Photo by Ted Eytan.
A report out today ranks the Washington metropolitan area as the most walkable urban place in the country. But it comes with a big warning: We’re headed for a plateau.
Smart Growth America’s LOCUS, “a national coalition of real estate developers and investors,” based the ranking on the amount of commercial development in “Walkable Urban Places,” as defined by the Brookings Institution. The WalkUPs are then measured through a combination of a location’s walk score, office and retail data, per capita GDP, transit options and educational attainment.
The D.C. area comes in first out of 30 areas, as 43 percent of all office and retail space is in one of the 45 WalkUPs.
“Metro Washington, D.C. ranks first. It not only has the most office and retail in WalkUPs, but also has the most balanced distribution of walkable urban space between the central city (51 percent) and suburbs (49 percent),” the report states. “In fact, it is the only metro that has more than half of its WalkUPs in the suburbs.”
Some of the reasons for D.C.’s No. 1 spot include: A high percentage of college graduates, Metrorail, and a small number of local government bodies.
But here comes the hammer: “While metro Washington, DC, ranks first among walkable urban metros, trends suggest it may be reaching a plateau. The area is absorbing 75 percent of all office space and the majority of rental apartment space in its walkable urban places. Future growth will be less at the expense of drivable suburban locations, relying on the general growth of the region, which is currently weakening due to Federal cutbacks. Walkable urban growth depends on the overall economic health of the region, not just capturing demand from increasingly obsolete office parks, strip malls, and ‘drive-until-you-qualify’ subdivisions.”
Read the report below.
