Downtown Boise: Speaker Stresses Walkability, Neighborhoods, Collaboration

Carol Coletta, VP/Community and National Initiatives for the Knight Foundation, was the featured speaker at the May 5 Down Town Boise State of Downtown Annual Meeting. Here are some excerpts from the Boise Weekly's take on her talk:

"Coletta also pointed to what she said was the importance of a city's "walk score." Walk Score, a Seattle-based company tracks the walkability of a metropolis. The company regularly assigns walk scores to thousands of companies and websites.

"People will pay a premium for a home with a higher walk score," said Coletta. "What those walk scores represent are the number of daily destinations within an easy walking distance from their home."

And with several high-profile mixed-use projects already underway in Boise's downtown core, which will presumably attract more residents to the downtown neighborhood, Coletta cautioned city planners not to "suburbanize" the urban experience.

"Don't make this an unpleasant environment by introducing bigger stores," she said. "You'll end up with too many blank walls that have nothing to do with the downtown experience."

Read the full article here