Paleo-Urbanism

"A number of older neighborhoods and urban centers in which many North Americans find themselves happen to be more traditionally urban than suburban.

These 'under the radar' neighborhoods in cities and towns constitute the paleo-urbanist stock of North America. I was introduced to the term "paleo-urbanist" in a casual conversation with Howard Ahmanson at a conference at Seaside, Florida, in 2002. Many of these neighborhoods are in need of private capital investment, improved infrastructure, and better schools. But they have 'good bones' from an urbanist perspective. The success of New Urbanism will be measured not by how many new developments they can start in any particular year, but by how the momentum generated in these developments spills over into the existing urban fabric of North America. Conversely, the collective urban experience of those who live in and shape such historic settings lends legitimacy to the New Urban projects that are vulnerable to the charge of utopianism and nostalgia. As paleo-urbanism begins to look a little newer and New Urbanism begins to look a little older, I think that we'll regain our sense of the positive life-giving force of good urbanism."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism Listserv