The Ideal Residential Area

Abstract

This article reports two studies of the "ideal" residential environment, the first of which analyzes responses of a large sample of residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, aged 25 and older, regarding how important each of 15 environmental characteristics would be to them if they were to consider moving, and assesses relative importance for the group in general, as well as correlations with age. The second uses an extended question-and-response format to determine how 90 women, aged 60 and older, living alone, would describe the ideal environmental situation with regard to facilities and services within walking distance of their homes and within their own blocks. The response options of inclusion, exclusion, irrelevance, or no opinion clarified the negative-concomitant aspects of proximity, complementing previous research on proximity and utilization.