Is New Urbanism A Failure?

"Nationwide, downtown areas have not become the residential and retail hubs that planners had hoped for, experts say... Berkeley, Calif.-based architect Peter Calthorp developed the concept of "new urbanism" in theearly 1990s...New urbanism advocates say that downtown areas should include street-level retail storefronts, houses with porches and good public transportation. The idea is to re-create old neighborhoods that are community-oriented, unfriendly to automobiles and safe for children."New Urbanism has been successful in selected cities such as Denver.