We don't know about you, but we're inclined to check our neighborhood's Walk Score with regularity, in the way that some people refresh Instagram or Facebook for comments and likes.
Why? Because people who aren't familiar with our region say it isn't friendly to walking. That's complete hogwash, as many of us know, and it gets our dander up. Hence our Walk Score-based obsessions.
And nope, we don't walk across Los Angeles but -- oh wait, yes we do. But when we're not doing that, we stroll inside neighborhoods, getting to know the place, window-by-shop-by-garden-by-person.
Walk Score, which measures cities' walkability based factors like "access to public transport" and proximity to "the people and places you love," released its newest rankings earlier this month, and a certain Southern California town ranked so highly that it might be called the Most Walkable City in California.
We'd call for a drum roll please, but perhaps the more appropriate sound effect for the announcement is the thrumming of cars on the Sunset Strip, happy laughter coming from The Abbey and the restaurants along Santa Monica Boulevard, and the sound of art happening in the Design District.
West Hollywood, you got the top spot, with the very impressive, taking-many-things-into-consideration score of 89. This means that you're easy to get around sans a vehicle, that you boast "pedestrian-friendly streetscaping" (truth), and you've got a host of hotels and eateries and taverns and bookstores and coffeehouses and other lively diversions within shouting distance.
But it helps, of course, that dear WeHo is on the snug side. It is, in fact, under two square miles. No wasted space, though, is surely on the minds of those who oversee the city.
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It has received this accolade-worthy ranking before, we should note. Still, though, other walkable cities around the state must be rethinking any quips they making about SoCalers being fully dependent on autos 24/7.
Not in West Hollywood, though, where strolling, hobnobbing, errand-running, and enjoying sunshine is a way of life.
Let's give a little love to Hermosa Beach, too, on the way out. It ranked third on the list, after San Francisco at number two. "The 372 largest cities" were considered, and the average Walk Score ranking? That oh-so-Douglas-Adams-like number: 42.
