New Urbanism has become enormously influential, according to this NPR report about an Atlanta community called Glenwood Park. An alternative to the “auto centered suburb” is what they are after, and the success of these communities is off the charts.
Alex Marshal, a critic of New Urbanism at times, makes a good point when he says:
The Achilles’ heel of New Urbanist developments has been their “downtowns,” the classic “main streets” meant to be at the heart of the developments. If they were built, and successful, it would be a significant improvement on suburban life. But the reasons these mini downtowns fail point to the structural flaws in the whole theory of TNDs.
Retail needs an enormous accessible customer base to succeed. Street-level retail in cities get this from enormous density and the therefore enormous quantity of people that walk by their front doors. Suburban retail get this by locating on a main highway where a high volume of traffic goes by their parking lots.
New Urban developments have generally tried to locate their mini-downtowns in the center of their low-density subdivisions. The result is that they have neither enough pedestrian, nor enough auto, traffic to make retail succeed. The “main streets” of virtually all New Urban developments have failed.
An exception is the Disney-produced Celebration in Florida. But it may be the exception that proves the rules. Disney had the enormous financial muscle to build the downtown first, before any homes were built or sold. It also had the marketing muscle to pull in tourists to its shops, even though the downtown lacks immediate access to a main highway. Tourists are making these shops succeed, not residents.
He is correct in my estimation. Which is why it will be interesting to witness first hand my home town of East Grand Rapids as it adds density in an effort to rescue it’s dwindling downtown retail customer base. Even though it wasn’t concieved as a new urbanist community when it was founded a hundred years ago, East Grand Rapids is almost a perfect example of new urbanism, with mixed use residential, office, retail, schools and a lake all within walking distance of a village that even includes a large grocery store. I’ve been looking long and hard for new urbanist settings that might rival it’s combination of walkable village atmosphere and family friendly recreational lifestyle. I’ve not found it, although I’ve not been to Seaside.
EGR isn’t known to be affordable, but compared to Seaside it is a total bargain. Gaslight Village is about to take on a bit more density when the new Jade Pig developments are finished. My guess is that the trend toward new urbanism will continue, and that EGR will one day be highly regarded as one of the true original new urbanist communities that evolved from natural forces and community needs.
Very interesting, Srg. You keep surprising me by all the different things you are interested in. Have you ever considered being a part of EGR city council? You’d have a lot of good input!