Walkable Communities, Inc.

How Can I Find and Help Build a Walkable Community - continued

Finding walkable communities is a great quest we should all make together. I have many personal favorites. They come in all sizes. Each must be tested out using the above criteria before investing in these places. All are in various stages of healing or becoming more diseased, often at the same time. Generally, I like a town to be on the small side, but larger towns are on my list if they have many good neighborhoods and villages. Some highly favored towns (Crested Butte, Colorado) have as few as 1400 people, many, such as Littleton, New Hampshire, pop 7,000) 5-15,000. A good size town that is complete can provide good services when populated by 30-50,000 people. When towns get up to 100,000 or more, many added services, like efficient transit, are a must to remain walkable and fun.

My Own Search. Having worked in over 1200 communities in North America I am often asked “What is your favorite Walkable Community?” Easy. In North America it is Victoria, British Columbia. It is the one good great place. Since we cannot all live there … It is better that I list many places, and show a range of quality and completeness. At the risk of leaving out towns that I have not visited, taken a liking to, yet have forgot to include in the short moment I had to prepare this piece, I provide a partial list below of good places to live that are Walkable Communities. Many of these places are not affordable, many are. Many people find it essential to downsize their homes, sell one or all cars in order to rebuild their quality of life and health.

In some states, such as Michigan or California, there are so many towns it is difficult to decide which to include, which to leave out. In a few states (New Mexico or Arizona) it is so hard to find a single listing that I find a need to make a more comprehensive search there at a later point in time. Example Walkable Communities (or portions thereof) I have discovered and returned to more than once include:

WALKABLE COMMUNITIES BY REGION

CANADA & NORTHEASTERN STATES
CANADA - Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Halifax
NEW HAMPSHIRE - Keene, Littleton, Portsmouth, Meredith and Exeter
MAINE - Portland, Kennebunkport
VERMONT - Burlington, Brattleboro, Montpelier
MASSACHUSETTS - Boston, Cambridge, Salem
NEW YORK - New York City, Albany, Saratoga Springs, East Aurora, Huntington, Ithaca, Hamburg, Port Jefferson
NEW JERSEY - Princeton
PENNSYLVANIA - Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, State College
MARYLAND - Annapolis, Kentlands, Bethesda
VIRGINIA - Alexandria, Charlottesville, Virginia
WASHINGTON, DC

SOUTHERN STATES
NORTH CAROLINA - Asheville, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Hendersonville
SOUTH CAROLINA - Charleston
GEORGIA - Savannah
FLORIDA - St Augustine, Winter Park, South Beach, West Palm Beach, South Beach, South Miami, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Naples, Celebration, Seaside, Pensacola, Key West
TENNESSEE - Franklin
ALABAMA - Fairhope
LOUISIANA - New Orleans

MIDWESTERN STATES
OHIO - Westerville
MICHIGAN - Brighton, Holland, Milford, Birmingham, Traverse City, Kalamazoo, East Lansing, Mackinac Island, Marquette
ILLINOIS - Chicago, Naperville
MINNESOTA - Minneapolis, St Paul
WISCONSIN - Milwaukee, Madison, Cedarburg

SOUTHWESTERN STATES
TEXAS - Austin, San Antonio
NEW MEXICO - Santa Fe
ARIZONA - Flagstaff

ROCKY MOUNTAIN STATES
COLORADO - Golden, Ft Collins, Crested Butte, Boulder
WYOMING - Jackson
MONTANA - Missoula, Big Fork, Livingston, Bozeman

PACIFIC COAST STATES
WASHINGTON - Seattle, Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue, Olympia, Bellingham, Gig Harbor, Bainbridge Island, Port Townsend, Everett, University Place, Langley, Issaquah, Ellensburg
OREGON - Portland, Ashland, Corvallis, Eugene
CALIFORNIA - San Diego, Coronado, La Jolla, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brea, Whittier, Claremont, Valencia, Carpenteria, Santa Barbara, Arcata, Chico, Mountain View, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-Sea, San Luis Obispo, Los Gatos, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Sacramento, Davis, Sonoma, Cotati, Petaluma, Healdsburg
HAWAII - Honolulu
ALASKA - Juneau

Finally, asked to name the two towns in America most deserving of praise for Herculean tasks they are now performing to overcome the ills of sprawl…Sacramento, California and Charlotte, North Carolina deserve special recognition and observation.

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Walkable Communities., 120 N. Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801 (866) 347-2734
For any comments, questions or suggestions about the content of this web site please email: Ken Owens
Last Updated: June 22, 2007