques. Oh, and the homes are $500k to $1.8 m. It's good to live across the tracks:)

That said, we live just 10" from a beautiful river where we are and there is a lovely walking path (no bike riding allowed). It's lovely and peaceful. There are several benches to sit and listen to the water AND watch the Bald Eagles fish if there 9-10 am. Some benches are standard, others are huge logs from fallen trees that have been cut to have a seat/low back. Love it!

iris lilies
1-10-20, 2:13pm
IL, funny, I was thinking that if I wanted to be in walking distance of anything, it would be the library. I could spend all day there.

well, I am unhappy that they are moving the library to a bigger building that ismfurther away, but that is not the main problem for me with this plan.. The problem is that access is from a highway WHERE THERE ARE NO SIDEWALKS. That sucks majorly.

kib
1-10-20, 2:22pm
well, I am unhappy that they are moving the library to a bigger building that ismfurther away, but that is not the main problem for me with this plan.. The problem is that access is from a highway WHERE THERE ARE NO SIDEWALKS. That sucks majorly. Yes it does! Sometimes I miss Bisbee so much! Aside from the cost of housing everything was expensive, but it was truly walkable, the isolation meant the entire community got its various supplies and services within a half mile walk of my house on charming main streets and interesting walks past unique houses. There was A bakery and A post office and A library, take it or leave it, and for the most part is was extremely "takeable".

Here, the problem is two-fold: so much choice I'd never choose what's in my own back yard, and everything on ugly, busy streets. We do have sidewalks, but it's not a pleasant experience.

KayLR
1-10-20, 2:34pm
With retirement a year or so away, I've been considering giving up my car (DH has one). I live blocks from a Safeway, but not close to too much else. BUT, transit here is very good and the bus stop is right by the Safeway. I was a transit user many years in my earlier life, and wouldn't hesitate to use it regularly in retirement to go to hair and doc appts., library, etc. The Downtown is very walkable. Just getting there by bus would be the thing.

jp1
1-10-20, 3:38pm
Walkability is a pretty high priority for us. Our current place has a walkability score of 94. That includes 2 libraries less than 10 minute walk away, 3 grocery stores less than a block away (including safeway), a wine shop, a movie theatre, walgreens, our vet, a little french bakery, and countless restaurants/bars/coffee shops all less than 10 minutes walk.

rosarugosa
1-10-20, 3:49pm
Walk-ability is very important to me given my aversion to driving, and I really do like to walk. I am less than a 10 minute walk from my dentist, the library, a bus stop, 7-11, 2 liquor stores, at least 7 take-out restaurants and one decent sit-down restaurant. The rail trail that we walk every day is about 15 mins away, also a national historical site/park where we sometimes walk. It takes 30 minutes to walk to my mother's house, my dog-walking gig, my hairdresser or the post office, although I do usually drive if I'm going to the other side of town, but it's nice to know I can walk it if I prefer. Our auto mechanic is also about 20 mins away.

dado potato
1-10-20, 3:51pm
The walkability score for an entire community is probably based on a great many assumptions.

Each residential address has its own walkability score. I thought the best use for the "Walk Score" site was to zoom in on a specific address and then do some searches for what is nearby. I arbitrarily chose Walla Walla, Washington, and the "Affinity" 55+ apartment building... at the address 1706 Fairway Drive. That building was not among those with blue icons, but the nearby buildings with icons had walkability scores that were in the 40s. FWIW, the website of the property claims that it is "... a walker's delight... within walking distance to a variety of restaurants, cafes, shopping, parks, and other amenities."

I searched "Public Transit", "Routes", and found that bus route 5 has a stop about 2 blocks away from the building at 1706 Fairway Drive.

I searched for "groceries" (checking the box), and the map showed nothing nearby. But when I typed in "Safeway" in the search box, the map showed a Safeway a block or two from the building.
I typed in "bank", and the map showed a branch of the Baker-Boyer Bank.

These little inquiries convinced me that while Walla Walla as a city might have a "Walkability score" around 47, a specific building might be a very short walk from identifiable services. (For instance, a carless trip from "Affinity" to the public library would involve a short walk to the nearest bus stop (buses run every 30 minutes in Walla Walla), then a ride downtown on Route 5.

Individual interests and affiliations would make a great deal of difference, for example walking to shul compared to say, a United Methodist Church.

rosarugosa
1-10-20, 4:00pm
Dado: Good points, you prompted me to look up my walkability score and it is only 52, but it feels better than that to me.

sweetana3
1-10-20, 4:09pm
My city has a walkability score of 30 but my address has a score of 78. Almost every single thing I could need from doctor, dentist, groceries, hardware, vet, library, shopping, restaurants, etc. is a walk away within a one mile radius. Choice of neighborhood is critical.

Teacher Terry
1-10-20, 4:18pm
My address has a score of 42 and the city as a whole 38. If you live in one of the newer subdivisions you couldn’t walk anywhere.

bae
1-10-20, 4:34pm
My village is very walkable, and indeed the planning codes for it go into great detail about it being a "walking village", and some restrictions to encourage it to remain that way.

It is unfortunately about 5 miles from my house to the village. The village is also at sea level, my house at about 1200 feet of elevation. So I have to bike down to the village to begin my "walking village" experience which is fine. And if I'm only getting 2-3 bags of groceries, I can bike back. If I need to procure anything really bulky or heavy, I have to drive a vehicle alas.

pinkytoe
1-10-20, 4:59pm
I frequently walk to the post office and sometimes to a little strip center that looks like it came out of the 1950s about a mile away - it has a coffee shop, diner, grocery, liquor store, bank, hair salon, and hardware store. Best of all though, is a great walking park at the end of our block. Not a fan of new houses in the burbs so always look for older suburbs near downtown to live in.

razz
1-10-20, 5:27pm
My home has a walk score of 29. I walk:
- 15 mins to Walmart, drug store, shoe store outlet, my Toyota dealer, pet store, dollar store, liquor outlet, large hardware
- 5 min to community college and K-8 public school
- 3 mins to transit that is twice daily. I must check out this service to understand it better.

The biggest challenges are groceries, library and bulk barn which do require a car. I can walk to them but have no desire to carry the parcels home.

SteveinMN
1-10-20, 6:29pm
Very walkable neighborhood here. Three blocks to a supermarket (with an ATM) and a liquor store and two restaurants (neither are fast-food). Within half a mile from a library/community center, more restaurants (including a very nice pātisserie) and two independent coffee shops, a microbrewery, barber shops/beauty salons, and a medical clinic (used to be mine; isn't anymore). Within a mile from downtown St. Paul, so fine arts/entertainment, more restaurants, drug stores, a head shop (keep St. Paul weird!), bigger libraries, parks (well, bigger parks that have music programs in summer, etc.). If I walk three blocks I can look over the Mississippi River. There are three bus lines with four blocks, including two that connect to the light rail that goes to Minneapolis and/or the airport. The only thing we should have that we don't is a hardware store. We used to have one but the owner retired and cashed out and now it's a Hampton Inn and a bunch of boring restaurants.

Before I bought this house (before DW and I married) I lived up on one of the main streets of St. Paul. It had one of about everything but a used-car lot (we do have one of those in this neighborhood). I wanted to make sure I had similar walkability here. That's one reason why, when DW starts in about wanting to move to the outer suburbs, where our kids/grandkids live, I'm the one covering my ears and singing "LALALA..." Been there, done that (lived where you needed a car to get anywhere); absolutely don't want to do it again.

ApatheticNoMore
1-10-20, 6:44pm
Ok I'm a couple blocks from a hardware store too. Ok, ok, so it's walk-able in much of everything you actually need or something, but it's not exciting, it's boring. So I hardly realize that it is pretty walkable as it's boring. But the real distance is in driving to work and to see people really, not the piddling stuff which even then is a few miles, which I combine errands anyway half the time, and amounts to not much.

jp1
1-10-20, 7:07pm
Steve, it somehow seems counter-intuitive to worry about a used car lot being "walkable"... :) And it would be great if our neighborhood had a brewpub, but alas, life is never perfect.

And I agree with dado that the walkability site is imperfect. In our neighborhood it counts the little bodega on the corner as a grocery store. I suppose if one considers a bag of chips, a candy bar, a bottle of alcohol and a lotto ticket as groceries it could be considered a grocery store...

SteveinMN
1-10-20, 10:32pm
Steve, it somehow seems counter-intuitive to worry about a used car lot being "walkable"... :)
Oh, agreed. But there was so much along that street that I had to think about what it didn't have -- and that was a place to buy cars (there were several places to fix them).


I suppose if one considers a bag of chips, a candy bar, a bottle of alcohol and a lotto ticket as groceries it could be considered a grocery store...
While I'm happy to walk to many places near me, having a supermarket very close was an absolute must for me. And we have one. It's gotten much better over the years as the neighborhood has seen more younger professionals ($$) move in and demand more international and organic groceries. Yeah, a bodega would not cut it for me.

Gardnr
1-11-20, 12:09am
Dado: Good points, you prompted me to look up my walkability score and it is only 52, but it feels better than that to me.

Mine is 9:(

jp1
1-11-20, 12:37am
While I'm happy to walk to many places near me, having a supermarket very close was an absolute must for me. And we have one. It's gotten much better over the years as the neighborhood has seen more younger professionals ($$) move in and demand more international and organic groceries. Yeah, a bodega would not cut it for me.

Agreed about grocery stores. Safeway is literally across the street from us. We no longer buy lots of stuff just to have it on hand. If we're making dinner and need something we just run across the street and get it and are home in 10-15 minutes. And our freezer is always almost empty since we can pick up any meat we need from either the safeway or the butcher a block away the day we intend to eat it. The luxury of that is amazing.

herbgeek
1-11-20, 6:54am
I'm in the middle of no where, by choice when we originally bought. We had lived in a condo complex for 10 years that went downhill. The market dropped out inn our area and selling prices were 1/2 to 2/3 of what we all paid. As a result, many units were rented out, and some owners were not at all picky about tenants. So I wanted some buffer space between me and any potential neighbors.

The only thing that will be walkable will be the farm brewery set to open in the spring. That would be about 45 minute walk.

rosarugosa
1-11-20, 7:33am
I think walkability has a lot to do with where you want to go and how far you are willing to walk. A lot of people aren't willing to walk much of anywhere.

rosarugosa
1-11-20, 8:36am
I'm in the middle of no where, by choice when we originally bought. We had lived in a condo complex for 10 years that went downhill. The market dropped out inn our area and selling prices were 1/2 to 2/3 of what we all paid. As a result, many units were rented out, and some owners were not at all picky about tenants. So I wanted some buffer space between me and any potential neighbors.

The only thing that will be walkable will be the farm brewery set to open in the spring. That would be about 45 minute walk.

Herbgeek: Since you have recently retired and we are both in the same part of the country, how do you feel about "the middle of no where" as a location for aging in place? Or do you not intend to stay where you are for the long-term? DH is always showing me real estate listings for western MA where homes are so much cheaper than where we currently live. As much as I love the more rural New England areas for vacation, I feel like moving to one of them for my older years would not be a great plan for this non-driving introvert.

catherine
1-11-20, 9:42am
Herbgeek: Since you have recently retired and we are both in the same part of the country, how do you feel about "the middle of no where" as a location for aging in place? Or do you not intend to stay where you are for the long-term? DH is always showing me real estate listings for western MA where homes are so much cheaper than where we currently live. As much as I love the more rural New England areas for vacation, I feel like moving to one of them for my older years would not be a great plan for this non-driving introvert.

Rosa, some of the western MA towns are beautiful!! Lenox and Great Barrington are two I can think of off hand. I don't know where the essential services in those towns are, but they do have lovely Main Streets. I think it's possible to find small towns in more rural areas that are walkable.

herbgeek
1-11-20, 10:22am
how do you feel about "the middle of no where" as a location for aging in place?

I don't plan to be here for later old age. I need an area that doesn't necessarily have to be walk-able (although that would be nice) but will need to have readily accesible public transportation. But I'm only 59, so for now, driving where I need to go is ok. It will likely be a small town, maybe a college town, as big cities already intimidate me. ;)

iris lilies
1-11-20, 11:30am
Steve, it somehow seems counter-intuitive to worry about a used car lot being "walkable"... :) And it would be great if our neighborhood had a brewpub, but alas, life is never perfect.

And I agree with dado that the walkability site is imperfect. In our neighborhood it counts the little bodega on the corner as a grocery store. I suppose if one considers a bag of chips, a candy bar, a bottle of alcohol and a lotto ticket as groceries it could be considered a grocery store...

We have a micro brewery one block from my house, and now they are making spirits as well.But the best thing is that they have nice quality bar food and they are open 7 days a week.

Teacher Terry
1-11-20, 11:51am
I lived in a small town in upstate New York and you had to drive to the next town for everything. I was young so didn’t mind but no thanks now.

catherine
1-11-20, 11:58am
I lived in a small town in upstate New York and you had to drive to the next town for everything. I was young so didn’t mind but no thanks now.

Our first home was in a very small town, and I HATED that I had to drive 8 miles to the supermarket and 14 miles to soccer practice when the boys were small. The only thing in our town was a gas station and a bar and a grocery store owned by a VERY nosy family who got into everyone's business and then spread it around.

Although I hated having to leave it at the time (I loved our acre of land in the middle of nowhere and the peace and quiet), with kids, moving to central Jersey was the best thing I could have done to protect my sanity. The kids had soccer practice literally in our back yard in the park behind our house. It was heaven.