Friday, August 17, 2007

Is Downtown Raleigh Walkable?

I don't know if this site just launched, but the viral campaign has definitely hit. Last week my friend sent the link to me. Then a colleague at work sent it around a few days later. And now I have seen it posted as part of the next lecture series by the city. What is it?

www.walkscore.com

It's a pretty cool site. If you're not from Raleigh and want to know if a neighborhood is within walking distance to stuff, you just plug in an address and voila! It gives you a score and lists the businesses within walking distance. Our office, which is in the heart of downtown on Fayetteville St, scored a 91 out of 100. And we're in the middle of it all. But several restaurants were missing from the list, so take it with a grain of salt. Within 2 blocks of our office is Cafe Carolina, American Pita Grill, la Crema, Chick-fil-A, just to name a few (they weren't on the list).

So, business owners, list yourself here (it's based on the Google Maps API). They say that Joe Resident can't make changes, the business owner has to do it.

On the subject of walkability - the City of Raleigh's next lecture is on how to make a pedestrian-friendly city. Mark your calendar for Sept 20. It's open to the public but you need to register.

1 comment:

Hilary Stokes said...

Hmm.. do you post comments on your own blog? I'm going to anyway.

After writing this blog, I was irritated that a premier address on Fayetteville Street only scored 91 out of 100, plus my favorite eateries weren't even listed, so I contacted the Downtown Raleigh Alliance to ask if they ever help restaurants and others promote themselves through places like Google Maps since many weren't listed at walkscore.com.

In the course of the email exchange and more research, I quickly learned that walkscore.com only shows 8 businesses in each category. Many of downtown Raleigh's restaurants ARE listed in Google maps. So I'm sure the Alliance people thought I was an idiot.

In any case, I did learn that the downtown Raleigh Alliance has a great tool of their own. When you pick a business downtown on their map, you'll also be able to see the closest parking decks. And we all know how I feel about parking! http://www.godowntownraleigh.com - click on living and you can get to the dining map.

This was the one thing that I was nervous about when I started a blog - public humiliation. I'm sure I am going to be wrong about some things or have bad info. But if I don't ever put my thoughts out there, how I will ever know? So I hope you enjoy learning with me. :)