The New Urbanism Imposters

Experts say new developments that claim to be "New Urbanist" are imposters.

1 minute read

June 15, 2002, 7:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


"Many planners and architects say that the movement has been co-opted and that many of the neo-villages appearing in Southern California, as well as in the exurbs of New Jersey and on the shoreline of the Florida Panhandle, are impostors... It used to be fairly easy to define a New Urbanist development because there just were not that many of them... Now developments that claim to be New Urbanist are finding themselves the object of criticism. For example, Laguna West, a development near Sacramento, was initially hailed as a pioneering example of how to build a community that was not overly dependent on the automobile. But it has since gone through changes that have led critics to label it as classic urban sprawl, though with porches and alleys."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

Friday, June 14, 2002 in The New York Times

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