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[Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>]

On Tuesday, January 7, 2003, at 01:22 PM, Paul Jones wrote:

> as Gina notes, unless you work in the same neighborhood (which unless 
> you
> own your own company and work at home) new urbanism fails

Only if you think in absolutes. New Urbanism doesn't do anything more 
than attempt to modify building codes so that new growth is modeled 
after pre-WWII town centers such as Carrboro, or the older parts of 
Durham or Raleigh or Yonkers. The idea is to reduce the amount of time 
spent in cars as well as greatly improve traffic capacity.
There's lots of specifics out there comparing each aspect of how roads 
are constructed now and how they could be improved using different 
building codes that stressed the overall good of the town rather than 
convenience in building big-box retail outlets. I can't see that if one 
can't go entirely without a car then New Urbanism is a failure. For 
example, I've talked to people in Southern Village who work in CH who 
now only need one car.

The other negative I've heard about New Urbanism is elitism. I've 
talked to some who believe that urbanism is another excuse to build 
exclusive neighborhoods for the rich, and building local stores is an 
attempt to not have to mingle with the poor. While it is true that some 
New Urbanism neighborhoods have built without providing enough housing 
on the low end of the price range, many if not most of the older 
neighborhoods that are being emulated were originally built for the 
unskilled labor that worked in the mills and factories. I know that's 
the case in terms of the old traditional Czeiszperger neighborhood in 
Dayton, Ohio.

In fact, most indications are that the increased density of new 
urbanism neighborhoods and the close proximity to existing 
infrastructure actually makes the New Urbanism model cheaper to build. 
In my opinion its only supply and demand that is keeping the prices in 
Carrboro and the prices in newer urbanist communities high. How else do 
you explain the high prices demanded for housing in most pre-WWI 
communities such as Carrboro?

If you'd like to see a building model that is really elitist try 
driving around Orlando. You can drive for 45 minutes in every direction 
and see nothing but the empty blank walls of gated communities.

___________________________________________________________________
Ending a sentence with a preposition is nothing to be ashamed of.
        -- michael at czeiszperger dot org, Chapel Hill, NC