 "Time to Pay Attention" | 2005-08-05 |
| - Reviewed By wannabethile |
I'm actually studying to be an Urban Planner in school. New Urbanism was a concept that greatly interested me because its principles focus around SMART and RESPONSIBLE planning.
I'm a huge fan of Peter Katz's book. There's only one thing I have to critisize about it--it doesn't confront those opposed to New Urbanism concepts, and I believe that in order to be effective you must challenge the tired, old, and sometimes downright arrogant ideas of the opposition (mostly the same Urban Planners who got us into this whole Urban Sprawl Mess).
Basically, New Urbanism speaks for itself. I would admit, it does have its own issues, but ALL great ideas have issues. And honestly, I would trade the issues of a New Urbanist Town over the issues of a delapidated suburb any day.
I think the best example I can give about how New Urbanism can nuture a growing and healthy community is to look at the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". Not to say that all New Urbanist communities build such homes, but the point I'm making is that the crew of EM:HE give to a family what they truly deserve...a good home. A good home makes a good family, and a good family can contribute to a good community.
New Urbanism is like that, in that it builds COMMUNITY. I mean, how many of us come home to our neighborhoods and sigh at what we see. I know I do. It saddens me to drive past the run down streets of my neighborhood, only to know the local government is content in finding it suitable enough for habitation.
And with rising gas prices, who wouldn't want a walkable community. I know I would, and I live in Florida--one of the more Humid States in the Union. I remember in my early college days. My Community College was 45 minutes to an Hour away (NO TRAFFIC), and so was BORDERS, my place of employment. I would go to school in the morning, drive back home, then drive all the way to BORDERS. That's A LOT of Gas, and A HUGE dent in my pocket book. But I had no choice, and I absolutely LOVED my school and job.
And that's how Jacksonville, Florida is. I LOVE it here, I love my city, but it TOTALLY sucked when I didn't have a car to get around. You HAVE to own a car in Jacksonville, being as the mass transit system is as close to unreliable as it is efficient.
I support this book as much as I support the New Urbanism movement. This book will help educate as well as inform readers of the benifits of SMART URBAN PLANNING. The notion that the ideas of New Urbanism are dangerous are absolutely absurd when compared to the dangers of the decaying suburbs of America. Why do you think Bank of America is so involved in creating better communities? Less bank robberies (LoL). And take a look at a city like Boulder, Co--voted the number one place in the country to raise a family. The city is built on an opposition to Urban Sprawl (though they could do better to lower the real estate prices).
Oh yah, and about the porches in Seaside, Florida being out of usage. Have you ever been to Seaside? Last time I checked it was a pretty vibrant community. Not to mention, have you ever visited Florida during the Summer? The Humidity will Kill you! I wouldn't be out on my porch either if it was during Summer. |
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 "Community is not Architecture" | 2001-03-02 |
| - Reviewed By tom-from-carp |
| I grew up in what new urbanists would probably call a paradise. It was a real community in which neighbours were really neighbours. People did sit on their verandahs and converse with their neighbours on the street. There was an understanding that one could borrow things if the owner wasn't using them. It was considered polite to tell the owner if he was there but if he was away one could just borrow the thing and tell him when he came home if one was still using it. In short it was everything new urbanism wants. This was in a moderately large city in Canada. There were two things wrong with this paradise: a) it was not about verandahs, facing the street etc. It was about control and conformity. The neighbourhood protected itself by frowning on unexpected behavior. There was an expected range of interests and an expected range of activity. If someone went out of this range, one could expect social sanctions unfailingly. The dark side of Jacobs 'eyes-on-the-street' is Foucault's 'gaze.' The neighbourhood worked as an exercise in power. The verandahs and street life were instruments of that power. Heaven help anyone who had non-standard interests. b) the neighbourhood was unsustaining. With the growth of the personal rights ethos, the ability of the neighbourhood to control its inhabitants fell away. No longer could the neighbourhood fathers take action to control petty teenage misbehaviour. Instead personal rights and social policy took these controls away from the neighbourhood and gave them to government agencies. As a result the neighbourhood is now perhaps not unsafe but definitely uncomfortable. No one leaves tools or equipment out now in case a neighbour needs to borrow it. Everything is locked up. The doors are firmly closed and neighbours now complain to the police instead of discussing thier joint problems. New urbanism seems to miss this point. Neighbourhoods are about local power. For some people this produces a comfortable paradise. For those slightly different it creates a jail of conformity. Some people thrive in it. Some peole will be stifled. Neighboourhoods are an exercise in hopefully beneficent control. Architecture does not create this control. It can destroy it certainly and make it impossible but it cannot create it. |
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| "Every library in the country should have this book!" | 1999-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By atlas1999 |
| I have only had the book a day and already it has given me great pleasure and joy. I love the fantastic pictures and diagrams. The computer digitalizations on a few existing towns today and what they could be like were truely fasinating. I couldn't help not liking the indepth descriptions of numourous cities, towns, and villages from around the country and canada as well. This book had colorful photos and diagrams, this book to me is pure genus! |
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| "how to design urban spaces in small communities" | 1999-01-08 |
| - Reviewed By vicentedecastro |
| A very good appraisal of design examples of new communities with also a consistent theoretical approach to New Urbanism concepts. This is a necessary reading to those that want to be updated with the best design practices of integrated urban spaces. |
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| "New Urbanism: This is how/where I want to live" | 1998-12-12 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| The basic principles presented in this book are the stuff that dreams are made of. I have shared the ideas presented in this book with many of my friends and they all want to live in communities such as this. We've been strip-malled, mega-malled and automobilized to near-death. New Urbanism as presented here is like a million breaths of fresh air. It is best to read the basic principles presented in the front of the book first. It may look like dry reading at first but as you get into it, your interest will be piqued at first, then grabbed, and you won't want to put it down till you've read it all. Having read this part you will be armed with the knowledge that, to date, no development or developer has had the guts to follow the principles completely. All of the projects presented include some elements of New Urbanism but none of them have it right. One of the other customer reviewers of this book, Ken Wing, missed this entirely. Hey Ken, there is no people in the Seaside pictures because they want the reader to see the architecture! Those who don't get it, or are afraid of change, tend to trivialze New Urbanism and mis-represent it. Once you have read this book, you, like myself will want to immediately pack up and move to a New Urbanist community. Better ones are coming out of the ground each year and I hope to see one near me real soon. |
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| "New Urbanism: This is how/where I want to live" | 1998-12-12 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| The basic principles presented in this book are the stuff that dreams are made of. I have shared the ideas presented in this book with many of my friends and they all want to live in communities such as this. We've been strip-malled, mega-malled and automobilized to near-death. New Urbanism as presented here is like a million breaths of fresh air. It is best to read the basic principles presented in the front of the book first. It may look like dry reading at first but as you get into it, your interest will be piqued at first, then grabbed, and you won't want to put it down till you've read it all. Having read this part you will be armed with the knowledge that, to date, no development or developer has had the guts to follow the principles completely. All of the projects presented include some elements of New Urbanism but none of them have it right. One of the other customer reviewers of this book, Ken Wing, missed this entirely. Hey Ken, there is no people in the Seaside pictures because they want the reader to see the architecture! Those who don't get it, or are afraid of change, tend to trivialze New Urbanism and mis-represent it. Once you have read this book, you, like myself will want to immediately pack up and move to a New Urbanist community. Better ones are coming out of the ground each year and I hope to see one near me real soon. |
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