The website Walk Score has released their 2011 list of the country’s most “walkable” cities, i.e. the places where it’s easiest to live without a car. The top of the list was pretty predictable, with cities like New York, San Francisco and Boston ranking highest, but I was surprised to see Minneapolis at #9, Omaha at #21, and Houston at #23.
I think this is good information to consider in light of our discussion about isolation and stay-at-home parents from last week. It’s hard to overstate the benefits to living in a walkable area, especially for someone who is outside the workforce. You save a ton of money on gas, and even more if you can get by with one car. You save money on groceries since walking to the store means you buy only what you need on a daily basis, rather than making huge once-a-week trips that are more likely to lead to waste. You get exercise and exposure to sunlight as a natural part of your daily routine. But, most importantly, it fosters a sense of community. You run into your neighbors multiple times per day, and there are more opportunities for interaction since you’re passing them in person rather than simply waving at them from the inside of a car.
When I had my first child, I lived in a downtown area where I could get pretty much anything I needed within a 10-block walk. We moved to a typical suburb when the baby was about a year old, and the difference was striking. I no longer walked anywhere, so I gained weight and had less energy. It took weeks to meet any of our neighbors, since it was hard to catch them in the few seconds between when they got out of their cars and when they closed their garage doors. When I lived downtown, I would take a moment to tend to my appearance since I knew I’d run into a bunch of neighbors as I went about my errands; here in the suburbs, I’d often go days without seeing anyone outside of my immediate family, so it became easy to fall into the habit of sloppy dress, which impacted my attitude and energy level. There are, of course, a lot of great things about suburban life, but the sprawling setup that requires a car to get anywhere is a big disadvantage that has a particularly large impact on stay-at-home parents.
There are some interesting movements underway to promote walkability in areas outside of expensive urban centers, but they’re often decidedly secular and aimed only at people with small families. I’d love to see more discussion of this in the Catholic world. Obviously none of us can just pick up and move to a more walking-friendly area tomorrow, but simply being aware of the problem could help families who are interested make changes over the long haul, and hopefully create demand for more affordable, walkable neighborhoods.
A crazy pipe dream I have is that there would one day be a movement for people to make special effort to live within walking distance of their church. Obviously not everyone would be able to do it, and it would take years to bear any fruit, but I think it would be nothing short of revolutionary if even 20 percent of Catholics lived within a mile of their parish church. It would foster a sense of community as neighbors ran into each other on the way to and from Mass; people who lived nearby would likely go to Mass and confession more often, and do more of their socializing at the church. Geographical proximity to one another and to our churches could be a huge strengthening force for the Body of Christ.
This is certainly not the most important issue in our culture right now, and is probably not even in the top 20. But I do think it’s something that we should all keep on our radar, because creating walkable communities could be a big boon for families, and even for the whole Church.
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My husband and I live in a very walkable community—Homewood, Alabama. It is one of the many suburbs of Birmingham. We are so blessed to live near parks, restaurants, stores, banks, everything! As you mentioned at the end of your article, though, your dream is to live near a church. Well, our home is literally across the street from the Catholic Church here. You are absolutely right, too. It is the place I treasure most being able to walk to. I love hearing the bells chiming and knowing that I am not far from Jesus. I can visit him any time of day or night, and he is near me to keep me accountable for what I do when I’m “by myself” at home.
I love the idea of living within walking distance of your church. My husband and I discussed this recently, actually. As it is right now, we can’t afford to move, and we live about 3 miles away. Our area of town is NOT walkable, with roads that used to be country roads and no sidewalks. We often take long walks, but we drive downtown first (or to the mall in the winter- it’s cold and snowy where we live). I would love to be able to walk to the grocery store, to church, or to visit friends. Where we live now, I can walk to a couple different gas stations, a few restaurants, a florist, or a dry cleaner.
I want to add that living in a walkable area helps big families. When I was a kid I walked to and from school, to and from practice, and to and from home games. My parents weren’t stretched thin trying to get us to where we needed to go or arrange rides for us. In fact, we weren’t even allowed to participate in things we couldn’t to and from ourselves. With #5 on the way I wonder how on earth our younger children will even be able to have any extra curricular fun because the older kids are already filling up our schedules and they aren’t doing more than one thing a piece!
If we return to the US, I think one thing I’ll miss is being able to walk everywhere (or take public transport). I live in England and don’t have a car. My kids play outside with the neighbourhood kids, we walk to our parish, etc. There are times when having a car would be nice (like when it’s cold and rainy), but we’ve made it without one for nearly 5 years, so I think we’re doing OK.
This is exactly why we’re only looking for our next house in walkable neighborhoods. We think we found one, a mere 4 blocks from the church, and roughly 3 blocks from stores and restaurants. Did I mention that there are two parks nearby? I’m a stay-at-home mother, and my husband is willing to commute a little extra each day to ensure that our children and I have access to these areas, to this sense of community.
Jen,
My family lives in a small town in rural Maryland and it is somewhat walkable. The libarary and schools are close and so is the parish (we don’t walk to it nearly enough). A way for regular people to help create these walkable opportunities is to get involved with your town’s planning and zoning boards. That is where many of the decisions get made and trust me not everyone has or needs a degree in urban planning to contribute.
I had to laugh when I read the line about walking to church…we live directly across the street from our parish. It’s wonderful! We also live 2 short blocks from a small grocery store, the city pool and a number of playgrounds. We’re also a 15 min walk from a main street with a drug store, coffee shop, etc. It’s like living in a small town in the middle of a capital city.
You must be reading my mind. I’ve been having thoughts about this before my marriage, knowing that I’ll be giving up my apartment to move to where my husband lives (which means that I shall miss walking to Mass every morning, and I will miss that my parish has daily Benediction). That sense of isolation is something that’s been brewing in my head ever since I read Revolutionary Road.
The problem lies also in zoning laws, which typically do not allow a small commercial plaza in a residential neighborhood or even commercial establishments in a residential block not on a major route. It’s actually a vicious cycle that kills any sense of community and small businesses.
The country where I came from, I’d go to the bakery or to the butchery or to the mini-market or to the hardware store or to the fabrics store for my mother, not to mention to the weekly street market for fresh fish and produce, all within a few blocks from home. My parents still live in the same neighborhood, and they can find the local parish and their shopping needs are all within a half-mile radius.
I agree with the importance of walkable communities. I grew up in the country, and I actually would rather live in the country where it is a long walk to anything, including neighbors’ houses. But if I have to live in a town or city, then I definitely prefer to live where I can walk to things.
It seems to me that living in a typical modern suburban neighborhood gives you the worst of both worlds. You don’t get the privacy and space of living in the country, and you don’t get the easy access to businesses and churches of a walkable community.
Currently, I live in a small town in an older neighborhood. Within four blocks of our house we have a Dairy Queen, another ice cream shop, a pharmacy, an auto parts store, at least two car repair shops, several other local businesses, a local tourist attraction, several Protestant churches, and most importantly our local Catholic parish. If you go another block or two further, there is a park, a library, and several more local businesses. Truthfully, I don’t even walk to most of these places all that often, but it is very reassuring to know that I can. (And I do walk sometimes.) I wouldn’t want to live any other way, unless it is in the country.
I think this is such an important issue. I live a mile from my parish and walk all the time. I also like to ride my bike on errands. I have purchased a shopping cart in case the price of gas gets so high that it makes sense to walk, but unfortunately the grocery stores seem to be getting farther and farther away from the center of town.
I have disagree that going to the grocery store daily saves more money. Usually the more often you go to the grocery, the more likely it is that you will make more impulse buys. Most really thrifty people try to limit grocery trips to one per week at most; the most frugal only shop once or twice per month. Of course, this requires more planning, which leads to less waste.
But I agree with your over-all thesis. I like that where we live now we a just a few blocks from two really nice walking paths, our town government center (which offers an array of free concerts and festivals), the post office, and the library (although I haven’t been confident crossing the busy street with so many littles lately). But I sometimes wish we lived in one of the neighborhoods near our parish, so that we could just walk to Mass. Plus, our parish is right next to one of the recreation centers where my kids do a lot of activities.
Oh how I would love to live in a walkable community with the Church just steps away!!!!!!! Unfortunately in the DFW area these are few and far between plus in the summer months you can’t walk outside your door without starting to sweat!!! Especially now in this awful heatwave we are suffering from.
Please pray that Texas gets some relief from the heat and that we get RAIN!!!!! The meterologists are not predicting any relief from both this year or next! Let’s prove the power of prayer and ask God to intervene!!! Thank you!
I also wish i lived in a walkable town. One of the few cities in Dallas county that does NOT have public transportation. Unfortunately our parish is in the not so great part of town, where the streets flood with every rain and is not terribly safe crime wise.
Great post; how I wish this were possible for everyone! We live in the Greater New Haven, CT area, in a small “country” town. I love it because we have privacy and space, but are very close to New Haven and all it offers (including the hospitals/medical centers affiliated with Yale). While it’s great to be “in the middle of nowhere” I often do wish things were closer, especially people. Our neighbors aren’t too far away, and while we met all of them within our first week (and everyone’s nice!), there’s no sense of community. (The kids play outside together, but that’s it.)
We live a mile from the nearest Catholic church (our town has two; some towns around here have 3 or more!), but when you’re not ROMAN Catholic, that’s a problem. We’re Byzantine, so we travel 40 mins to the nearest church, which is in a very run-down part of a quasi-run-down city. We wouldn’t live IN that city, and our jobs aren’t near it, so even the surrounding area was never an option for us. Most fellow parishioners also live a considerable distance, so we wouldn’t get to know them better. Also worth mentioning, our numbers are very very small and 90% of the parish is over 60. If we attended the RC parish, we’d know more people in the area, because we’d be apt to run into them around town. It’s sad because we don’t know many people in the area and we’d like to make more/new friends. And usually that’s the first suggestion people offer—what about your church? I guess this is a cross that DH & I must bear to be good disciples of our faith. So if you live near your church, no matter your rite, CHERISH IT! :)
This past summer was my first time without a car, and I loved it. My city is very walkable, and I loved being outside, getting exercise, and stopping to chat with, or at least wave to, the familiar faces I ran into. There were only a couple of places too far away for me to walk, and because a lovely lady at church volunteered to drive me, I got to know her better and gained a wonderful friend.
I really dislike the suburbs. As Paul H said above, it is the worst of both worlds.
Google “pocket neighborhoods”- I think it’s a very neat idea.
We are in the suburbs, but the only thing we can walk to is our parish (which has a school). The kids start too early (7:25) to walk to school, but they do walk home. I can’t seem to get them to find their own way to football practice (too much gear). We drive to Mass - because we are usually running late - but if our kids bug us about chatting with our friends afterwards, we say, “well, you can walk home” which they do. Your post has inspired me to walk to church more. And I agree with you about the community that is inspired in a walkable neighborhood. We do pass by other parishioners on the way to/from church and sometimes stop to chat. Now if I could just start caring more about my appearance ......
In Alexandria-Arlington it is walkable, served by bicycle trails, and well served by several bus routes and the subway as well as by car rental. An ad for carfreediet.com at the Pentagon reads: “Your feet were made for walking. Arlington was too.” From where I am you can reach churches, Protestant and Catholic, shopping centers, the bank, the gym, my last job, restaurants, stores, etc. easily and with a taxi can reach Ronald Reagan National Airport easily.
I leave my car home and take the DASH bus to Pentagon where I subway to SE Washington, where I work near Navy Yard Metro. I figure when I get married she can drive and maybe drop off and pick me up. At Metro stations they have a Kiss and Ride lane for spouses being dropped off.
We live within walking distance to two parish churches, and sadly there doesn’t seem to be much of a sense of community in either one. We’ve been here for two months now and nobody has said a word to me or my wife and kids in either one. A few people chat with their friends, but most just file in, sit through Mass then leave without a word.
Of these two regions, the east coast Sunbelt, and New England ... for the sake of argument, which area is the best for creating and maintaining genuinely liveable, walkable and sociable communities where neighbors find it easier to get to know each other and demonstrate greater respect for others’ property and privacy?
Having lived in both areas, I can say without batting an eye, New England. Years back I might not have made the same statement. WHen I was younger, the Sunbelt was the rising place for people who wanted to be part of that rising movement. Ancient American tradition. BUT, when all the comparisons are finished, all the local laws protecting the overall quality of life, not just being able to walk from your home to a local pharmacy w/o fear of being mugged (a police state can provide that much ... anybody care to live in a gated community based on Red Moscow and East Berlin? Talk about being pioneers in creating “gated communities!”
By and large, however, the quality of life, when we consider the quality of public education, police and fire services, sanitation, roads, and solid networks of public libraries, many of them very small, cozy places where the town librarian knows most patrons on a first-name basis ... surpasses whatever such sprawling and spaghetti-like mega-tract towns like those developed in northwest Broward County. Take a look at any map of Tamarac, especially on Google and imagine yourself plunked in that place without any map or a clue as to how you got there.
I’d rather take my chances of getting home much quicker on a snowy night in Maine, way up in the part between the state capitol of Augusta and Belfast than on the best of all possible days trying to make sense of what some tract developer had in mind for the folks who soon learned he was to designing towns and tracts as what Defense Secretary Robert “Body Count” McNamara was to “winning” the Vietnam War.
One of the most delightful things about our move from California to a small community in upstate New York is that I’m now only two blocks from my beautiful church! Of course, other walkable sites (such as the library)are also valued, but the nearness of the sanctuary has changed my daily life. What a blessing!
@Marguerite: Excellent post! Praying your town wasn’t badly affected by Hurricane Irene. It was heartbreaking today to watch at least one of Vermont’s fabled covered bridges just hauled away by the rampaging waters racing through Rockingham.
Can’t say we don’t have earthquakes out here or lose ground to raging flood waters now n’ then ... and I’m NOT going to jinx ourselves by saying we don’t have huge forest fires, either (not ocmpared to out west) but when you find a small town to live in out here, your world becomes so much bigger than you could’ve possibly imagined before.
And to boot, you get to buy more affordable homes on larger lots and you don’t have to spend nearly as much time on a freeway to get home or off to work or even go to Mass!
This blog has been bugging me for a week! Farmers, people! I live in a rural area as in beef cattle, goats, turkeys, corn fields and the like. I raise chickens and grow my own vegetables. Another Catholic I know raises bees. Nice as it might be for white collar upper middle class Catholics to all move to one neighborhood and live in a little closed in community, there is no evil in growing food and raising animals. Nice as it would be to be closer to the parish church, it strikes me as silly to think this is the best thing for everybody. Maybe my parish is odd, but we range from welfare people to wealthy people! What neighborhood would both be able to live in together? The poor can’t afford any house, just public housing and the rich wouldn’t live in less than they think they earned. A neighborhood parish is a parish segregated by income(and here in the south, race), it is much harder and likely more spiritually healthy to have to go to church with people who aren’t comfortably just like us. Is everybody on NCR an above median income, urban or suburban person?
Excellent points, Jennifer. I like the one about being in walking distance of a church. Reminded me of the city where I grew up. Our parish church was about 1 mile away, and the church nearest to us was 2 blocks away and just right for a quick walk to for Saturday afternoon or evening confession(yes, all churches had hours then too). Later we moved in the same city to a street closer to our parish (6 or 7 blocks away), but the parish we then joined was nly 1 block away! Never had to drive. And there were 2 other Catholic churches within 10 blocks of us also. All with active parishes, open for prayer and confession. You’re quite right in the benefits of being within walking distance of a chuch!
We developed an intentional Catholic community with these goals in mind. It’s located in Hyattsville, Maryland, a town of 17,000 just one mile from Washington, D.C., and with two subway stops right within the 2.7 square mile municipality’s boundaries. The City of Hyattsville probably has the most affordable housing of any safe neighborhood near Washington, and the City, built in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, was designed with walkability in mind. The parish, St. Jerome, was founded the same month as the city, in 1886. The City’s slogan is “A World Within Walking Distance.”
These conditions are just right for Catholic families raising multiple children on one income. The parish school, St. Jerome Academy, developed the first and only Catholic Classical curriculum, which is being adopted in other schools around the country. Community members span the socio-economic spectrum, with professors living next door to plumbers. It’s truly a Catholic model, where a Catholic idea of community can be effectively lived. The historic houses are set near the street, and nearly all have front porches. Children are able to walk or bike to their friends’ houses; here, the word “playdate” is not in the lexicon, and life moves on a more natural and spontaneous rhythm.
Unlike the “enclave” model of Catholic community that seems prevalent in today’s exurbs, we don’t live in “cloistered families” or as “Catholic Amish” here. We’re near the nation’s capital, in a diverse community where we rub shoulders with non-Catholics as well as with fellow Catholics. There are always opportunities to be “salt and light” to the world, as well as to have the nurturing web of support within a comprehensive Catholic community that allows us to be formed, and to form our children, in an authentic Catholic faith. The idea of the parish as merely a sacramental dispensary is foreign here.
Many aspects of our Catholic community life occur outside the church confines. There are neighborhood Sunday evening prayer an potlucks, rosary groups, mom’s prayer groups, Mom’s walks, book clubs, “drinks with the lads,” and listservs for men and women, respectively. (The men’s listserv I belong to has 1000 posts in the past six weeks, most discussions about Catholic approaches to politics, theology and philosophy. Men help new families move in; women make meals for the moms who’ve just had babies.
If anyone would like more information about what we’re doing here, and how it could translate into Catholic parishes where you live, please feel free to contact me at crcurrie (at) gmail .
I live 1 1/2 miles away from my parish church, but unfortunately I can’t even walk there! I live in a suburb of Houston, which are NOT known for being walkable at all. The road my church is on has a 45 mph speed limit and no sidewalk. If you want to walk, you either have to brave walking on the street (very dangerous) or walk in the disgusting ditch. So no walking to church for me! I would love to live in a walkable community.
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