Author Identifies A Back-To-The-Core Trend

In an interview with California Planning & Development Report, Hinshaw explains his findings and theories, which conflict with the New Urbanist school.

"You have these very dense urban areas — they have parks and public spaces, they have a graciousness to the street and they take on a patina that comes over time. They have quirkiness and an unpredictability. People are not looking for sameness. They are looking for something different.

That’s where I part company with the new urbanists. They are trying to create this out of whole cloth. I think you need an understory of things that give a place roots. I don’t think you can invent that. I don’t think that you can design it. It comes from the fact that a number of people get their hands on these places. That’s where it becomes magic. You get these shared spaces, this collective attitude. It’s not just you and a lot of other people living in an area. It’s a shared history of the place. It’s a richer array of things that results."