Is New Urbanism Conservative-Friendly?

A conservative Christian reporter attended the Congress for New Urbanism this year, and found that many New Urbanists support strategies that don't fit neatly into Democratic or Republican platforms.

1 minute read

July 21, 2009, 8:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


"The CNU recently had its annual convention here in Denver, and [John] Norquist was not the only surprise for conservatives who expect hostility from "New Urbanists," folks who want to renew cities and retrofit suburbs to make them less car-centric. Sure, the CNU's first board president, San Francisco architect Peter Calthorpe, ripped me a minute into our sit-down because I admitted to skepticism about global warming, but he is also a school choice proponent.

Calthorpe's reasons for supporting vouchers differ from those of many evangelicals-he doesn't want middle-class families to feel the need to live in suburbs for the sake of their children's education-but he is the type of liberal co-belligerent (to use Francis Schaeffer's term) whom evangelicals need. So is architect/community planner Andrés Duany, who grew up in Cuba, left there in 1960, flashes a libertarian streak, and garnered great respect here as the CNU's top guru."

Monday, July 20, 2009 in WORLD Magazine

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