Posted on 06/03/2006 12:48:28 PM PDT by Lorianne
PROVIDENCE -- New Urbanism isn't for everyone.
Andres Duany, one of the founders of the movement, admitted that the Congress of New Urbanism attracts about 1,150 new members each year and loses about 1,000.
"Are we worried?" Duany asked.
No.
New Urbanism is celebrating one of its most successful years. New Urbanists were called on to help rebuild the communities in Mississippi and Louisiana that were devastated by last season's hurricanes, and the movement emerged from the outskirts of architecture and urban planning into the mainstream.
New Urbanism is an anti-sprawl, pro-city way of thinking about real-estate development. Its members include architects, planners, developers, politicians, transit professionals and educators. The primary goal of New Urbanism is to build densely populated, walkable neighborhoods that blend all types of uses from residential and office space to retail stores, schools and public transportation.
Critics of the movement say it promotes Disney-style neighborhoods that cater to the middle class.
Duany spoke to several hundred conference attendees (the group has 3,000 members) yesterday evening at the Rhode Island Convention Center. He warned the audience that New Urbanism requires high-level thinking.
"There's a tendency in American public discourse to oversimplify, to dumb it down," he said.
He pointed to the national problem of obesity. The popular line of thinking blames obesity on junk food, and the solution put forth, Duany said, is bigger nutrition labels on food packages.
New Urbanism thinks bigger. Its principles attempt to reduce the nation's reliance on automobiles, to create friendlier neighborhoods, preserve open space and build successful transit systems.
"The discourse is so intelligent in this congress," Duany said. "We don't oversimplify the issues."
Apparently, some people can't quite keep up.
"I say fine, you need to join another organization like Rails to Trials that does one thing," Duany said.
New Urbanists ability to "sustain complexity" and debate the issues makes the organization strong.
"We will be healthy so long as those who leave [the congress] are the ones we would prefer left," he said. "We will begin to die when those who leave are the best, the most intelligent and energetic among us."
Duany and his concepts have been embraced by Providence. Duany has led several neighborhood planning sessions, called charrettes, in the city. New Urbanism has driven much of Arnold "Buff" Chace's development in downtown Providence, and Mayor David N. Cicilline proposed redevelopment of LaSalle Square and the bridges over Route 95 was largely based on Duany's ideas.
Duany attributed New Urbanisms success to the failure of the suburbs and the attractiveness of the urban life.
Suburbs promised a back-to-nature lifestyle and mobility. Instead, suburbanites have a plat with a patch of grass and gridlock.
City neighborhoods, as envisioned by New Urbanists, offer everything you need in walking distance, a chance to meet your neighbors and a sense of place.
"New Urbanism," Duany said, "is marketable."
highly marketable, but wouldn't walking be the 'old commuting"?
I thought Al Gore invented walking.
Wasn't there an article lately about a new concept. A walking school bus. Where the students gathered together in a group, and walked to school.
Maybe it will catch on!
No, it more like old-fashioned small towns = good.
You have a point!
Why don't who live next to a vacant if they want it to remain vacant? Someone owns that lot and is entitled to develop it if they wish, no?
That's almost exactly it - at least here in Providence. People in this city (which really shouldn't be called a city, you could stand at one border and spit to the other!) sneer at suburbanites - nevermind the fact that the schools are in the toilet, the cops take over an hour to show up when called - if they even bother to come at all - and the whole city smells like hot garbage all summer long. Nevermind all that! Providence, with its homo mayor, is better than you!
It's funny. We have Ann Arbor and Detroit liberals that move into the area where I live and they call it a "bedroom community". The first thing they do is start whining about the lack of a sewer system and gas lines etc.
They show up for township meetings thinking they can put on presentations that us ignernt hillbillies can understand and we'll realize how wrong we've been. It doesn't take long before they realize how irrational us ignernt hillbillies are and they sell their homes and move on. Then we stand around the post office and laugh about it.
"New Urbanism is an anti-sprawl, pro-city way of thinking about real-estate development. Its members include architects, planners, developers, politicians, transit professionals and educators. The primary goal of New Urbanism is to build densely populated, walkable neighborhoods that blend all types of uses from residential and office space to retail stores, schools and public transportation."
I wonder if Andres Duany walks every day to the corner grocery store that carries three hundred items and no produce to bring home dinner fixin's.
I wonder if he lives in some smart-growth high-rise where if any of his friends want to come visit him they have to take the bus or a taxi because there's no place to park within a mile.
I suspect that the REAL goal of New Urbanism is to "build densely populated, walkable neighborhoods that blend all types of uses from residential and office space to retail stores, schools and public transportation" on the other side of town from where Andres Duany lives.
These "new" guys are just the same old loony lefties.
but Duaney likes his parking spot...
City neighborhoods, as envisioned by New Urbanists, offer everything you need in walking distance, a chance to meet your neighbors and a sense of place.
We need to discuss this more. It goes by the name of Smart Code. I know it it is loaded with Govt control because I have attended one of the Charettes here in Gulfport. We are about to get this jammed down our throat. The Council is in the process of "calibrating" the smart code.
Here is another thread in which it is discussed.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1590063/posts
I live in downtown Cincinnati. Nothing within walking distance is open on the weekends or after 5pm on the weekdays. My "neighbors" constantly ask for money when I walk down the street. I have to walk 3 blocks to get to my car. They can "envision" all they want, I'll take the suburbs and a commute any day!
Many small businesses, at one time, included the family home above. This appears to be a trend in some communities. The shop owner may not live there, but a renter adds income, while helping deter loiterers.
Also, old industrial buildings are becoming fashionable lofts. With raw land becoming investment "gold", reuse of existing sites and buildings is wise.
I wonder if Andres Duany walks every day to the corner grocery store that carries three hundred items and no produce to bring home dinner fixin's.
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