New Urbanism And Crime: CNU Fires Back

Reason Magazine's recent article, Crime Friendly Neighborhoods argues that the New Urbanist housing and neighborhood designs that replace the modern suburb almost invariably increase crime.

The Congress for the New Urbanism responds by pointing out that the Reason Magazine authors "...Have a strange way of going about proving this hypothesis. 'The 3,000-word article fails to mention a single New Urbanist community in the US that has increased crime,' writes [Rob] Steuteville. 'Since nearly 500 sizable New Urbanist communities are under construction or built in the US ... why couldn't the authors come up with a single example...? The New Urbanism, after all, began the US more than 20 years ago.

...By far the strangest omission in the Reason piece, however, are the hundreds of public housing developments redeveloped according to New Urbanist design principles under the federal Hope VI program. Hope VI replaced towering and isolated housing 'projects' with mixed-income neighborhoods incorporating townhouses, small apartment buildings and often schools or businesses, all on smaller blocks that connect with the surrounding street grid."

Thanks to Chris Steins