When I talk about new urbanism there is sometimes some confusion about whether I’m referring to brand new communities or older ones. New urbanism is about both. My own particular experience is about the transformation of an older bedroom community into a vibrant new urbanist haven where people live and work.
It’s been more than 20 years, but the concept behind new urbanism (work and play where you live) is finally taking root. The community I live in adopted the concept as part of efforts to save what little of the village lifestyle we had after the old rural community was bulldozed and redeveloped by new home builders. I live in one of the old nearly half centry post war homes, but there are thousands of new homes built and being built in my town of over 200,000.
Saving our village/community lifestyle required active lobbying by citizens to deliver passionate arguments in favour of keeping historic districts and forcing builders to incorporate into their developments street landscapes and neighborhood designs that nurture a sense of community, and encourage residents to walk, stroll, socialize and do BUSINESS where they live.
Today we have a thriving village housed in century old heritage buildings. Our streets and buildings are overflowing with young people and retirees buying coffee, visiting with consultants, lawyers, graphic designers, hairdressers, accountants and a whole host of other people and organizations who have set up businesses in our community.
We’re no longer a useless bedroom community – we are a thriving urban center where people live, work and play. That’s the new urbanism that I hope spreads like wildfire across the U.S. and Canada. As entrepreneur and work at home advocate, Kelly McCausey points out in her blog, we really can’t afford to be a nation of car commuters anymore. There are choices out there that we need to consider. New Urbanism is one of them.