New Urban Communities: trying to define them, and some of our top picks
By Shannon Keating
What do you think of when you think of an urban community? Sparkling nightlife, blends of cultures, tons of great restaurants, a large diverse population, plenty of job opportunities… or terrible traffic, nightmarish snares of public transit, and overcrowding?
Cities and large towns offer unparalleled entertainment and worlds of opportunity, but the messy aspects of urban living can deter plenty of people from taking advantage of all that cities have to offer. If you are similarly hesitant, consider new urban communities.
New Urbanism is an urban design movement which primarily promotes walkable neighborhoods while maintaining diverse options for jobs and housing. Traditional neighborhood design, or TND, largely informs New Urbanism – the key word here being traditional. There is not necessarily anything new about New Urbanism; more so, the movement is making efforts to put a new spin on old concepts of efficient city planning which were practiced before the rise of the automobile. The movement additionally supports universal access to open public spaces, historic preservation, intra-neighborhood racial and economic diversity, sustainability, affordable housing, and a variety of aspects of green living. There are over six hundred new cities and neighborhoods currently being planned under the guidelines of New Urbanism. No new urban, master-planned or traditionally designed city has followed the exact same principles; all these categories are certainly broad and ever-changing. That said, we have compiled here a list of some of our favorite communities which fall under the label of New Urban.
Posted by admin on October 6th, 2013
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