Walkable Libraries: Biggest Losers

by Bruce Schimmel

Aaron Ogle wants to move his young family to Philly. Commuting daily from Delaware, he spends way too much time away from his wife and baby boy. So with another child on the way, the Ogles want to dump their car and begin a new life in Philly on foot.

For the Ogles, the culture and camaraderie of a neighborhood library is essential. But with 11 branch libraries about to disappear, Ogle wasn't sure where, or even if, his family should come.

Ogle is a cartographer. With the blessing of his boss at Avencia, he created maps to show what would happen to library walkability if those threatened are closed.

Along the way, Aaron discovered two interesting things. First, "from a birds'-eye view," says Aaron, "it looks like the city did a pretty good job, and put a lot of thought into it."

All Images Courtesy of Aaron Ogle and Avencia Inc

But close-up, concludes Ogle, the effect on library walkability in certain neighborhoods is "pretty devastating." When a neighborhood is shown on a human scale, library walkability plummets.

Second, by putting hard numbers to the loss suffered by a neighborhood, Ogle confirmed that places most in need are among the biggest losers. (For a list of the biggest losers, see map legend. For a list of all neighborhoods, go to schimmel.com/library_stats.xls.)

(bruce@schimmel.com)

BEFORE : THE OFFICIAL VIEW, FROM ABOVE: From afar, closing 11 libraries seems to change the system's walkability very little. Close up is another story.

AFTER : WALKABILITY, DEFINED: Walkability, says Aaron Ogle, is a combination of friction and distance. Parks and sidewalks have low friction; highways and rivers, high friction. Walkable distances are usually less than a half-mile.

BEFORE : THE COMMUNITY VIEW, FROM THE STREET: From a walker's perspective, shutting down a single branch can really close off a neighborhood. Eliminating the Ogontz branch, Aaron Ogle calculated, would hurt this neighborhood's library walkability by more than 60 percent.

AFTER : NEIGHBORHOOD WALKABLE LIBRARY LOSERS: Bustleton, down 49 percent; Fishtown, 28 percent; Holmesburg, 28 percent; Logan, 41 percent; Mantua, 33 percent; Point Breeze, 42 percent; Southwest Cedar Park, 53 percent; Southwest Schuylkill, 50 percent; South Philly, 35 percent.