The tool at walkscore.com has been touted by hipsters, realtors, and advocates alike for its usefulness in calculating how “walkable” a neighborhood is. The basic premise is that a high walk score indicates a good neighborhood because of its proximity (in walking distance) to grocery stores, restaurants, shops and other amenities. I agree wholly with the site that “buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.”

However, there’s a significant challenge with this tool.

The walk score tabulation does not distinguish between grocery stores and liquor stores, nor does it recognize a full-service restaurant separate from a fast-food joint.

Yes, my North Oakland (Calif.) community gets a promising score of 75 out of 100–technically “very walkable.” But let me tell you, my neighborhood is rife with liquor stores—six in a half mile radius–and a KFC, Carl’s Jr. and McDonald’s are within blocks of each other and me. In fact, I’d have to walk at least 20 minutes to a full-service grocery store or produce market.

Using the Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) recently highlighted in the PolicyLink “Designed for Disease” report, I fall into the 28 percent of California adults who can’t even calculate how bad their food environment is because my home falls into the dismal category of having absolutely no access to produce or fresh food in walking distance.

The people at WalkScore do recognize the and highlight the positive health effects of living in a walkable neighborhood– and the limitations their data sets put on the score accuracy of a particular neighborhood. Most of the problems do seem to come from the way Google Maps organizes its data, rather than anything that WalkScore is doing.

The potential of this tool to highlight inequities is quite high. While no doubt cool, this tool needs a bit of a redesign to get to a neighborhood’s true “walkability.”

Check it out yourself (this is the map around our PolicyLink headquarters in downtown Oakland–apparently a “walker’s paradise”) :

America’s backbone is crumbling. Our schools, our transportation systems, even our water pipes are creaking and worn out. We must deal with this crisis now – and do it in a way that helps all people thrive in communities of true opportunity.

That is why PolicyLink is pleased to announce the creation of the “PolicyLink Center for Infrastructure Equity” to advocate for fair and inclusive public policies and provide community and grassroots leaders, advocates, and public officials with the tools, training, and consultation needed to ensure that public investments in infrastructure create economic opportunity and health in all communities.

The center was officially launched during the opening plenary session at this month’s Regional Equity ‘08 Summit in New Orleans. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), whose Minneapolis district includes the I-35 W Bridge that collapsed in August, helped unveil the center with the video introduction below:

Even though it’s the inaugural “If You Only Read One Thing Today…” (IYOROTT) post, we’re already going to break our own rules — rather than “one thing,” today we’ll bring you many.

Below are links to a sampling of the wonderful local media coverage of the Regional Equity ‘08 National Summit in New Orleans this past week. If you didn’t get to join us, these dispatches will give you a flavor of this phenomenal event. If you did join us, you can relive some of the highlights. Please check these out:

• “Survivors have red-carpet day: Activists at summit cheer Katrina documentary stars,” The Times-Picayune
• “Obama, Clinton and the Black-Brown Divide,” Salon.com
• “Statistics Show Poor not Returning to N.O.,” CBS4
• “Danny Glover leads discussion on poverty, Katrina,” Associated Press
• “Protestors rally for Public Housing,” NBC6
• “Housing Survey Show Public Housing Residents Don’t Want to Return,” ABC26
• “National Summit on Poverty and Equity Coming to New Orleans,” Louisiana Weekly
• “Angela Glover Blackwell: PolicyLink’s Driving Force!,” New Orleans Tribune