Part of my final project was actually based on New Urbanism. Before I started I was all about it, but then once I began to do more research on it, I began to realize its faults.
Don’t get me wrong its ideals and principles are great in theory, but I saw that sometimes it isn’t implemented properly, and in the end it fails. I’ve seen many examples around Georgia in person that have attempted New Urbanism Projects, but have never really been successful. One problem is location. Many of these New Urbanism projects are located in suburbia, far away from any major urban areas. If people want to visit or shop at these NU projects, they usually drive (completely contradicting one of its principles.) Another is housing prices. “Creation of multiple housing types that are affordable to encourage diversity and increase density,” are you kidding me? The prices at some of these places are INSANE, ranging from $300,000 to $600,000. These are only a couple reasons I’m against New Urbanism, and I have more.
Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes it is effective and can work. But most of the time I believe that it isn’t being applied properly. I think we should take these principles and apply them to already existing urban cities. I mean the “skeleton” for everything is already there. Public transportation, ability to walk, connectivity, etc…
That was what my whole project was really about, taking these New Urbanism principles and applying them to places where they can be effective.
