These Are the Safest and Most Walkable Cities on Halloween
Every year, unfounded urban legends and mythical hype leave caregivers worried about what to treat or treat. While you won’t find razors or fentanyl in your kids’ candy , there are some reasonable concerns you might have before a traditional neighborhood walk. Let’s take a look at the most walkable cities in the US, as well as those deemed “safest” for treats this year.
The most “pedestrian” cities in the US
To explore walking accessibility, we’ll use Walking Rating, which ranks over 2,800 cities (and 10,000) districts by analyzing hundreds of walking routes to nearby POIs and scoring cities based on distance to each one. The latest ranking says that these are the 10 most walkable cities in the country:
- San Francisco (with Chinatown, Tenderloin, and Pig Gorge as top neighborhoods)
- New York (try Bowery, NoLita or Little Italy)
- Boston (check Beacon Hill, Chinatown or North End)
- Chicago (head to East Ukrainian Village, Wicker Park, or Near North Side)
- Washington DC (go through U-Street, Dupont Circle or Mount Vernon Square)
- Miami (Downtown Walk, Wynwood Edgewater, and Little Havana)
- Oakland, California (head to Downtown Station, Koreatown-Northgate, or Fruitvale)
- Philadelphia (try Rittenhouse Square, South Avenue of the Arts, or Washington Square West)
- Seattle (consider Downtown, International District and Belltown)
- Long Beach, California (Franklin School, St. Mary’s, and Downtown are top spots)
In these cities, you can walk freely and amenities are close to each other, so you can stop by shops that give out candy or buy an energy drink for mom and dad.
The “safest” cities in the US
You can walk around these cities, but are they safe? In any case, how do we define “safety”, especially knowing that we know about all this hype around the “dangers” associated with a treat or a treat? The Chamber of Commerce did this by comparing cities with populations over 100,000 across five variables: pedestrian deaths, violent crime, property crimes, the number of registered sex offenders, and the number of law enforcement officers.
Their top ten looks like this:
- Gilbert, Arizona.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Cary, North Carolina
- Naperville, Illinois.
- Rochester, Minnesota.
- Irvine, California.
- Scottsdale, Arizona.
- Carlsbad, California.
- Glendale, California.
- Stamford, Connecticut.
It’s imperfect science, but it gives you some idea of what stats to use in your area before charting a route for your kids or sending them out on your own for the first time . Notably, California has cities in the top ten of both lists, so it’s generally the most walkable and safest state, but it all depends on where you live. No matter where you are, check out all the resources available to you .