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It seems like every week, there's one of those Top 10 lists that come out trying to let everyone know what cities are ranked where and why. In fact, we've seen enough of these in the past few years to wonder if there are any Top 10 type lists that haven't been done yet. Top 10 Cities to Buy a Bong? Type 10 Cities to Get Drunk and Wind Up With A Tatoo In? Top 10 Cities to Get Gonarehea? Well, this week's Top 10 list is Top 10 Most Walkable Cities and guess what? San Fran clocks in at #3.
The survey was conducted by the Ministry of Silly Walks and based their findings on such things as "air quality, the percentage of people who walk to work, access to parks, number of athletic shoes sold, and (believe it or not) weather. Weather wasn't that much of a factor (although it probably helped) but crime is. The two cities that did better than us was Madison Wisconsin and Austin Texas. We did better than our California brethern San Diego and San Jose, as well as Seattle and Henderson Nevada. Henderson Nevada? One thing they didn't mention, however, which probably is worth a mention too is hills. Not so fun to walk.
Say what you will, but SF is actually a good city for walking. It's small and compact and you can pretty much walk anywhere. We also have lots of parks which are all great places to walk, just as long as you don't make a wrong turn and wind up in a homeless encampment. Throw in bad public transportation, which is often the quickest way of getting somewhere, and it's a pretty good place for getting your walk on.
So remember folks, keep your heads in the clouds and your feet on the ground.
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Have you guys ever heard of SPELL CHECK?
Gonarehea? Are you kidding me? Not even close. Gonorrhea.
I mean, I know you may not have a budget for a proofreader, but SPELL CHECK comes free with all word processing programs...
Austin?! Are they serious? Certain neighborhoods may be walkable, but you have to get on one of their many freeways to go across town.
NYC is #39?? I get that the air sucks, the weather isn't too great about 6 months of the year, and people are more likely to take public transportation than walk to work but still...
Tatoo! Gonarehea!
I took issue with this entire list.
That Oakland ranks anywhere near New York is offensive at best. While the latter is incredibly dense with wide sidewalks and an abundance of parks, plazas and public destinations, the former is, uh, Oakland.
And you nailed it, the topography of San Francisco makes its rank questionable: a walkable city should be walkable for the elderly and the disabled, which San Francisco is certainly not. Indeed, one is often tempted to walk around hills, even if it adds an hour on to your journey.
I don't buy into a lot of these top 10 lists, because of their methodology. It makes sense that they use some kind of formula so they can be objective, but those formulas often uses questionable weightings and a weird mash-up of criteria. For instance, crime is a factor, but what if a city's high crime rate is outside the walkable areas? It's factors like this that cause weird results like San Jose ranking #8 and NYC #39.
They also end up including too many cities. It just doesn't make much sense to compare places like Henderson, NV and Bismarck, ND to NYC. They may all be "cities" in the official Census sense, but...
This Top 10 List would make my Top 10 Worst Top 10 Lists Ever List.
sf is small and compact?
spoken like someone who never tried to walk the city.
jon, why are you so obsessed with LA?
This list is terrible. San Diego and San Jose in the top 10? Both are incredibly sprawling outside of their downtown areas (ie where people live). The rest of the list doesn't inspire confidence either, with cities like Oakland and Denver in the top 50.
You poke fun at LA, but it's in there at #61. And LA area Long Beach, Anaheim, Riverside and Santa Ana also made the list.
It sounds like podiatrists who cite research from the American Podiatric Medical Association should be avoided.
It would appear that this list treats "walking" as a recreational/fitness activity, as in "I think I'll drive out to the trails and go for a walk." Some of the criteria are "beautiful places to walk," "parks per square mile," and "percent of population that buys athletic shoes." Athletic shoes?