Pruitt-Igoe: More ego or opportunity for vocational penance?
The restoration of degraded, traumatized, and distressed communities has been a high priority for the Obama Administration. The EPA, HUD and DOT are all allocating revitalization funds for places as...
View ArticleCan Preservationists Let Love Rule?
Call me naive. When I was first exposed to the New Urbanism in the 1990s, it was as a 9 to 5 ad-man with an appreciation for music and art. Killing time one day in my dentist’s waiting room, I stumbled...
View Article‘Show Me the Money!’ New bumper sticker for the New Normal?
There hasn’t been a New Urbanist Council gathering for a while. Which is why a lot of pent-up anxiety — and hope — found release in Council sessions in Montgomery, Alabama, October 14-16. These...
View ArticleThe Next Urbanism
‘Tis the season to rejoice and enjoy the brotherhood of all mankind, as well as that of our in-laws… As we ease into 2012, I am officially announcing a New Urbanism victory across North America, as we...
View ArticleFake, or So Real it’s Blowing Your Mind?
Okay, so the headline here is a semi-inside joke. Last week, on vacation in Rosemary Beach on the Florida panhandle, I Facebooked a photo of the town’s Main Street, together with this comment: The idea...
View ArticleCan Cities Help You Forget Your Troubles? C’mon, Get Happy!
In most physical and policy planning, triple bottom line benchmarks focus on environment and economy, and tend to skim over the subject of society. That’s probably because urban design impacts are much...
View ArticleNew Game, New Rules? Guessing at the future of American housing
If it did nothing else, the last decade should have disciplined some of our enthusiasm for betting the house, literally, on long-term trends deduced from short-term experiences. Remember that little...
View Article[Holiday Leftovers] Confessions of a Former Sprawl Addict: Speed Humps on the...
[Originally run Sept. 17, 2010] Hi. I’m Hazel and I was a Sprawlaholic. If you’ve been reading awhile you may recall that, with the loving help of my friends and family, I went cold turkey, dumping...
View ArticleCan Preservationists Let Love Rule?
Call me naive. When I was first exposed to the New Urbanism in the 1990s, it was as a 9 to 5 brand marketer with an appreciation for music and art. Killing time one day in my dentist’s waiting room, I...
View ArticleLetting Love Rule: All urban density is not created equal
Last week we resurrected a look at the preservation movement — asking if, rather than strict adherence to ideology, love of place could ultimately rule the day — so that, this week, we could put a...
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