“New Urbanism has proven both influential and contentious,” since Andres Duany thought up the idea 30 years ago, according to The Atlantic reporter Kevin Charles Redmon. The reporter recently interviewed Duany for a May 18, 2010 article, “The Man Who Reinvented the City.”
New Urbanism is a model for community planning that calls for “self-contained communities, and dense neighborhoods” in mixed-use areas, where residents don’t need a car, they are connected to public transit, and “suburban sprawl” doesn't happen. The idea is not new - it has turned 30 - however many of its goals are influencing much newer discussions about “place-making” in American cities and towns today.
In the interview, Duany touches upon many aspects of New Urbanism that will give you sense of its flavor and mission. He also makes some rather bold - and potentially controversial - statements about how young people today are “destroying the city” and how democracy “does not make the best cities.”
As ideas for how to "place-make" percolate in the minds of city planners and leaders, this article provides a glimpse at the man behind one influence school of thought.
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