Urban Walkability Gains a Foothold in the U.S.

[marmar]

Urban Walkability Gains a Foothold in the U.S.
The 15-Minute City, an urban concept in which all basic needs can be satisfied with a 15-minute walk or bike ride, is catching on in the U.S. as an indirect reaction to the pandemic.

BY ANDY HIRSCHFELD
9 MIN READ MAY 5, 2021




(YES! Magazine) Jake Poznak, co-owner of Moonrise Izakaya, a Japanese restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, could have easily been a statistic of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the National Restaurant Association, more than 100,000 restaurateurs across the country had to close their businesses because of the pandemic. After the first wave, when restaurants began to reopen, the city helped restaurants build outdoor dining enclosures that take up spots on the street otherwise reserved for parked cars. Expanded outdoor dining in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was a lifeline for Poznak, the business, and the vibrancy of the neighborhood.

“Without outdoor dining, we would be out of business,” Poznak says. “I was shocked that all winter, people were willing to get on the sidewalk. I have one of these street enclosures.”

....(snip)....

New York is the standout example for a more pandemic-induced move in this direction in the United States—following in the footsteps of Paris, where the idea of the 15-Minute City first caught on.

....(snip)....

Known for its almost nonexistent zoning, Houston is a city where the idea of a 15-Minute City is more of an uphill battle, but it’s far from off the table. The layout of Houston is actually fairly conducive to this. While the city is sprawling, it has multiple urban centers, unlike most other cities. Downtown Houston, the Texas Medical Center, Uptown Houston, Greenway Plaza, and Westchase all act as concentrated urban cores with sprawling neighborhoods intertwined between them. ..............(more)

https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2021/05/05/15-minute-city-walk

[marble falls]

1. Walkability in Marble Falls means you can drive to the walking paths in Johnson Park. I live ...

only several dangerous blocks from there. Walkability should mean I can walk to businesses and work, too. I did walk to work. But it really took a lot of paying attention. Drivers DO NOT slow down for crossers. With few sidewalks and some of the little there are, being close enough to the roads that getting clocked by a truck's passenger side view mirror is a distinct possibility. Forget bicycling except for pleasure rides on residential streets, where there are no sidewalks at all.

I'd love to walk to HEB, I can see it from my house, but it requires me to either cross the creek using rocks to step, or to use the fairly new bridge on 1431 which has no side walk on one side, and some of the little side walk in town on the north side that narrows to about 30" wide across the bridge. We tried it one morning about 10 or 12 years ago, and it was not a safe feeling doing it.

[bahboo]

2. walkability is one of our top priorities....

when looking for a place to live. They shut down our Main Street so the restaurants could move outside. It's fabulous, gives our fair city a European sensibility. A move is afoot to make it permanent....

[Midnight Writer]

3. The reason I haven't moved long ago is because I live in a nice walking neighborhood.

I've been keeping an eye out for properties in my area, and have seen some enticing ones, but damn, lots of these neighborhoods don't even have sidewalks.

At my current location, there are three city parks within a quarter mile, a nice grocery store about a mile away, and lots of rural trails that wind up through farm fields. Folks drive their cars and park near here to take their daily walks around this neighborhood.