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[Chris Hedemark <chris AT yonderway.com>]

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On Monday, January 6, 2003, at 10:07 PM, Michael Winslow Czeiszperger 
wrote:

> The best book I've found on New Urbanism so far is:
>
> Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American 
> Dream
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865475571/103-4363544-2833441

Thanks for the pointer.  We're going to be living this lifestyle very 
very soon (I think I mentioned I'm moving to a borough outside of 
Philadelphia that is very old but laid out like you describe).

> THE PRINCIPLES OF NEW URBANISM (Stolen from newurbanism.org)
>
> 1. WALKABILITY
> -Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work

This is true of my new home *except* groceries.  I will need to jump in 
the car and drive a couple of miles to get to the supermarket.  Within 
biking distance (but not walking) is a nice butcher shop though which 
has of course all of the meats but also fresh produce.

> -Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street; 
> porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; 
> hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets)

This place isn't very car-owner friendly.  Not a lot of parking.  But 
it has nice wide sidewalks with ramped corners.  Commercial buildings 
are right up against the sidewalk, close to the street.  My new home is 
such a property (commercial storefront with an upstairs office space 
that we converted to residence).

> -Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases

Nothing like that.  But the place is very friendly to pedestrians.

> 3. MIXED-USE & DIVERSITY
> -A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-use 
> within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings

The bulk of this borough is square (or even rectangular.  Two 
perpendicular sides are commercial streets, then there is a commuter 
train down the third side, and the fourth side is mostly residences 
plus the high school.   The interior is mostly homes but also includes 
the library, municipal building, police, elementary school (wisely kept 
away from the busier commercial roads).  The borough extends out some 
beyond that square but the bulk of what is interesting is in there.  
You have to walk just ouside of the main square to get to the park 
where they have outdoor concerts during the summer.  Three of the four 
churches don't even have anywhere to park a car because everyone just 
walks to church.

So the commercial and residential areas are pretty much kept apart, 
though many of the commercial properties have apartments above plus the 
few apartment complexes in the borough are in the commercial zones.  I 
think this is more typical of older semi-urban boroughs.

> -Diversity of people - of ages, classes, cultures, and races

My sense of it, and my family has been very active in the borough for 
close to 100 years, is that it seems to be mostly white families, blue 
collar, and very little racial or ethnic diversity.  On the upside, I 
have a short walk to the train station which will dump me a couple of 
blocks from Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia which is about as 
culturally diverse as you can get.  I anticipate we'll be spending a 
lot of our leisure time in the Philadelphia proper.

> 4. MIXED HOUSING
> A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity

As the neighborhood is so old, the architecture of the homes is more 
visually appealing I think than the more typical right angle homes you 
see so much of today.  But they are all within a narrow range of each 
other in size it seems.  This is probably a large part of why you don't 
see more diversity there.  All the homes cost the same, have a similar 
architecture, and probably appeal to the same kinds of people.  The 
borough covers only 0.7 square miles and has been completely developed 
for a long long time so I don't expect this to change anytime soon.

> 5. QUALITY ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN
> Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of 
> place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within community. 
> Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human 
> spirit

Yes.  The borough was planned well and encourages walking and meeting 
your neighbors.  The houses all have a similar architectural flavor but 
IMHO they are all of an overall appealing design and different enough 
from one another to warrant slow walks checking out the differences 
between the homes.

> 6. TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD STRUCTURE
> -Discernable center and edge

The borough extends a little beyond the key geographical boundaries I 
described above, but is otherwise pretty contained.  There is no real 
discernable center though.

> -Public space at center

Public space is spread out around the interior of the borough.  
Actually I prefer this.  That way there are advantages to living at any 
particular point in the borough.  For example, I'm a longer walk from 
the park but I am right near all the stores and conveniently close to 
the train station (but not so close that the trains will bother me).

> 8. SMART TRANSPORTATION
> -A network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and 
> neighborhoods together

We have the SEPTA (South East Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) 
running the R5 regional rail through town, which will get you to 
Wilmington, DE going one way or several key points in Philadelphia 
going the other way.  There are also timely SEPTA busses running down 
both of the key commercial streets, which interconnect with other 
boroughs.  I found a way where I would have to walk all of three blocks 
total to get from my front door to Chinatown in NYC taking one train 
and one bus.

> -Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, 
> rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation

Very much so.  In fact I am very much looking forward to getting back 
into bicycling.  I ditched my bike when I moved to NC because I 
couldn't find anywhere nearly as safe to ride as where I grew up in PA. 
 People riding bikes on the roads in NC are either very brave or very 
stupid.

> 9. SUSTAINABILITY
> -Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations

No development.  The place is saturated, and there is nowhere to grow 
(or sprawl).

> -Eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural 
> systems

Well my power is coming from an old coal power plant on the Delaware 
River.  :-(

> -Energy efficiency

No.  Not yet, anyway.  The building is over 100 years old.  The wood 
paneling inside is right up against the bricks.  :-(

> -Less use of finite fuels

We're personally going to use less gasoline living there, and depending 
on where I end up working I may even hazard getting an electric car 
(though with a coal power plant I feel like I'll just be displacing the 
problem).

> -More local production

Nothing really gets made in Prospect Park anymore.

> -More walking, less driving

Yes, that is the really key thing we're looking forward to.

This whole move is very ironic since I've been a big proponent of rural 
living and all things anti-urban in nature.  It's a long story why 
we're moving, and I won't bore you with it, but this really wasn't my 
idea.  But I know that when life deals you lemons you make lemonade and 
I've got a big cold pitcher of it waiting up north.

Chris Hedemark .. Hillsborough, NC .. http://yonderway.com
Homeland Security begins at home; support your Second Amendment.


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