The St. Louis home builder, Hibbs Homes posted online on walkability lately, using the website, WalkScore.com, as its standard; Maplewood and Brentwood made the list.
“Being able to take a quick walk for your morning coffee or a night of drinks is a convenience home buyers in St. Louis and beyond will pay a premium for…” the post said.
It listed its top five walkable municipalities in the St. Louis area; Maplewood was fourth and Brentwood fifth. Kirkwood, Crestwood and Webster Groves were 1,2 and 3, respectively.
About Maplewood: “an older neighborhood just on the fringes of the city limits, Maplewood has enjoyed a rebirth in the last 10 years because the business district has come back and the funky bungalows within walking distance are very affordable. This newly-titled ‘hip’ neighborhood scored a 75 at it’s center of Big Bend and Manchester, and as you move in closer to the cluster of homes in the city, the score increases.”
In the 7300 block of Manchester Road, WalkScore.com gives Maplewood a score of 80, called ‘very walkable’.
About Brentwood: “Home to one of the two Whole Foods grocery stores in the metro-area, the city has an urban feel with suburban amenities. One of the most central suburbs in the St. Louis area, Brentwood scored a 74 centered around Brentwood Boulevard and Litzsinger Road. Even with a major street stretched through it’s center, walkers, runners, and even bikers can be seen quite frequently because of it’s proximity to work, restaurants, and shopping.”
On Manchester near Dorothy Avenue, WalkScore rates Brentwood a 65 — ‘somewhat walkable’.
Walkscore rates Richmond Heights, on Big Bend, a 71 — ‘very walkable.’
So much agreement in these discussions, truly a “kum ba yah” moment for the internet!
Who wrote this? This is so bogus! Who wants to walk in Brentwood along Brentwood Blvd with the traffic and current road conditions! Heck I hate to drive my car on Brentwood Blvd. Also a highway bisects the area!
Dave there are other places to walk in Brentwood besides Brentwood Blvd.
And the highway does not bisect Brentwood. The south side of the highway is Brentwood. Richmond Heights is on the North side. That is if you where referring to highway 64/40 that is….
Yes, any study that lists Crestwood and Brentwood in the top 5 most walkable municipalities in St. Louis should raise some flags.
What a frustrating article, and not just because Crestwood is near the top of the list. City-wide walkscores are only available for the 48 largest cities in the St. Louis area (https://www.walkscore.com/MO), which doesn’t include Maplewood, Clayton, Brentwood, Richmond Heights, or, ahem, Crestwood. For those that do have data available, they don’t match Hibbs Homes’ quasi-arbitrary ranking. Take a look at some of the city-wide walkscores for municipalities in the area:
St Louis City – 64 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/St._Louis
University City – 57 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/University_City
Webster Groves – 46 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Webster_Groves
Lemay – 43 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Lemay
Kirkwood – 39 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Kirkwood
Ferguson – 37 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Ferguson
Chesterfield – 19 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Chesterfield
Wildwood – 9 – https://www.walkscore.com/MO/Wildwood
Why don’t they match? Because Hibbs just dropped a pin at what they considered to be the center of the community and used the walkscore of that location as a blanket generalization for the entire community’s walkscore. If the point of the article was to say that these communities have nice, walkable main streets and commercial districts, they should have just come and said it.
Chesterfield received an honorable mention on their list, but the city has a walkscore of 19. Yes, 19. St. Louis City and U City didn’t even make the list, even though they have the highest city-wide walkscores in the area with 64 and 57, respectively. Drop a pin on the intersection of Central and Forsyth in Downtown Clayton and you get a score of 94. See where I’m going with this?
Their method is flawed and their results are bunk. They’re homebuilders, not researchers. This is a garbage story and should be removed.
I would also add that the walk-ability score doesn’t take into account if there is a highway bisecting an area, for example, Richmond Heights had a decent walk-ability score, but it doesn’t take into account that to get to the north side of Richmond Heights from the south side there are only several areas to cross, whereas the score treats the highway as if it is just a normal street that anyone can cross.