Apartment Hunting
April 22nd, 2008 | Published in DC, cities, economic development, neighborhoods
So my long post on Chattanooga and my conference has been delayed because I’ve been so busy apartment hunting with my good friend Ebonie. It has been very difficult, even finding any affordable apartments and also securing a place when the few affordable places seem to be snatched up within minutes of their posting on craigslist.
There is a website that has been useful to our search. Walkscore is a site that utilizes the Google Maps API to identify the local businesses and amenities of interest (grocery stores, movie theaters, schools) that are within walking distance of an address that you can input. It also ranks each address with a score (hence the name of the site, duh).
It is not perfect. I entered in an address in Takoma Park, MD and it decided that a Middle Eastern Market that probably serves yummy falafel (and organic falafel, knowing Takoma Park, as a neighborhood that supposedly voted to impeach George Bush) was a grocery store, which improved its walkscore. However, I actually visited Takoma Park, and the nearest grocery store which I would consider a real grocery store, Safeway, is about a mile away. It is semi-walkable and definitely less-walkable in the humid DC summers.
I find all the new sorts of websites that have sprung up using mapping technologies (which most frequently seems to be the Google Maps API) really interesting. It is also ironic to me that my personal life has been invaded somewhat by some of my research interests, as issues that were discussed at the conference I went to last week, like the impact of grocery deserts on neighborhood development, are being echoed by my decision of whether or not I can deal with living a mile away from a grocery without a car. (Okay maybe I should get a bike, hmm.)
