Early on living in my new urbanist neighborhood, a neighbor and I were discussing the unique connectedness of the community and she pointed out a potential downside. Statistically, eventually, something bad was going to happen to someone in our community and it would be a great blow when it did. I thought this was rather morbid but probably accurate.

Recently a neighbor I was very friendly with and whose family I like very much passed away far too early and far too fast. This neighbor was active and involved in the community and will be dearly missed. And while yes, this has been very, very sad for our community, the benefits of knowing and liking your neighbors far outweigh the potential for emotional distress when bad things do happen in your community. New urbanism is about real, connected life and sadly, bad things such as death are an intrinsic part of that. I know this neighbor really enjoyed living in our community, and their family has recieved tremendous support from it during this trying time. Isn’t that what a real community is actually about? Not how it is during the best times, but during the worst.