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

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Last Updated: June 22, 2007