Downtown Revitalization: A Return To The Past?

New Urbanism points to consolidation and re-use of former downtown properties as a return to, "the way we were." However, Wlliam Fulton points out that "building housing downtown is the latest trend, but it's hardly the return to the past that people think it is."

"..the emergence of the American downtown between 1880 and 1920 was based on the opposite premise: that a downtown was exclusively a business district where nobody lived...One of the most important is that downtowns themselves have changed. Rather than serving as the one-stop shop for practically all retail and office-based businesses in a city, they have emerged as a kind of lifestyle alternative. General retail and office uses have been on the wane in downtowns for many years, and they have been replaced by entertainment-oriented retail such as theaters and restaurants."