The Suze and I move alot. Since we got our first apartment in 2003, we've lived in 5 different places in a little over 5 years. I know what your thinking. Well, you're thinking two things.
1) What the hell is your problem?
and
2) How do you decide where your next whim will take you?
Excellent questions, both of them. If only I could answer the first one. The second one is a little easier. See, we only have a couple of criteria when it comes to choosing a place to live (and when I say "we", I of course mean Suzi). The most important of these is, can Suzi walk places?
The Suze looooves walking around. Mmm, nothing finer than going out in the sun and walking for hours with no particular destination in mind! And yet, walking is not enough. Even though we usually end up just walking for the "fun" of it, the Suze requires that there be potential destinations should she decide that she suddenly wants to go into a store.
Anyplace we might live needed to be assessed by the Suze for walkability. This was done through an extensive process of driving around aimlessly, identifying areas that might be "cute", and making snap judgments on basically no information. It is one of the many things about moving that makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a staple remover rather than move again. Ever.
Thankfully, those days might be behind us, thanks to
this website. You enter an address, and it rates the walkability of the surrounding areas on a score from 0-100. Some places of interest (well, to me, anyway):
My current residence in Houston: 72/100 (very walkable)
The lowest walking score we've ever had? 52/100 (somewhat walkable) in our first apartment out of college.
The highest score was when we lived in downtown Albany.
When we moved to Texas, we had a choice between Houston and College Station. The place we almost moved to in CS? Only a 38/100 (car-dependent). Blech.
And mom and dad, if you're wondering why we don't visit more? You guys got a 22. Although the bears don't seem to have a problem walking around. Just sayin.
