The Top 30 Most Walkable Cities in Oregon

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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Walkability has a direct correlation with a the performance of the community's economy.

Data from across the country show a consistent outcome - cities which are highly walkable perform better than their peer cities. 

GoLocal reviewed the data provided by the research group at Walk Score, "believes that walkable neighborhoods with access to public transit, shorter commutes, and proximity to the people and places you love are the key to a happier, healthier and more sustainable lifestyle."

More walkable places perform better economically. For neighborhoods within metropolitan Washington, as the number of environmental features that facilitate walkability and attract pedestrians increase, so do office, residential, and retail rents, retail revenues, and for-sale residential values.

For Oregon cities, the numbers are mixed. Portland, known for its walkability led Oregon’s ranking but did not make the top 10 nationally.  The greater the walkability, the higher the real estate for commercial space, commercial rents and residential values.

In contrast, Oregon communities like Wilsonville and West Linn did not make the top 30 in Oregon.

Research conducted at Brookings Institute divided walkability into a five-tiered ladder, “They discovered that every time an area moves along the ladder toward more walkable, it “adds $9 per square foot to annual office rents, $7 per square foot to retail rents, more than $300 per month to apartment rents and nearly $82 per square foot to home values.”

Even New Jersey Benefits

in top-ranked Jersey City, according to Nick Boniakowski, a Redfin real estate agent in the area. “Jersey City has everything a resident could need or want right outside her door, making it possible to enjoy a car-less lifestyle most people think they can only find in a much bigger city,” said Boniakowski. “Lately, my clients have been clamoring over Paulus Hook, where they can live in a brownstone on a tree-lined street and walk to trendy restaurants and the Grove Street farmer’s market.”

To calculate the rankings, Walk Score analyzed over 10 million locations and computed more than 2 billion walking routes for 2,500 U.S. cities. The Walk Score ranking uses the Street Smart Walk Score algorithm that incorporates walking routes, depth of choice, pedestrian-friendliness, population and neighborhood data. For this ranking of mid-sized cities, we looked at cities with populations between 200,000 and 300,000.

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Related Slideshow: Oregon’s Most Walkable Cities

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