The Irish One said:This is a great idea!
Hi-- I'm replying to your remark on the thread about the new forum, Citizen Planner, because you mentioned new urbanism as a "cult." I want to hear more-- new urbanism has become the word weapon of choice in our neck of the woods by developers hoping to maximize profits at the expense of existing neighborhoods, and because of the "progressive" cachet of the word, elected officials have often been quick to jump on the bandwagon. For endangered semi-rural neighborhoods like ours, traversed by urban comuter and industrial traffic, "new urbanism" simply means more environmental degradation, more threats to our several-hundred-years-old small community, more strain on already overstressed infrastructure and services in our low-income part of the community. I'd love to hear a planner (or Anti-planner) talk about the new urbanism from your perspective. I figure it probably makes sense some places, but it doesn't at all in a place struggling to retain rural qualities. I should make this a new thread, but don't see yet how to do it.
Quijote