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You can kind of have it if you mean walkable to just the general store, a cafe and a few other things but you can never have everything because many kinds of st

You can kind of have it if you mean walkable to just the general store, a cafe and a few other things but you can never have everything because many kinds of stores can only exist with a certain population close enough. What I love about living in the city is literally _everything_ I need is within walking distance. I have not used a car or any form of public transport in months and have felt no need to, I can buy anything within walking distance and all offices for any job I would take in this state are within walking distance. You just can’t have that with houses because each house takes up a significant space which you have to walk past to get anywhere.

KarlKemp 5y ago
Even with single-family housing, the density is high enough to support a supermarket and other stores that are visited at a rate of once per month within walking distance, easily. Source: the town I grew up in: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/51.248182,6.9768629/@51.2462608,6.9656488,2688m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/51.2481... Population is 36,000 or so. I've added the walking distance from the outskirts to the very center, which is 2.3km. You'll note that there are supermarkets distributed throughout, usually within a few hundred meters. If you need anything special, it takes 30 minutes by public transport (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/K%C3%B6nigsallee,+D%C3%BCsseldorf/@51.2345467,6.8034804,21513m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47b8ca3d06b68227:0x81883aefd77f96ec!2m2!1d6.779266!2d51.2220574!2m3!6e0!7e2!8j1628322060!3e3!5i2 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/K%C3%B6... ) to a shopping district in the next larger town, which has any type or brand of retail that exists in this country (Streetview: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2254878,6.7800095,3a,75y,64.26h,101.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgCUtbmOSmEj7fzVV20t-yA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2254878,6.7800095,3a,75y,64....)
2muchcoffeeman 5y ago
I guess it depends on which suburb. Some suburbs in Sydney are fairly liveable. Especially where there is a mix of housing, or, as much as I hate them, large apartment complexes. You can get all the things you need and have a few restaurants, all within walking distance. Other suburbs, especially those huge “communities” with lots of cookie cutter homes seem really isolated. You have to drive.
iammisc 5y ago
I just disagree. I live in the very environment you claim doesn't exist
- mrgordon 5y ago
  Where is that? You may have a different idea of walkable than the other poster. As soon as you have tons of parking spaces, mandatory setbacks, etc. you’ve taken much of the room away from pedestrians forcing them to walk much longer distances (often in bad weather) to get to where they want to go. That’s why the two are at such odds.
  - adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
    Then don't do that. You only need tons of parking and mandatory setbacks if you've designed the area for lots of cars going too fast. If you just don't, then suddenly a lot more ends up being in walking distance, and you don't need as much parking because more people are walking or biking.
    - mrgordon 5y ago
      Well of course this is what I prefer. But the other poster was saying they didn’t see why cities can’t be designed for cars AND for pedestrians. My point is that the policies put in place in almost all American cities for cars (mandatory parking requirements in new buildings, lots of street parking or parking lots, mandatory setbacks from the street for buildings, highway entrances, etc.) work directly against making a city dense enough to be able to easily walk to enough things that you don’t end up resorting to cars.
  - iammisc 5y ago
    I live in Portland city limits but not downtown. Where I live was built as a suburb but the city grew into it. Actually Portland has a lot of these downtowney areas and they're surrounded by blocks and blocks of single family homes and small apartments But if you go farther out into newer developments, they just abandoned this lovely system and made awful cookie cutter burbs. Before this I lived in San Rafael and larkspur in Marin county which also have nice downtowney areas surrounded by single family homes. Old Marin county had just this pattern of walkable enough neighborhoods with tiny downtowns. I don't see why this sort of thing isn't possible. When I lived there I walked everywhere

KarlKemp 5y ago

Even with single-family housing, the density is high enough to support a supermarket and other stores that are visited at a rate of once per month within walking distance, easily. Source: the town I grew up in: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/51.248182,6.9768629/@51.2462608,6.9656488,2688m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/51.2481... Population is 36,000 or so. I've added the walking distance from the outskirts to the very center, which is 2.3km. You'll note that there are supermarkets distributed throughout, usually within a few hundred meters. If you need anything special, it takes 30 minutes by public transport (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/K%C3%B6nigsallee,+D%C3%BCsseldorf/@51.2345467,6.8034804,21513m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47b8ca3d06b68227:0x81883aefd77f96ec!2m2!1d6.779266!2d51.2220574!2m3!6e0!7e2!8j1628322060!3e3!5i2 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/51.2413047,6.9602975/K%C3%B6... ) to a shopping district in the next larger town, which has any type or brand of retail that exists in this country (Streetview: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2254878,6.7800095,3a,75y,64.26h,101.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sgCUtbmOSmEj7fzVV20t-yA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2254878,6.7800095,3a,75y,64....)

2muchcoffeeman 5y ago

I guess it depends on which suburb. Some suburbs in Sydney are fairly liveable. Especially where there is a mix of housing, or, as much as I hate them, large apartment complexes. You can get all the things you need and have a few restaurants, all within walking distance. Other suburbs, especially those huge “communities” with lots of cookie cutter homes seem really isolated. You have to drive.

iammisc 5y ago

I just disagree. I live in the very environment you claim doesn't exist

mrgordon 5y ago
Where is that? You may have a different idea of walkable than the other poster. As soon as you have tons of parking spaces, mandatory setbacks, etc. you’ve taken much of the room away from pedestrians forcing them to walk much longer distances (often in bad weather) to get to where they want to go. That’s why the two are at such odds.
- adgjlsfhk1 5y ago
  Then don't do that. You only need tons of parking and mandatory setbacks if you've designed the area for lots of cars going too fast. If you just don't, then suddenly a lot more ends up being in walking distance, and you don't need as much parking because more people are walking or biking.
  - mrgordon 5y ago
    Well of course this is what I prefer. But the other poster was saying they didn’t see why cities can’t be designed for cars AND for pedestrians. My point is that the policies put in place in almost all American cities for cars (mandatory parking requirements in new buildings, lots of street parking or parking lots, mandatory setbacks from the street for buildings, highway entrances, etc.) work directly against making a city dense enough to be able to easily walk to enough things that you don’t end up resorting to cars.
- iammisc 5y ago
  I live in Portland city limits but not downtown. Where I live was built as a suburb but the city grew into it. Actually Portland has a lot of these downtowney areas and they're surrounded by blocks and blocks of single family homes and small apartments But if you go farther out into newer developments, they just abandoned this lovely system and made awful cookie cutter burbs. Before this I lived in San Rafael and larkspur in Marin county which also have nice downtowney areas surrounded by single family homes. Old Marin county had just this pattern of walkable enough neighborhoods with tiny downtowns. I don't see why this sort of thing isn't possible. When I lived there I walked everywhere