Walking and eating neighborhoods...

[MaxH]

I thought about this and excluded some places that missed on the walking part.

That leaves

Austin around the University or where they play music

Berlin where they stop and wait for the “Walk” light at 4AM with no traffic in sight

Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Hillsborough, and “even” Greensborough in season

Colorado Springs which is something of a walking city by any measure

Delft, ancient college town full of cafés and outrageous sandwiches

Greater Dallas in the pedestrian areas or the urban-renewed downtown with the brick and the wine lists

Göttingen with its medieval village look and well-behaved disarmament protests

Hong Kong several neighborhoods, distinct, don't forget the long escalator

Ithaca (NY) with its gothic scenery -- again in season

Key West which has a restaurant or two

Las Vegas, yes, actually, if you can stand the touts or it is off-season and they’re down to 3 or 4 per km

Minneapolis in the winter, going underground and through all those shops and so on as people do

Monterey (CA), the old town, scarcely changed in 40 years

Newark in the snow, yes

New Orleans, many times

Portland, again v. pedestrian city and always has been

Toronto, after dinner, and not just to La Tour Plus Haute Du Monde

Vancouver, which many Californians envy though they scarce admit it

Vienna, especially the 1st and 7th, which conveniently are full of restaurants. It is an amazing walking city

-- surely a factor in so many people staying trim despite Wechsberg’s five or six meals daily. Also, they all own dogs.

[Swisskaese]

I used to live in Goettingen. It is a great walking city. One of the big hangouts was a restaurant called "Fred Feuerstein" (Fred Flintstone). It was decorated with Flintstone memoriablia and they had a dinosaurus burger on the menu among other Flintstone food!

Edited March 3, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[touaregsand]

I used to live in Goettingen. It is a great walking city. One of the big hangouts was a restaurant called "Fred Feuerstein" (Fred Flintstone). It was decorated with Flintstone memoriablia and they had a dinosaurus burger on the menu among other Flintstone food! 

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Hilarious! I'm visualizing diners driving up in foot propelled cars... Priceless. Thanks for the laugh.

[Poots]

Copenhagen, Denmark is the most Pedestrian friendly city i've ever been to. I live dead center in the middle and there's 3 michelin starred restaurants within a 5minute walk. Plus tons of pizza, thai, and danish places. And uncountable amounts of cafes serving food.

[MarketStEl]

One of the things that there seems to be much less of in the US is the open air markets- PHL's Reading Terminal Market and the Italian Market are similar.

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Oh, there's one big difference: The Reading Terminal Market is all indoors, beneath the former Reading Terminal trainshed, which is now the Great Hall of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

But it's good that you brought up the RTM, for it was a serious oversight on my part to leave it out of my walkable-edible Philly list. Best places to eat in "America's greatest public market" (a self-claimed distinction that some in Seattle and Baltimore would probably challenge): the Down Home Diner for fill-you-up home cooking using the best local ingredients, Salumeria for classic Philly hoagies with a flavorful twist, Tommy DiNic's roast pork stand, Delilah's for great soul food. Best days to visit: Friday and Saturday, when the Pennsylvania Dutch vendors and local farmers' stands are open for business.

A little local history with food-related content: Market Street, the city's main east-west thoroughfare, got its name because of the food vendors' market stalls that were located in its center. When the Reading Railroad opened its new Philadelphia terminal in 1893, the food purveyors were relocated to the space under its trainshed, and thus the RTM was born.

Ghosts of markets past: There are several places in Philadelphia where one of the city's narrow streets suddenly becomes wide for a six- or seven-block stretch. These were once sites of public food market sheds. All of these market sheds have been demolished save one: the one on Second Street from Pine to South streets. The historic "Head House Square" market shed is the site of arts and crafts markets on most summer Saturdays. The Italian Market is the direct descendant of another of these sheds, which had been located two blocks west of the present market, on 11th Street.

[andiesenji]

San Francisco abounds with walking/eating neighborhoods: Chinatown (and its cousin, Clement St), North Beach (Italian, mostly), Japantown/Fillmore, the Castro.

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What about the Marina district? Or does it still exist?

When I was stationend at the Presidio, back in the late 50s, we used to walk out the Mason street gate and walk through the area. There were a lot of restaurants within a few blocks.

Of course we walked all over the city. Sunday mornings a group of us had a routine, we would walk out the Lombard gate and onto the bridge approach, walk across the bridge and back and then have breakfast at the Roundhouse Restaurant (great waffles), then walk on down Lombard, up and over the "crookedest street in the world" to Van Ness, Van Ness to Broadway, then Broadway to Grant Avenue and Chinatown for sightseeing and shopping.

By that time breakfast had been burned up by the walk and we were ready for lunch.

We would either have lunch in Chinatown or walk a few blocks further to the Embarcadero (it was not as touristy-fancy back then) and buy steamed crabs and a couple of loaves of "that bread" and eat them and feed the seagulls and an occasional pelican.

[andiesenji]

Old Town Pasadena is definitely a walking and eating destination. The change in the area in the past 20 years is nothing short of amazing.

This is one area where revitalization has taken a dingy and dirty area and transformed it to the point that people who lived in the area in the 60s can't find many landmarks with which they were familiar. There has been that much change.

There was a time when one did not walk down Colorado Blvd. at night. The only time of year when it was safe was the night before the Rose Parade when there were thousands of people camped out and also Sheriff's deputies patrolling up and down the street.

I used to frequent a used book store in the area and always took someone with me even during the day.

Other changes in the area include a residential/commercial center that is very popular with young people. One friend says that in a way it reminds her of Greenwich Village in that there are apartments (or condos) above shops. One can live, work and shop without needing a car to get around.

Further afield, there is Santa Barbara which is a great place for people who like to walk, shop and eat, visit museums, etc. The city itself is like a picture postcard and the weather is generally great, cooler than inland, it is part of the "banana belt".

[ghostrider]

The entire Village in NYC - East, Central, West.

Portland Maine's Old Port - compact, but charming.

The Loop in St. Louis - a revitalized funky area, a Midwestern East Village.

But the ultimate walking neighborhood? Pick any one that you happen to find in Venice.