Is New Urbanism For Everyone?

Residents of Milton Keynes, a 1970's era 'planned community' in the UK, have long shown a "heroic disregard for conventional notions of beauty or urban planning." Once a mecca for architects and urban planners hoping to fill "its intriguingly straight roads with modernist masterpieces", Milton Keynes is now "a pariah among towns—sprawling, car-dominated and (apart from a few concrete cows) lacking in aesthetic interest." But new plans are underway to almost double the town's population with "smart, high-density developments where neighbours will stroll and socialise."