Gulf Coast Towns Consider New Urbanist Plans

"...a high-powered group of community leaders, elected officials and architects are busily hammering out an ambitious framework for what could come next -- to rebuild the entire 80-mile stretch of Mississippi's coast in a way that could produce a new model for small towns."

"They are creating a test case for a different vision of America, one that seeks to turn away from the suburbs of the past half-century and instead embrace an idealized life of small towns and compact cities. It aims to resurrect the best of the past -- evening promenades, neighborhood groceries, even trolleys -- with the promise of the future's technology, jobs and transportation."

"It's also stirred up a simmering backlash among other architects, who say New Urbanists, while correct in building denser cities where people can walk, produce a 'one-size-fits-all' model that confines its solutions to the past and isn't open to new ideas."