Salem a walking city
A recent post over at the Seattle Traveler got me thinking about the true “walkability” of Salem. In prior posts I have stated that “Salem is a walking city.” I make that statement in part due to the fact that most things a tourist is interested in seeing are all within walking distance to each other.
Salem Massachusetts was founded in 1626 and incorporated in 1629. You may recall from history class that there were no automobiles at this time. As such, most of the oldest neighborhoods including the down town area were in close proximity to each other and to the waterfront where Salem’s wealth came from. Luckily for us as Salem grew, it’s core foundation of neighborhoods stayed put and the same roads they walked hundreds of years ago we walk today.
Since many of our visitors stay in the down town or wharf neighborhoods when they come to Salem I ran those locations through the walk score algorithm and came out with a whopping 98 out of 100! So if you are a tourist or are looking for someplace to live where you don’t need a car, Salem is the place for you.
Find the walking score of where you live or where you are going.
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[...] know that Salem is a walking city and this walking tour is a prime example of a great way to spend a weekend day here in town. The [...]
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[...] Salem is a walking city. With few exceptions ( see above) all of the accommodation’s are in walking distance to all of the attractions. There is no need to drive anywhere in town once you get to Salem. If you are planning to stay at one of the larger hotels parking is included. If you are thinking about a B&B you should call ahead and ask about parking availability. In the off season Salem has plenty of parking but starting in the summer parking gets tight. During October the city enacts a parking ban allowing only residents to park in many of the neighborhoods. [...]
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[...] all know that Salem is a very walkable city. Where it falls flat for many residents of the down town and surrounding neighborhoods is the [...]
I wrote about Walkscore on my blog: http://salemmassblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/salem-once-and-future-walking-city.html
What I really regret is that 30 and 40 years ago, things were a lot better. Most of what is downtown nowadays is for tourists. I miss Almy’s but that’ll never get me respected in the Salem Common Neighborhood Group. Perhaps if you can pretend that Hawthorne lived in the 1950′s, that would get people interested.
One of the big downers for walkers is the lack of a large scale grocery store in the down town area. Steve’s is okay but not as robust as I would like.