Fighting Suburban Sprawl
New Urbanism Members Meet in Durango to forge Southwest Chapter
By Ken Wright, 5-05-06
Soon residents of the Four Corners states concerned about the direction and style of growth in the region will have a new path to input and action. Members of the Congress for the New Urbanism are holding a three-day meeting at Fort Lewis College in Durango this weekend to take the first steps toward forming a Southwest Chapter of the non-profit embodiment of the New Urbanism movement.New Urbanism is a response to the suburban automobile culture that reshaped urban life in the U.S. after World War II. Those seeking to recreate the tight, integrated communities lost in that sprawling cityscape organized in Chicago in 1993, with the creation of the Congress for the New Urbanism. The group now has some 2,000 members around the country.
CNU members work to influence development planning and design to create aesthetic urban spaces that encourage walking and community interaction. Through seminars, workshops and other events, the group seeks to educate the public, professionals, and political entities about this kind of planning. It also sponsors “congresses,” annual idea-sharing conferences about New Urbanism methods.
The group’s charter states:
"The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society's built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge. We stand for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy."
In 2004, CNU began forming chapters to spread the movement’s message and increase its influence on the local level. Once a chapter has incorporated and acquired enough local members to support itself, it functions independently under the shared flag of CNU. At present, there are four chapters in operation around the country, with efforts to organize underway in more than 15 other areas.
At the Durango meeting this weekend, says meeting organizer Katie Shelby, the 30 or so people on the organizing committee for the fledgling Southwest Chapter – which will encompass Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada -- will meet with local CNU members to set the organization’s goals, plan the steps needed to become a full chapter, and schedule events to help the get word out.
The meeting is not open to the public, but Shelby urges those interested to be on the lookout for upcoming Southwest Chapter events.
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Hi Ken
Enjoyed your article. Can you refer me to Katie Shelby? I'd like to contact the group organizing the southwest chapter. Thanks, Anneliesa
To respond to just one point: "We stand for...the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods..." One wonders if any of these people have ever lived in suburbia. I have; I've also lived in dense, urban neighborhoods, where your neighbor's house it 10' from yours (and my car was broken into twice in 8 years). I didn't notice that the latter had a greater feeling of "community" than the former. And I don't particularly like being jammed in cheek-by-jowl with my neighbors. I don't think I'm alone in this. And just what is a "real" neighborhood, anyway? I suspect it's merely a matter of aesthetics.
Now, I'm not terribly fond of neighborhoods where every house looks the same, and I happen to like more traditional architectural styles (particularly Craftsman bungalows), but I also realize that not everyone shares my aesthetic predilections. Many folks are concerned more with affordability and having a yard big enough for the kids and dog to play in, than in hearkening back to some idyllic, small-town New England vision of "community." Obviously, there are all kinds of folks out there who like all kinds of living arrangements. Rather than mandating aesthetics and high density, perhaps we should deregulate to allow the market to provide such "New Urbanist" options to them what wants 'em. That is, get rid of zoning laws that mandate low-density development and prohibit mixed residential and commercial uses.
One of my main problems with the New Urbanists and the so-called "smart growth" folks is their demonstrated disdain for ordinary people: "Those people living in the sprawling, characterless, oh so gauche suburbs are just fat, stupid, disconnected bourgeoisie with no taste. It takes enlightened planners like ourselves to guide them to what's best for them." Well, the history of urban planning is a litany of failures. Beware the law of unintended consequences.