Wednesday, January 15, 2020
New Urbanism
{text:change} {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} New Urbanism New Urbanism is a relatively recent architectural and social design principle to leave its mark {text:change} {text:change} on United States society. Many past contributing factors present in society {text:change} {text:change} have lead some Americans {text:change} {text:change} to call {text:change} {text:change} for the implementation of a New Urbanism way of life in recent years. After defining and {text:change} discussing exactly what New Urbanism is, I will {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} delve deeper into the movement in an attempt to uncover {text:change} {text:change} what this new movement is a response to. This, in turn, will help to identify some of the problems current suburbs face today. As defined by scholars, the term â€Å"New Urbanism†refers to â€Å"an intellectual movement of architects and planners that is opposed to the normative growth patterns of our society†(Gottdiener and Budd 96). Simply defined, one can think of the New Urbanism way of life as a rebellion against the way society has expanded into vast suburbs. New Urbanists do not like the concept of an automobile based suburbia. They believe that their neighborhoods should be small, taking no more time than five minutes to reach the neighborhood center {text:change} {text:change} from the boundaries of the neighborhood (Gottdiener and Budd 96). In addition, New {text:change} Urbanists believe that their societies should have a diverse selection of shops, parks, schools, and churches easily accessible to all (without an automobile) (Gottdiener and Budd 96). New Urbanists want to return to the way cities were {text:change} before American society was forever changed by the invention of the automobile. In order to achieve this objective {text:change} {text:change} , sidewalks and public transportation must connect dwellings with businesses, {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} thereby eliminating the need for daily use of the automobile as the essential means of transportation. Now that we {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} have an understanding {text:change} {text:change} of exactly what New Urbanism is, it is natural to question what led its early adopters in the 1980s to create or look favorably upon its implementation The {text:change} {text:change} roots of the New Urbanism movement can be traced back to the period after World War II and possibly earlier. When the automobile transitioned more from an idea {text:change} to large -scale roduction in the early 1900s, little did anybody know the widespread impact a simple transportation mechanism would have on American society. Life, as it was known then, would never be the same. Before the invention of the automobile, cities in America existed much like the neighborhood communities that {text:change} the New Urbanism movement hopes to bring back . {text:change} {text:change} As the number {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} of automobiles in society life increased, {text:change} the need for close proximity of necessary businesses and workplaces to the automobile owning family decreased . As Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk stated in their 1993 article regarding New Urbanism, â€Å"the suburbs and cities of today continue to separate the naturally integrated human activities of dwelling, working, shopping, schooling, worshiping, and recreating†(Duany and Plater-Zyberk 196). The automobile has helped to separate these critical establishments from the American household. The {text:change} authors infer that the increased importance of the automobile has led to an exponential rising of the amount of funding for {text:change} roadwork {text:change} while the amount of funding for civic programs has been reduced. Civic programs are crucial to the American society, economy, and environment (Duany and Plater-Zyberk 196). Such a shift towards increased emphasis on funding road {text:change} {text:change} work can be seen in the recent Economic Stimulus Bill passed by Congress and the President. Over $130 billion will be spent on the improvement and building of roads and bridges, which further highlight the relative importance of {text:change} {text:change} the automobile in American society. The other main {text:change} factor that lead to {text:change} {text:change} the birth of {text:change} {text:change} the New Urbanism movement is the suburban sprawl that accompanied the end of World War II. Sprawl, as defined by M. Gottdiener and Leslie Budd, is the â€Å"’haphazard growth’ of relative low density over an extended region, with residential units dominated by {text:change} single-family homes†(Gottdiener and Budd 145). Simply stated {text:change} {text:change} , sprawl is the exodus of citizens from the city into the outlying areas. Sprawl has lead to the creation {text:change} {text:change} of residential areas without much, if any, planning. This lack of planning usually results in the {text:change} {text:change} essential components of a {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} neighborhood being located far from the residential areas. Urban {text:change} {text:change} sprawl can have a tremendous {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} negative {text:change} {text:change} impact on the city neighborhoods that are left behind when citizens move to the suburbs. The {text:change} article entitled â€Å"From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos†by William Julius Wilson highlights this key point when referencing a quote from Loic Wacquant, a member of the Urban Poverty and Family Life Study. Wacquant said that â€Å"residents remember a time, not so long ago, when crowds were so dense at rush hour that one had to elbow one’s way to the train station – now have the appearance of an empty, bom bed-out war zone†when referencing the Woodlawn neighborhood in Chicago (Wilson 112). This effect is something that the New Urbanism movement is {text:change} {text:change} trying to correct. By {text:change} {text:change} attempting to counteract the effects of sprawl on society, suburban residential neighborhoods can be planned into New Urbanistic neighborhoods. Many city planners and architects have already attempted to do this. Some of the most famous New Urbanistic societies are the towns of Celebration, Florida and Seaside, Florida. text:change} {text:change} It is important to remember that just because architects and planners build a New Urbanistic neighborhood, that doesn’t necessarily mean {text:change} that, the residents of that neighborhood will live in the New Urbanistic way. For example, in Celebration, Florida there has not been an increase in sociability amongst {text:change} {text:change} strangers {text:change} {text:change} despite the fact that the dwellings have porches (Gottdiener and Budd 97). Gottdiener and Budd then go on to infer that just because you place suburbanites in a New Urbanistic society, that doesn’t mean that the residents will drop their suburban-like tendencies (Gottdiener and Budd 97). New Urbanism is a fairly new ideology that is opposed to the way in which society has grown during the past century. The underlying causes behind the formation of the New Urbanism movement can be traced back to the invention of the automobile and the pattern of urban sprawl that took place in most, if not all, major cities around the country shortly after World War II. New Urbanism strives {text:change} {text:change} for a societal efficiency that increases social networks while decreasing the idea {text:change} {text:change} of spreading out the neighborhood. Although New Urbanism seeks to address the problems caused by this urban {text:change} {text:change} sprawl growth pattern through architecture, it will likely take more than a different architectural design to change the long ingrained {text:change} {text:change} mindset of the automobile driven suburban citizen. text:change} {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} Works Cited Duany, Andres and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. â€Å"The Neighborhood, the District, and the Corridor. †The City Reader. 4thEd. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print. Gottdiener, M. , and Leslie Budd. Key Concepts in Urban Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc, 2005. Print. Wilson, William Julius. â€Å"From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos. †The City Reade r. 4th Ed. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print. New Urbanism Is New Urbanism really important in the development of our society or community? This question may come across to each individual who pays attention and concern to the progress of our society. According to a website name Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it stated that â€Å"new urbanism†is an urban design movement whose popularity increased in the 1980s and early 1990s. Its goal is to bring change in all aspects of real estate development and urban planning.There are many reasons why new urbanism is significant. According to Jacky Grimshaw on his website, it advocates the importance of new urbanism. It stated that new urbanism is important because it gives real choices for people just like transportation, location where to live and access to opportunity.New urbanist shows support to regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. As we all know that United States was developed in the form of compact, m ixed-used neighborhoods in the first quarter of the 20th century. A new system of development was imposed through out the nation, replacing neighborhoods with a rigorous separation of uses which was popularly known as suburban development or sprawl and was happened after the World War II. Most of the US citizens adopted the suburban or sprawl.Suburban development carries a significant price even though for a fact that it has been known. In spite of the slow population growth of the countryside, the conventional suburban development spreads out to consume large areas of countryside (See New Urbanism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_urbanism#Background).*Sprawl and its Related Problems*Urban renewal has played a significant role in cities worldwide such as Saint John, New Brunswick, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Glasgow, Scotland and Bilbao, Spain, Canary Wharf, in London and Cardiff Bay in Cardiff. It has had a great impact on the urban landscape and still present until to this ver y day. Urban renewal or new urbanism is controversial because it suggests the use of eminent domain law force reclaiming private property for civic projects (See Urban Renewal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_renewal).New urbanism is a reaction to sprawl (Wikipedia, free encyclopedia). Sprawl was defined as the process in which the spread of development across the landscape far outpaces population growth. The landscape sprawl makes four dimensions and these are:* A population that is widely dispersed in low density development* Rigidly separated homes, shops, and workplaces* A network of roads marked by huge blocks and poor access* And a lack of well-defined, thriving activity centers, such as town centers and downtowns.1People live in more sprawl regions tend to drive greater distances, breathe more polluted air, own more cars, face greater risk of traffic fatalities and walk and use transit less.2In United States, most of the Americans who live in the metropolitan live in a mon o-detached homes and commute to work by automobile.3 But there is one state in United States which is considered as America’s sole urban center where important fraction of the population lives in apartment, works downtown and commutes by public transit and this state is New York.4Even new urbanism has helped in developing our way of life; new urbanism has drawn criticism from all quarters of the political spectrum. Some environmentalists criticize new urbanism as nothing more than sprawl dressed up with superficial stylistic cues.5 These critics of new urbanism often charge it of elevating aesthetic over practicality, subordinating good city planning principles to urban design dogma.6In addition, according to Matthew E. Khan (March 2006) that sprawl’s critiques often argue that suburbanization may offer private benefits but that it imposes social costs. This â€Å"cost of sprawl†literature posits that there are many unintended consequences of the pursuit of the â€Å"American Dream†that range from increased traffic congestion, urban air pollution, greenhouse gas revenues, and denying the urban poor access to employment opportunities (See The Benefits of Sprawl. http://greeneconomics.blogspot.com/2006/03/benefits-of-sprawl.html). In a research made by Anthony Downs (August 1999), he mentioned that many urban economists think these growth-related problems as caused mainly by â€Å"market failures†which means failing to charge people who benefit from sprawl the true costs of the decisions they make that contribute to sprawl. He also added that it â€Å"under-prices†those decisions and encourages over-expansion into low-density settlements. He sets three examples and these are:* failing to charge commuters a money toll for driving during peak hours to offset the time-loss burdens they impose on others in the form of congestion.* failing to charge residents of low-density suburbs the full social costs of removing land from open space and agricultural uses.* failing to charge high enough land costs for new low-density peripheral subdivisions to take account of the real costs of adding the infrastructures required to service those subdivisions (See Some Realities About Sprawl and Urban Decline. www.anthonydowns.com/sprawlrealities.PDF).But the economists were able to make a proposal how to solve the â€Å"market failures†and these are:* Peak-hour road tolls on major commuting arteries.* A development tax on land converted from agricultural to urban uses.* Impact fees on all new developments. (See www.anthonydowns.com/sprawlrealities.PDF).Below is the most sprawling, residential density made by Reid Ewing, Rolf Pendall and Don Chen (See http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/sprawlindex/MeasuringSprawl.PDF).Centeredness Score RankVallejo-Fairfield-Napa, CA PMSAÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â à ‚             40.9                1Riverside-San Bernardino, CA PMSA                                         41.4                2Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA                                 51.9                3West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach- FL MSA              53.9                4Oxnard-Ventura, CA PMSAÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â à ‚               55.5                5Oakland, CA PMSA                                                                   57.6                6Gary-Hammond, IN PMSA                                                       61.2                7Detroit, MI PMSA                                                                      63.0                8Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, NC MSA                       69.1                9Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA PMSA                                                    72.1               10I think there is nothing wrong if we embrace sprawl or new urbanism concept because it helps to develop our country especially when it comes to our country’s facilities even there are related-problems arise. But taking those steps goes with responsibilities. Each individual and our government must know how to h andle related-problems and find its remedies related to sprawl.References1. Reid Ewing, Rolf Pendall, and Don Chen. Measuring Sprawl and its impact. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.com/sprawlindex/MeasuringSprawl.PDF.2.  New Urbanism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_urbanism3. Matthew Khan. The Benefits of Sprawl. Tufts University, March 2006. http://greeneconomics.blogspot.com/2006/03/benefits-of-sprawl.html.4. Anthony Downs. Some Realities about Sprawl and Urban Decline. http://www.anthonydowns.com/sprawlrealities.PDF. New Urbanism {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} New Urbanism New Urbanism is a relatively recent architectural and social design principle to leave its mark {text:change} {text:change} on United States society. Many past contributing factors present in society {text:change} {text:change} have lead some Americans {text:change} {text:change} to call {text:change} {text:change} for the implementation of a New Urbanism way of life in recent years. After defining and {text:change} discussing exactly what New Urbanism is, I will {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} delve deeper into the movement in an attempt to uncover {text:change} {text:change} what this new movement is a response to. This, in turn, will help to identify some of the problems current suburbs face today. As defined by scholars, the term â€Å"New Urbanism†refers to â€Å"an intellectual movement of architects and planners that is opposed to the normative growth patterns of our society†(Gottdiener and Budd 96). Simply defined, one can think of the New Urbanism way of life as a rebellion against the way society has expanded into vast suburbs. New Urbanists do not like the concept of an automobile based suburbia. They believe that their neighborhoods should be small, taking no more time than five minutes to reach the neighborhood center {text:change} {text:change} from the boundaries of the neighborhood (Gottdiener and Budd 96). In addition, New {text:change} Urbanists believe that their societies should have a diverse selection of shops, parks, schools, and churches easily accessible to all (without an automobile) (Gottdiener and Budd 96). New Urbanists want to return to the way cities were {text:change} before American society was forever changed by the invention of the automobile. In order to achieve this objective {text:change} {text:change} , sidewalks and public transportation must connect dwellings with businesses, {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} thereby eliminating the need for daily use of the automobile as the essential means of transportation. Now that we {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} have an understanding {text:change} {text:change} of exactly what New Urbanism is, it is natural to question what led its early adopters in the 1980s to create or look favorably upon its implementation The {text:change} {text:change} roots of the New Urbanism movement can be traced back to the period after World War II and possibly earlier. When the automobile transitioned more from an idea {text:change} to large -scale roduction in the early 1900s, little did anybody know the widespread impact a simple transportation mechanism would have on American society. Life, as it was known then, would never be the same. Before the invention of the automobile, cities in America existed much like the neighborhood communities that {text:change} the New Urbanism movement hopes to bring back . {text:change} {text:change} As the number {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} of automobiles in society life increased, {text:change} the need for close proximity of necessary businesses and workplaces to the automobile owning family decreased . As Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk stated in their 1993 article regarding New Urbanism, â€Å"the suburbs and cities of today continue to separate the naturally integrated human activities of dwelling, working, shopping, schooling, worshiping, and recreating†(Duany and Plater-Zyberk 196). The automobile has helped to separate these critical establishments from the American household. The {text:change} authors infer that the increased importance of the automobile has led to an exponential rising of the amount of funding for {text:change} roadwork {text:change} while the amount of funding for civic programs has been reduced. Civic programs are crucial to the American society, economy, and environment (Duany and Plater-Zyberk 196). Such a shift towards increased emphasis on funding road {text:change} {text:change} work can be seen in the recent Economic Stimulus Bill passed by Congress and the President. Over $130 billion will be spent on the improvement and building of roads and bridges, which further highlight the relative importance of {text:change} {text:change} the automobile in American society. The other main {text:change} factor that lead to {text:change} {text:change} the birth of {text:change} {text:change} the New Urbanism movement is the suburban sprawl that accompanied the end of World War II. Sprawl, as defined by M. Gottdiener and Leslie Budd, is the â€Å"’haphazard growth’ of relative low density over an extended region, with residential units dominated by {text:change} single-family homes†(Gottdiener and Budd 145). Simply stated {text:change} {text:change} , sprawl is the exodus of citizens from the city into the outlying areas. Sprawl has lead to the creation {text:change} {text:change} of residential areas without much, if any, planning. This lack of planning usually results in the {text:change} {text:change} essential components of a {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} neighborhood being located far from the residential areas. Urban {text:change} {text:change} sprawl can have a tremendous {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} negative {text:change} {text:change} impact on the city neighborhoods that are left behind when citizens move to the suburbs. The {text:change} article entitled â€Å"From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos†by William Julius Wilson highlights this key point when referencing a quote from Loic Wacquant, a member of the Urban Poverty and Family Life Study. Wacquant said that â€Å"residents remember a time, not so long ago, when crowds were so dense at rush hour that one had to elbow one’s way to the train station – now have the appearance of an empty, bom bed-out war zone†when referencing the Woodlawn neighborhood in Chicago (Wilson 112). This effect is something that the New Urbanism movement is {text:change} {text:change} trying to correct. By {text:change} {text:change} attempting to counteract the effects of sprawl on society, suburban residential neighborhoods can be planned into New Urbanistic neighborhoods. Many city planners and architects have already attempted to do this. Some of the most famous New Urbanistic societies are the towns of Celebration, Florida and Seaside, Florida. text:change} {text:change} It is important to remember that just because architects and planners build a New Urbanistic neighborhood, that doesn’t necessarily mean {text:change} that, the residents of that neighborhood will live in the New Urbanistic way. For example, in Celebration, Florida there has not been an increase in sociability amongst {text:change} {text:change} strangers {text:change} {text:change} despite the fact that the dwellings have porches (Gottdiener and Budd 97). Gottdiener and Budd then go on to infer that just because you place suburbanites in a New Urbanistic society, that doesn’t mean that the residents will drop their suburban-like tendencies (Gottdiener and Budd 97). New Urbanism is a fairly new ideology that is opposed to the way in which society has grown during the past century. The underlying causes behind the formation of the New Urbanism movement can be traced back to the invention of the automobile and the pattern of urban sprawl that took place in most, if not all, major cities around the country shortly after World War II. New Urbanism strives {text:change} {text:change} for a societal efficiency that increases social networks while decreasing the idea {text:change} {text:change} of spreading out the neighborhood. Although New Urbanism seeks to address the problems caused by this urban {text:change} {text:change} sprawl growth pattern through architecture, it will likely take more than a different architectural design to change the long ingrained {text:change} {text:change} mindset of the automobile driven suburban citizen. text:change} {text:change} {text:change} {text:change} Works Cited Duany, Andres and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. â€Å"The Neighborhood, the District, and the Corridor. †The City Reader. 4thEd. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print. Gottdiener, M. , and Leslie Budd. Key Concepts in Urban Studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc, 2005. Print. Wilson, William Julius. â€Å"From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos. †The City Reade r. 4th Ed. Richard T. LeGates and Fredric Stout. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. Print.
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