The Great Downtown Migration is Happening

Welcome back!

I just read an article that hit on so many real-life issues affecting so many of us, that I had to put up a blog post about it. Journalist and new urbanist, Alan Ehrenhalt published an article that every rural resident, suburban and city dweller should read. The rising cost of fuel, changing demographics, our focus on the environment and our changing life and work priorities are making the old suburban/downtown model outdated and ineffective.

If you care about those factors in our lives that can make a real difference in our businesses, the education of our children, community safety and the quality of our life we seek I think you’ll enjoy Ehrenhalt’s article. Here is an excerpt:

For several decades now, cities in the United States have wished for a “24/7″ downtown, a place where people live as well as work and keep the streets busy, interesting and safe at all times of day. This is what urbanist Jane Jacobs preached in the 1960s, and it has long since become the accepted goal of urban planners. Only when significant numbers of people lived downtown, planners believed, could central cities regain their historic role as magnets for culture and as a source of identity and pride for the metropolitan areas they served.

Now that’s starting to happen, fueled by the changing mores of the young and by soaring gasoline prices. In many of its urbanized regions, an America that seemed destined for ever-increasing individualization and sprawl is experimenting with new versions of community and sociability.

Why has demographic inversion begun? For one thing, the deindustrialization of the central city, for all the tragic human dislocations it caused, has eliminated many of the things that made affluent people want to move away from it. Nothing much is manufactured downtown anymore (or anywhere near it), and that means the noise and grime that prevailed for most of the 20th century have gone away.

Urban historian Robert Bruegmann goes so far as to claim that deindustrialization has, on the whole, been good for downtowns because it has permitted so many opportunities for creative reuse of the buildings.

I wouldn’t go quite that far, and, given the massive job losses of recent years, I doubt most residents of Detroit would, either. But it is true that the environmental factors that made middle-class people leave the central city for streetcar suburbs in the 1900s and for station-wagon suburbs in the 1950s do not apply anymore.

Read the whole article here.

Demand for Gas At a Five Year Low in the U.S.

It has finally happened.  The high cost of fuel and a tanking economy has caused Americans to make significant changes in how we regard and use fuel.

Ron Planting an analyst with Washington-based American Petroleum Institute told Bloomberg.com that “We’re driving less, using more public transportation and buying more fuel-efficient vehicles.” He adds: “There are people combining trips.  There’s no limit to the creativity that people will apply to how to save some fuel.”

The Internet will have had its part to play in making it easier for consumers to pick up tips on how to save at the gas pump and in their daily lives.   Sites like Susanne Myer’s Hillbilly Housewife which attracts over 300,000 visitors a month, shares all kinds of common sense, frugal living tips that consumers are craving.

Here at New Urban Mom we’ve been promoting the buy local mantra for a while.  My friend over at Terra Not Terror offers almost daily tips on the newest energy saving practices and products that can not only save you money but help to save the environment.

More good news – if you’re a new urbanist who has decided to try to work closer to home (or at home) or if you’re just trying to build up your local community or urban center to be a thriving and sustainable place for residents and visitors, then this is encouraging news during a pretty tense time.

More and more people are looking at where they live a little differently now.  Fuel dependency can make us feel powerless…but not anymore, not when we know there are actions we can take to reduce our usage (buy local, work locally, etc.).

In June Americans scaled back their driving by almost five per cent in response to rising fuel prices.   We are  experiencing the biggest six-month drop in U.S. petroleum demand in 26 years.

Pretty amazing.

Model City for Healthy Living – Manhattan

On August 9 the big apple took on some responsibility for pushing the green agenda and new urbanism by banning cars along seven miles of streets through the heart of the city.

This is part of the city’s Summer Streets program.  Feedback from pedestrians (including a video) was provided on the Cool Town Studios website – I’ve pasted one of the responses below:

The general interest as we can see is that people want to take over the streets.  People want to have fun, and people want to meet out as equals, and this creates a sense of belonging, and this is what makes New York the greatest city in the world.

As someone who grew up in a “popular” big city and then lived in a number of not so popular mid west cities, this is so good to hear.  During my first year living just outside Cleveland I asked a colleague at my suburban office location for directions to Playhouse Square–a well known, historic theater in the city.  She looked at me like I had horns on my head and told me she had no idea as she hadn’t been downtown in 10 or 15 years (her suburban home is about 30 minutes from the city). She added (with emphasis):

Why would you want to go downtown – it’s frightening down there.

The only way to make our cities less “frightening” and more welcoming is to encourage more people to go into their cities…to socialize…to learn new things….to be entertained…to live.

Re-introducing suburbanites and our rural cousins to the wonderful sites, buildings and creative corners of “their” cities is one of the best ways to enhance our regions and improve the safety and viability of urban centers in America. This is difficult to do if cities are places only seen as a blur or a place to avoid by large segments of our vital populations.

Our regions and our country depend on the health and success of the children, teens, adults, poets, single parents, construction laborers, doctors, businesses and so many others who call our cities home.  Thank you New York for using your leverage as a high profile city to promote healthy city living.