Ben Brown

Finally, after more than three and a half years, one of the key New Urbanist efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is beginning to grow legs. And perhaps more importantly, the models being created have implications for affordable housing everywhere. (In the interest of full disclosure:... Continue Reading

As 21st century crises and concerns began stacking up, it had begun to look as if Smart Growth priorities were going to have to compete for attention and resources with other burning issues. Such as: Climate change, peak oil, community affordability, health care costs, and now the struggling global economy. But on... Continue Reading

Will Florida put the “suburban retrofitting” movement on the fast track? [caption id="attachment_265" align="alignright" width="360"] Making it easier to do something about this.[/caption] Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ) is providing state officials with a legislative template to do just that. On April... Continue Reading

Watching Andres Duany go through images at the final presentation of the Lifelong Communities charrette in Atlanta, it quickly became clear how many of the goals of the ambitious planning effort could be lumped under one category: retrofitting suburbia. "In one way or another," said DPZ principal Galina Tahchieva, "all... Continue Reading

Atlanta's landmark charrette on planning for "Lifelong Communities" wrapped on February 17, with an Andres Duany presentation to a downtown auditorium packed with some 500 people. A crowd of nearly 500 gathers for the closing presentation of the ARC's Lifelong Communities charrette. On February 11, the opening night... Continue Reading

The New Urbanist mantra for neighborhood planning is to go for compact, connected, and complete. Well, one critical component of completeness, that of making communities comfortable - and practical - for residents of all ages, has been sort of assumed by NU planners. Yet it's taken an effort by the nation's primary advocacy... Continue Reading

When we got a note from colleagues in Chattanooga, Tennessee, letting us know that that their city had not only crafted a Climate Action Plan but was also set to create a new office of sustainability, it got us to thinking: Is the competition for funding in the deepening recession going to kill momentum for this sort of... Continue Reading

When President Obama declared, before an audience in Ft. Myers, Florida, on Feb. 10, an end to "just building sprawl forever" (fast-forward to around 58:58 for the money quote), it may have signaled a change of venue in the battle over how the stimulus package is interpreted and applied. President Obama addresses residents... Continue Reading

How serious is the implosion of the once-booming urban condo market? And what does the downturn say about the prospects for housing in urban centers? A piece in the business section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution seems to say it all. Desperate to unload some units in "a stagnant market," says the sub-headline,... Continue Reading

When the Democrats' $825 billion economic stimulus seemed to choose same-ol' over sustainable, Smart Growth advocates and New Urbanists began turning up the heat. Favoring super highways over mass transit, rail, pedestrian, and biking alternatives incentivized sprawl for decades. And isn't sprawl part of what got us in... Continue Reading