Walkscore in Seattle |
Into our ongoing lookout for indicators that may suggest partisan leanings by geographic location, strolls a promising entry: Walkscore.
This is a ratings tool, in this case rating neighborhoods by how "walkable" they are - meaning, among other things, how many business and service resources are available in walking distance. This relates, of course, to how urban an area is (and with rare exceptions, in recent years urban areas have trended strongly Democratic) but also to other factors, such as (often) the number of children in a neighborhood and the number of local vs. chain businesses.
The site Walkscore.com has ratings out for Seattle's neighborhoods, and a map (a piece of it reproduced here) showing where the most and least walkable areas in the city are.
Seattle overall is, of course, highly Democratic. In relative terms, though, a quick eyeballing gives the suspicion that the more "walkable" neighborhoods (indicated here in green) are also the more strongly Democratic. Thoughts? Does this look like a rough correlation, or not?