Walkable Cities

Shoppers are Walkers, from the Living Streets Exhibit, NYC
Originally uploaded by rllayman

(Image "Shoppers are Walkers," from the Living Streets Exhibit, NYC.)

MSN has a feature on walkable cities, "America's Most Walkable Cities," based on the work by Chris Leinberger. I have started reading his new book, The Option of Urbanism and he makes many key points, very succinctly. More on that later.

But not all "downtown" adjacent places are included, such as Pittsburgh's Northside. I guess it isn't replete with amenities, although there are some. But it is eminently walkable, and an easy 10-15 minute walk across the river to many points in downtown. It'd be easy to live there and work downtown and not own a car, because of the high concentration of bus routes in that area of the city (either on the Northside/East Ohio Street, or by walking into downtown).

The cities are:

1. DC
2. Boston
3. San Francisco
4. Denver
5. Portland
6. Seattle
7. Chicago
8. Miami
9. Pittsburgh
10. NYC

Also see "A walker's wonderland" from the Globe North neighborhood section of the Boston Globe.