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  • From: Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] New Urbanism
  • Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 14:34:18 -0500

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






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