From the project
Essays and updates from the Townsteading project — theory, methodology, and project news.
Walkability is the most misunderstood number on a town profile, so here is exactly what it is. A modeled walk, not a vibe For each town we identify a center — a civic or commercial cluster, or the Census internal point when no cluster can be found — and then walk the actual street network outward for 15 minutes at typical walking speed. Everything reachable in that network is the town’s walkshed. Three measurements come out of it:
The directory launched with 1,718 verified towns across 48 states. This is how they got there. Stage by stage The pipeline begins with the universe of American places — every incorporated municipality and Census-designated place in the 50 states — and narrows it in stages, each one writing its results back to a single national dataset:
Every town in this directory exists because it passed four tests. They are worth stating plainly, because they define what Townsteading is for. Affordable If ordinary families cannot buy in, nothing else matters. Housing cost is the heaviest input in the Townsteading score — 45% — measured through median home value, rents, incomes, and the ratio between them. The benchmark cases: a median home near or below three times median household income, and absolute values that do not require a dual-tech salary.
