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  • From: Chris Hedemark <chris AT yonderway.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] New Urbanism
  • Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 20:10:48 -0500

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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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