The young professionals (let’s avoid the term “millennial”) working and re-locating in downtown Seattle are reviving settlement patterns that existed a century ago, before parts of the city became a snarl of traffic. Commuting to work on retro commuter bikes equipped with racks and panniers, utilizing ride-share or car-share services rather than outright ownership, living close to transit, these workers have revitalized many neighborhoods by simple, old fashioned walking.
Launched as a Seattle startup in 2007 and then purchased by real estate software giant Redfin five years later, WalkScore software shows you how pedestrian and transit friendly the neighborhood you are living or visiting is. The WalkScore app can be easily downloaded to your smartphone and connected to your exact geo-location. It’s sort of like Google Maps for pedestrians.
WalkScore is actually better than that because it provides algorithmic insight into the value that walking to grocery stores carrying nutritious food (or to bookstores, butchers, brew pubs, flower shops, dry cleaning services and even schools) might have to prospective apartment buyers. There’s more to the WalkScore than just putting one foot in front of the other; a Transit and Bike Score are provided as well.
Neil Young’s “Walking Man” might be the perfect song to cue up on your playlist as you explore First Hill. Actually, your perambulatory jaunts are likely to be pretty short, because the neighborhood achieves a 97 walkscore and a 99 transit score. In short, it’s got everything that a person with sensible shoes could need.