City named top walkable destination / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Leaders take ranking in stride, acknowledge more to be done

March 19, 2008

Lawrence voted most walkable

Lawrence is the most walkable community in the state, according to Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association. Enlarge video

Photo by Mike Yoder

Maggie Mulhern, 17 months, jogs along next to her baby sitter, Michelle Walter, a Kansas University senior from Overland Park, as the two pass through South Park on a morning walk Tuesday. Lawrence was ranked the most walkable city in the state and the 38th most walkable city in the U.S. by Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association.

Here's how Kansas cities ranked in the survey of most walkable cities:

1. Lawrence

2. Manhattan

3. Overland Park

4. Shawnee

5. Lenexa

6. Olathe

7. Topeka

8. Kansas City

9. Wichita

10. Salina

It was a free and furry Tuesday morning adventure for 2-year-old Eoghan Greenwell who was walking along Massachusetts Street with his mother.

A fellow walker with a tiny, kid-friendly dog stopped to give the excited toddler a chance to pet its snout.

"Oh, so soft," Eoghan's mother, Alix Stephan, said as she petted the dog and the young boy bear hugged her leg.

Certainly not a life-changing event, but still a welcome diversion that wouldn't have been possible had Stephan and her son not been out for a stroll.

"Something like that would never happen in a car," Stephan said. "That's what I really love about walking. In some strange sort of way it does little things to bring a community together."

If that's the case, there's no better place in the state for such adventures than Lawrence, according to a new ranking of the most walkable cities in the country. Lawrence was deemed the most walkable city in the state and the 38th most walkable in the country in a ranking by Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association.

City leaders generally were pleased with the ranking, saying that it showed efforts to make walkability a more top-of-mind issue were paying off.

"Our new development code, for example, requires sidewalks on both sides of the street for new developments," Mayor Sue Hack said. "I think that goes a long way to saying we want a safe place to walk."

But before you add that extra bounce to your step, keep the ranking in perspective. The magazine looked at several factors, but a major one it didn't was the condition of city sidewalks. The study also didn't look at how well sidewalks are cleared of snow.

City commissioners said they know both issues are a problem.

"I think this ranking is a sign that we're doing some things right, but I know we could do a lot better," City Commissioner Boog Highberger said.

Both Highberger and Hack said the city needs to have a discussion about whether to begin sharing in the costs to improve cracked and deteriorated sidewalks. City ordinances make it the responsibility of adjacent property owners to repair sidewalks. Both commissioners, though, made no promises about the city taking on the responsibility given the tight economy.

"But I think we do all understand that if we want to be walkable, it has to be safely walkable," Hack said.

The city scored highly in several areas in the magazine's ranking. A panel of walking experts - largely urban planners - rated Lawrence highly based on past experiences they had in the community. No other Kansas city was ranked as highly by the panel of experts.

Lawrence also was the top-ranked Kansas city in terms of having parks that are easily accessible to pedestrians. It ranked second in the state in percentage of residents who use mass transit and the number of schools that are near neighborhoods, and the second lowest number of cars per household. The city's downtown also was ranked as having the second most number of walkable destinations, trailing downtown Wichita.

Lawrence was the only Kansas community in the top 100. Wichita and Salina both were ranked among the 25 least walkable communities. Cambridge, Mass., was deemed the most walkable city of the 500 communities in the report.

Hack and Highberger said they thought Lawrence would become an even more walker-friendly community in the future. The city is in the process of passing a "Smart Code" that will give developers more options in how they build neighborhoods. An emphasis of the code is to encourage more use of residential and commercial developments.

"We may not go back to the era where there is a corner store for every neighborhood, but I think it will move us closer to that era," Highberger said.

Discussion

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19 March 2008
at 7:41 a.m.

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ohjayhawk (Anonymous) says…

I can attest to this ranking. When I was at KU, I did not have a car. So, I got to experience first-hand how good of a walking city Lawrence is. Heck, my roommate and I once walked from our apartment near 18th and Tennessee out to 31st and Iowa once to sign up for a chance at tickets to the Big 8 basketball tournament. How we would've gotten to KC if we had won, I'm not sure, but we entered.
19 March 2008
at 8:03 a.m.

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consumer1 (Anonymous) says…

This is actually kind of funny, when I attended KU it seemed I was the only student who walked up the hill. It is so funny to see the people who live at 19th and Naismith get on a bus to get to campus, It is like three block away?
19 March 2008
at 8:18 a.m.

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kansasredlegs (Anonymous) says…

Did the survey include the number of times one has to cross City streets to reconnect to a sidewalk that will actually take you to where you want to go?
19 March 2008
at 8:20 a.m.

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ohjayhawk (Anonymous) says…

consumer - Yeah, I always wondered that myself. I lived in the Jayhawker Towers for a time too and there were a lot of people from there that rode the bus as well. I never understood it. I walked to class, I walked downtown, I walked to work on 23rd Street, and none of that hurt me a bit! (I sound like a grandpa saying I walked to school in 6' of snow uphill both ways.) However, I'll never forget when I visited KU before applying, they said on the tour that KU doesn't require a phys ed class because of the walk up the hill.
19 March 2008
at 8:20 a.m.

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merrill (Anonymous) says…

Yet when citizens ask that the city become ever more walkable the powers that be do nothing.

The T is on the chopping block.

Walks remain in disrepair. No money to fix walks yet magically a half a million dollars appeared to do yet another study on the $88 million sewage treatment plant? a facility that may not be necessary?

Lawrence does not need more neighborhoods because Lawrence does not care for the infrastructure in older neighborhoods.

The North Lawrence project will easily cost $42 -$60 million tax dollars for sewer lines,water lines bridges,culverts,reconstruction projects,flood control and elevating teepee road to prevent the airport from flooding. Why you ask? Because the flood
plain will be filled in. Who pays for all of this NEW infrastructure? The taxpayers.
Then what?
Further increases to the cost of community services created by more:
* water and sewer lines
* streets and repairs
*houses
*public schools
* fire stations
* law enforcement manpower
*sidewalks
* snow removal
* bike trails and cross walks
* Traffic signals
* Traffic calming
* developers requesting more tax dollar assistance(new infrastructure) for their
warehouses and retail strip malls.
*In general increases the cost of community services to all taxpayers.
19 March 2008
at 8:20 a.m.

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kansasredlegs (Anonymous) says…

“Smart Code”, as opposed to “Dumb Code”? I'd take a big dose of boring “Common Sense” Code in this town.
19 March 2008
at 8:26 a.m.

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snap_pop_no_crackle (Anonymous) says…

“traffic calming”?
As in “dude, chill…..”?

19 March 2008
at 8:38 a.m.

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Stain (Anonymous) says…

I would agree this is a walkable city but it is certainly not drivable. The main roads need to be repainted; in the dark or the rain the white lines marking the lanes are invisible. It's dangerous.
19 March 2008
at 8:51 a.m.

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blue73harley (Anonymous) says…

Ditto, Stain, ditto.
19 March 2008
at 9:40 a.m.

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b_asinbeer (Anonymous) says…

offtotheright (Anonymous) says:

More like the pit of kansas

I say….

If you don't like it, move! Nobody's stopping you.
19 March 2008
at 9:56 a.m.

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consumer1 (Anonymous) says…

There is no doubt about the dis-repair of our streets. Until we get a city commission who takes care of the city instead of special interest groups. Don't get me wrong, both agendas of the Build vs. NO build groups have a death grip on the voters of Lawrence, Until we (the people/citizens of Lawrence) quit being so devisive in our political agenda and elect commissioner based on what is best for the entire city rather than our party's special interest. We are going to contiue to have either more money spent on round-a-bouts because they “are cool dude” or we are going to overspend our tax base on providing insentives to businesses either way it is cronisms and all the people in the middle, the larger majority are being punished with wasteful spending either direction. wake up lawrence, if you see a candidate sign in a real estate office lawn…….. Don't vote for that candidate, If you see a candidate sign in a yard with a “nuther neihbor for peace sign” don't vote for them. Force our commissioners to take care of our city. We need new business. and we need to get out of Iraq, but let's stop this divisive mine is better than yours BS.
19 March 2008
at 10:31 a.m.

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kubacker (Anonymous) says…

It's lucky Lawrence is such a walkable city because it's streets are shot to hell!
19 March 2008
at 11:35 a.m.

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average (Anonymous) says…

Most walkable city in Kansas is pretty faint praise. Of course, any survey that ranks Overland Park high on the list has never actually tried to walk there (have fun crossing 9 lanes of Metcalf in 30 seconds!).

Of course, lots of Kansas towns are walkable. Typically, towns too small for a Wal-Mart but big enough for an ALCO (Beloit, Larned, Lyons, Girard, Garnett) are eminently walkable, but don't count for the survey, I guess.
19 March 2008
at 12:37 p.m.

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Confrontation (Anonymous) says…

“It ranked second in the state in percentage of residents who use mass transit”

Interesting. Does this include the KU buses?
19 March 2008
at 12:47 p.m.

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tyger_lily (Anonymous) says…

I disagree with this. If I can walk to where I am going, I always try to. Ever tried to cross Louisiana at 23rd? Even when you have the walk signal, people making right turns, gabbing on their cell phones, just about run you over because they don't even bother to look.

19 March 2008
at 2:02 p.m.

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JJE007 (Anonymous) says…

Hey! I want in on the “when I went to school, I walked…” stories. I remember when I lived around 13th and Vermont, I decided to walk to Clinton Lake, what is now the marina area, and back. I made it back to 19th & Naismith and caught a ride the rest of the way home. I had a few blisters!~)

I used to regularly walk from the Pinkney neighborhood to work downtown, then up to school, then back to work, then up to school and then home. I put a lot of miles on those Redwing waffle-stompers in bad weather, my leather jacket and County Donegal hat…through rain, snow, sleet and black of night. The Stump Jumper came in handy, later…still does, poor old thing. You still need good boots and a mountain bike to negotiate the pitiful roads and walkways of most of this friendly town!~)
19 March 2008
at 3:23 p.m.

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inatux (Anonymous) says…

Bitch and moan, bitch and moan.
19 March 2008
at 6:03 p.m.

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Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

Same story, different ending..

Mother and child walk down Mass, man and dog approach. Toddler jumps towards dog to pet it, dog bites toddler in fear.After all, he's been attacked by them vicious toddlers before, has PTSD.

City commission creates ban to remove all dogs from 200 ft of businesses.
Small dog euthanized as a vicious dog, toddler and mom get off scott free.
19 March 2008
at 6:43 p.m.

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average (Anonymous) says…

Segregation of purpose leads to pedestrian inaccessibility.

There are neighborhoods right outside the parking lot of Free State High. But, you can't walk or bicycle easily from those neighborhoods to the school.

You can't easily walk to Best Buy/Home Depot from the north. Ousdahl comes twenty feet from a road that connects to Home Depot, but I suspect the neighborhood to the north prefers having a moat between them and the trailer park?

And, just as an idea, would anyone else use this pedestrian route? From Prairie Park, a pedestrian light (like the one on 11th?) across Haskell near 27th. Intersect the Haskell rail trail, then a path across the Haskell campus (along Kiowa street) to both South Junior High (where Prairie Park kids go to school) and the Park Hill neighborhood?
19 March 2008
at 7:02 p.m.

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GretchenJP (Anonymous) says…

I have to agree with Lawrence being a walkable city, particularly downtown. Gimme a 60-degree overcast day, maybe even a sprinkle or two, a couple of hours to spare and I'm enjoying the day on Mass Street.
19 March 2008
at 8:48 p.m.

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Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

They call Tacoma and Seattle very outdoor cities. The times I've been there, yes, people are out everywhere.
I don't know if I could adapt to waking up to 43 degrees every morning. Burrr.

I'm enjoying Axmen, the show. For a while anyway.Nothing like getting the visual of a 1000 pound log coming straight down the mountain at you when it breaks loose of it's ties.
Yikes!
19 March 2008
at 10:10 p.m.

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merrill (Anonymous) says…

Depending on where you live and what your destination is Lawrence can be walkable. Residential within a 2 mile radius of downtown is most walkable because that is walking distance to groceries,movie theatre,library,hardware stores,department stores,KU activities,night life, jobs,Lawrence High School,elementary schools,South Park activities,Farmers Market,good selection of dining out,shoe stores,used clothing stores,art displays,art center,bike shops yetttttt have some of the worst sidewalks Lawrence,Kansas.

It's the wheel chair folks,senior citizens and/or physically
impaired members of the population that are truly neglected in the sidewalk situations to the point of being insensitive.

East Lawrence is loaded with rental properties which is one reason why CDBG funding could not be used for large lengths of sidewalk. Rentals are a commercial NOT owner occupied residential.

Losing the T will will be noticed by many many public school students and those 47% of users that have to depend on the T for employment…. those without the ability to afford a motorized vehicle to include some who
are employed at East Hills Business Park.
19 March 2008
at 10:32 p.m.

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Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

I once walked from 25th and Iowa to the Lyons Park area in North Lawrence. Young, and nothing to carry, it wasn't too bad. I once thought I'd walk the 5 blocks to the store, back when I was young and able. Just a few things, one being a gallon of milk. Two paper bags full. Sure, I could do that.( I used to lift and carry two 40lb sacks of dog food from the store to the car, right?)
Before 2 blocks, I was arm dead, back dead and suffering. Carrying something for a distance is a hard lesson. (I mean, in the army, everything was on our backs). I saw a wagon on this ladies front porch, asked her to lend it to me. Thank goodness she did. I returned it promptly and with many thanks. Some neighbors are great people.
Now I stop and offer lifts to people I see carrying groceries home. Many take me up on it.

20 March 2008
at 3:43 a.m.

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doc1 (Anonymous) says…

And thats why the taxpayers fund a city bus service that services none. Obviously they would rather walk.