New urbanism is one of my main interests.  The reason it is one of my main interests is until four years ago, I didn’t really know what it was, and didn’t realize why I was so desperately unhappy living in a traditional, sprawling, beige suburban subdivision–I didn’t know I had a choice. 

My husband and I had seen Prospect New Town (pics above), on the south side of Longmont http://www.prospectnewtown.com  when it was first being built in 1997-1998, and we loved it, but at the time, couldn’t afford to live there (which is ironic because the house we were looking at was $300,000 and is now $700,000).  We had been living in a traditional suburban subdivision for four years in Fort Collins and we decided to move to Denver.  I knew I wanted something different, but wasn’t sure what, I wanted something like Prospect but didn’t want to live in Longmont for commuting reasons.  Then we found our current community-a new urbanist one, and it totally changed my life when we moved here.

In my old subdivision, I had gone from being a research scientist–a very intellectually stimulating job–to being a stay at home parent, which for me was a huge adjustment, and a very difficult one.  I felt stranded, extremely lonely, and screamingly BORED.  My subdivision was a beige ghost town, the only time I ever saw anyone was when they left in their cars in the morning, and when they drove in at night–there were really no public spaces in my subdivision for people to hang out or go to, so they all just retreated to their simulacra of “little cabin in the woods”. There was nowhere to walk to, to get anywhere I had to spend at least 10 minutes in the car.  Every house was the same or very similar design and color–there must have been 13 slightly different colors of non-offensive beige in there.  It sucked.

In my new community, there is an emphasis on shared public spaces.  Every house is 5 minutes walking distance from a pocket park, and 5-10 minutes walking distance from restaurants, offices, and services such as a day care center, a school, and a church.  Here I can walk to the following things in 5-10 minutes:

A grocery store
A pharmacy
16 restaurants ranging from fast food to sit down steakhouse
A car service place (I frequently drop my car off to get service and can walk home and then back to get it)
3 bars including a great family owned pub 5 minutes from my house
7 parks, including a very large one built by the city with soccer fields, baseball, basketball, and enormous playground equipment
An organic community garden
13 other types of stores including a smelly stuff store (bath products, perfume and the like)

Now, being able to walk to things won’t be a big revelation to anyone who has lived in a city, but I never have–I’m a child of the suburbs, so this idea is new to me.

All houses here have porches, and everyone uses them.  Because my new community encourages people to be out in public, I have met almost all my neighbors–and not just the ones on my street, I know everyone on my street, the three streets behind me, and almost everyone in the other phase of the development.  If I need help, or just want to do something, there are at least 15 people in here I can call.  The most indicative I think is my cell phone.  90% of the numbers in my cell phone directory are my neighbors; people who are now close friends and with who I do things weekly.  Here, if my daughter wants to play with someone, (or if I do), they’re right out the front door. There are people around outside all day, every day, the place is vibrant and social.  Walking to the mailbox which is 5 minutes away can take 2 hours, because I run into people along the way and we stop and chat, I NEVER feel lonely here. 

Since moving here, I’ve realized how much the design of our daily surroundings influences our lives, so I’ve done a lot of reading and talking to people about new urbanism.  One of the aspects of new urbanism is social engineering by design.  The idea is to design to encourage people to be in public, instead of retreating to their homes and staying there.  To this end, new urbanist communities create pedestrian friendly environments, create things for people to walk to close to their homes (stores, restaurants, services etc..), and build many public spaces such as pocket parks, in the hope that people will get out, meet each other, and develop a sense of community so sorely lacking in most suburban subdivisions.  In my reading about new urbanism I’ve seen many people (planners, critics, developers, architects), debate if this social engineering by design works or not.  What I have not seen, is someone writing about this that actually lives in a new urbanist community.  Well I do, and it does.

I have also seen some very unfair criticism of new urbanism-the primary one being that new urbanist communities are about nostalgia for a “simpler time” (like there ever was such a thing); that people are attracted to them because they all want to be with racist, bourgeois consumers like themselves.  This criticism seems to primarily arise because most new urbanist communities are composed of neo-traditional architecture, and these critics equate neo-traditional architecture with negative ideologies such as racism (any traditional Southern style such as plantation ), or fascism (neo-classical style).  Got news, architecture is not ideology.  Classic designs are classic for a reason.  PEOPLE LIKE THEM.  That’s it, no nefarious scheme here.  My personal preference is for a mix of neo-traditional and modern architecture, like Prospect.  But currently, that’s pretty rare in new urbanism for a variety of reasons.

New urbanism is a response to the social isolation of traditional suburbia, as well as an environmentally sensible approach to planning-reduce car trips, and it works. Do I still use my car?  Of course.  But I unquestionably use it less than I did when I lived in sprawlsville. 

Does new urbanism have problems?  Yes, primarily affordability.  New urbanism creates places people want to live, which in a free market drives up prices.  And yes, sometimes the neo-traditional architecture lends itself to the creepy sense of a Hollywood set (the set of “Desperate Housewives” looks a bit like my neighborhood, and like a street in Prospect). However, unless critics have a better approach to community planning, SHUT UP.