How green is your neighbourhood?

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. Click here to read more columns.]

Friends of ours broke down recently and bought a second car. Apart from the expense, they were conflicted about the environmental aspects of running a second vehicle. However, efficiency run out – their kids are at the age where they have interests, and their schedules unfortunately don’t overlap. Moreover, they’re not yet at the age where they can safely get places on their own.

When we moved into our neighbourhood, I was taken by the walking trails and the fact I could walk to a number of stores.

The fact, though, is that I often don’t walk as much as I should. A convenience store can be reached within minutes, but – practically – the stores that I really want to visit are beyond the convenience reach.

I was really curious to stumble across a website that rates your address for the ease with which you can walk to prime locations.

Walkscore
Here’s how Walkscore works: type in your address (add the name of the city where you live), and then click … and wait to see what comes up. The closest amenities – grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, recreation, movies, etc. – pop up, with a relative score of the ease of your walking.

Walkscore uses a mashup with Google Maps, so it depends on what’s in its database to function. I was pretty satisfied with what it turned up, and not surprised to see that the score for my neighbourhood was just so-so. The house where I grew up (in the Churchill Square area) fared much better, since that neighbourhood was designed decades ago, when St. John’s was smaller and planners built in the assumption that people would walk more places.

To be fair, my east-end neighbourhood ranked far better than the suburb in Paradise, where we used to live, where even now most activities require a car.

Walkscore seems to be designed for would-be renters, realtors and real-estate buyers. I see it as a suggestion of where the marketplace is going: the growing appetite for a lifestyle that is built around feet, not wheels.

But are the planners of today taking heed? I wonder.

Elsewhere this week

Antique maps
When I hear the phrase "uncharted territory," I’m always curious about the place that’s being described. Often, it’s just a metaphor for something political or sociological, but in terms of genuine mapping, I would think that we’re dealing with exceptionally remote places. After all, all the major things have been mapped already.

Maybe that's why I and so many others are fascinated by old maps, and we see what was known about the continents, the seas and the unknown itself through the centuries. This is an excellent place to look around. When I was young, I used to wonder how explorers could not know, for instance, what the shape of North America was like; looking back with wiser eyes, I marvel at how early mapmakers pulled together what they could.

The War
This week, PBS launched the latest epic from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, whose The Civil War helped Americans rethink that period of their history. Burns’s latest work is about the Second World War, as seen through the eyes of residents of four towns, and it's called just The War. I'm curious to see what Burns does with the subject matter. At first blush, the companion website is well researched and well-prepared. It's an American view of things, but it's fascinating all the same.

Coin Flipper
Need to make a decision quickly, or decide who does the next coffee run? This site makes those sorts of decisions – and, possibly, a discussion on probability – rather easy. As a nice touch, you can pick the currency of your choice for the flipping, including our boisterous loonie.

John Gushue is a news writer for CBCNews.ca in St. John's. Site suggestions always welcome at surf at thetelegram.com. John is on Facebook right here.