Posted on 12/21/2007 11:24:09 AM PST by Lorianne
There are encouraging signs that New Urbanism is beginning to take root in American design. The U.S. Green Building Council has begun using a pilot system called LEED Neighborhood Design, which will include location and transportation use in its green ratings. Duany and his peers in the movement are helping city and town planners to dismantle the postwar zoning regulations that helped make the car king, and you can find New Urbanist projects sprouting across the country.
Americans may say they hate their long commute, but there's little evidence that they're eager to abandon a lifestyle built around the car. If one city could represent the opposite of New Urbanism, it would be sprawling, decentralized Atlanta, where extreme commuting is fast becoming the norm. (Coincidence or not, Atlanta is one of the fastest growing metro areas in the U.S.) And sprawl is spreading overseas, to developing nations like China that are fast abandoning traditional, dense neighborhoods as they fall in love with the car. "We'll design a community for [Chinese clients] that is essentially Chinese, which has served them well for centuries," says Duany. "They say, 'No, we want Orange Country.' They're desperate to live in the dopey American way."
If we can change that way, we can save ourselves — and much of the rest of the world. That will require the leadership of architects like Duany, who has dedicated his career to New Urbanist principles. But it will also require something of the rest of us: actively valuing what we profess to value, like more time out of the car and with our families, and choosing to live in neighborhoods that make those ideals possible. If that happens, the benefits to the fight against climate change — and our own sanity — would be immense.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I planted 20 4-5 ft. blue spruce trees in my yard last spring and plan to plant 20 more this spring. Where to I sign up to get my credits?
You would get credit toward LEED certification for that type of thing. I would suggest if interested, to talk with your city council and planning board to have them adopt a LEED plan.
There’s a little green peeking through right now, although it’s pretty pale this time of year. Whatever green there is should be covered in another thick layer of global warming within 4 or 5 days...
Let’s paint concrete green and pretend it’s grass!
Any registered Democrat will be required to live in an Indian tipi.
You’ll save the environment by not burning gas in a lawnmower.
And to the person who planted trees, your leaves will increase your neighbors’ carbon footprint as they hire low wage immigrant labor to use a leave blower to “clean up” after your trees’ debris in their lawn.
“Duany and his peers in the movement are helping city and town planners to dismantle the postwar zoning regulations that helped make the car king”
We are going to take things away from you for the greater good.
Smart Growth crunches on.
Carolyn
Actually, all zoning does that. This is jut a new twist.
I’m running my 2 SUVs all might because it’s cold outside and loving it.
There IS no debating Socialists. You must adopt the politically correct positions or else be guilty of thoughtcrime.
Orwell understood Stalinism. He witnessed it first hand from within the Socialist movement.
I value my home in the burbs where my wife can walk to the store at night and be safe.
But if dems value other stuff, I suggest they pack themselves into tight, tall, little boxes and walk around on the streets between the boxes looking hip and being sensitive. We would encourage them to wear billboards advertising their low carbon footprint. The local rag could feature heartwarming stories about pigeons they have saved. The could spend a lot of time understanding what they did to make muggers mug them. They could wonder where the muggers got guns as guns would be strictly prohibited there. They could have little boxy "churches" with homosexual bishops who deny the divinity of Christ and call themselves Christian anyway (but not in public) and have little reeducation boxes for anyone who does so in public.
Then we build a large double fence around the box community and tell them it's an exclusive, gaia-friendly, gated community.
If they cannot adjust what they "actively value" to socially acceptable norms and move voluntarily, we will force them out of the homes and into a box at gunpoint, of course, using due process at every step.
A key element in making this plan work is that all voting locations would be outside the gates and the gates would be locked on election day.
Heck. I'm an urban planner. And what I just proposed sounds a lot like the Warsaw ghetto, which is what the urban planners are shooting for--a docile, controlled population that does the bidding of it's masters.
When an article begins with bunk one has to assume that the rest is bunk and sure enough the body is full of things we "need" to do and stuff we just "have" to do. No sale.
Know what you mean...I’ve got 3 & 1/2 acres of “sequestered carbon” that is mostly brown or gray right now. By April it sould decide to “Go Green”.
Where do I sell my Carbon Credits? I’d be willing to go with $25/acre/month, plus S&H. :-)
I have 5000 spruce trees in my yard. Is that green?
Can I get one for composting my horses’ manure ?
I got my heating oil bill yesterday and I say, bring on great gobs of global warming.
My wife & I conserve on water.....we recently received a "lack of water useage charge" from the Water Co. Apparently, we didn't use ENOUGH water this year.
WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!
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