This morning I read once again an article that highlighted a reporter’s misperception about new urbanism. He explained how new urbanist communities are the ideal communities for those who want to live the green lifestyle but that “most people” can’t afford to live in these communities. Every time I read this I have to sigh.

New urbanism communities are not just new constructed high end communities or re-developments in costly areas of the city. New urbanism is also a lifestyle and a mindset. It is about examining how we live together in community with one another and how we can adjust our city or town policies and guidelines to enhance our social and physical environments. If anything, new urbanism is about making communities more accessible to a variety of income earners. Many new developments are specifically designed to give opportunity for healthy, green living to low and middle income residents.

Yesterday we celebrated our annual village festival which actually started out almost 40 years ago as an act of protest and activism against development that would have torn out the soul of our old community and made us a useless bedroom community with no purposeful commercial or artistic center to encourage residents to work and play where they live. These guiding objectives help to cut environmentally costly commutes and encourages people to be engaged and supportive of green living, small business and safe community initiatives. We all benefit from that.

Thanks to our act of protest decades ago we now have a thriving social and commercial center that supports safe and healthy lifestyles for families and and makes it easier for people who want to work at home or close to home.

Yesterday’s festival attracted upwards of 50,000 people from our outlying rural areas and the huge metropolitan city to the south of us.

It’s an event that just about everyone looks forward to because of the friends we’re able to connect with in the community, the activities for the kids and the fabulous food, arts and crafts that are available for purchase or barter!

Rather than ramble on about how great the Unionville Festival was I thought I’d just show some pictures from our event and remind you once again what a benefit it is to our families, our businesses and social life to celebrate and make a big deal about where we live – that attitude transformed our sleepy bedroom community into a vital new urbanism center.

Here’s a picture to give you an idea of the size of the crowd filling our Main St. during the festival. The street is closed for the day.

This festival isn’t just about browsing it’s about entertainment too. Click on the video link below to get a small taste of an amazing teen named Rob Christian. Rob performs all over the country but he’s a native of our region and it was a thrill to have him again at our annual festival. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this talented musician in the years to come:

Young Jazz Talent at Unionville Festival 2008

One of my husband’s favorite activities is buying food–especially his favorite hot sauce from a vendor who is also at our weekly farmer’s market.

On our Main St. we also have beautiful heritage homes so garden and house gazing is a nice activity too. Here’s a friendly home owner waving at this paparazzi!