Lecture Part 1 of 9

Part 1:
Introduction; Background; Suburban sprawl patterns; the four major components; public realm/private realm

• Category

  Education

[urbanewal]

the general public needs to be more educated and care about New Urbanism.

[beansworth]

Unfortunately, San Antonio did not take his advice. While They have continued to improve the downtown area, nothing has changed in the rest of the city. If anything, it's gotten worse. That's because San Antonio depends on a growth strategy of incorporating outside cities and county land, and has never been forced to reorganize or redevelop within.

[spikedpsycho]

People who denounce the free market and voluntary exchange, and are for control and coercion, believe they have more intelligence and superior wisdom to the masses. What's more, they believe they've been ordained to forcibly impose that wisdom on the rest of us. Of course, they have what they consider good reasons for doing so, but every tyrant that has ever existed has had what he believed were good reasons for restricting the liberty of others.

[spikedpsycho]

New urbanism is really old urbanism. Some like it, most do not. Yes they've built some nice communities but not exactly mixed income. The argument New Urbanism produces diversity has been challenged from findings and when homes sell for millions. Seaside, Florida, lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million dollars, and some houses top $5 million.

[spikedpsycho]

Chicago is a wreck. It's the most most corrupt city in America in one of the most corrupt states. 4 out of 7 of it's Governors have been indicted on some charge. The Chicago "L" is so badly rusted, its collapse is imminent. It's public finances are so badly managed they cant afford to fix it. They have a gang and crime problem with 500+ murders in 2012.

[zEr0bertinho]

This is a great analysis, the new suburban, corporate America is totally disgusting.

[squeezetruck]

Critique is good. Solution is bad. He's just replacing one empty code with another empty code.

Theory can never replace human intelligence.

[rfwbuck]

I'm surprised someone as apparently informed at yourself would use that talking point. It was popular for a few months in 2011, until a deluge of articles pointed out that "growth in growth percentage" doesn't mean anything and that suburban growth vastly outpaces urban by a laughable margin. Urban cores have been wildly reinvested in, but it hasn't meant much growth in raw numbers, and the growth that has come has been from urban neighborhoods, which are still hemorrhaging population.

[rfwbuck]

That's a popular talking point...problem is it's grossly wrong. The fact is 10 times as many people move to the suburbs every year as to cities ("growth in %" aside). The tiny growth of core areas links directly to disproportionate tax credits, abatements, and public investment in areas with no market demand that draws people from other urban n'hoods, not suburbs. I'm intimately aware that 96% of Chicago's growth since 2000 has been suburban. 100% of the pop. loss has been in urban n'hoods.

[DrummerBoyJason]

cities are growing faster than the suburbs for the first time since the 1920s, suburban growth is on the decline (for example Chicago used to be shrinking at a 1% rate suburbs growing at about 1.1% now both are growing at 0.3% cities are trending up suburbs trending down). People are desuburbanizing. You can see this by 2010 census.

[rfwbuck]

You find me a broad-based market trend that suggests anything of the sort and I'll buy you a cookie. You don't get to just make up lies and claim them as fact in the real world. That said, sprawl isn't "underwritten" by the government. Services are managed by government...that's what government does. Yes, government funds roads.. Government also pumps billions of dollars into "rejuvenating" urban neighborhoods no one wants to live in...with a far lower return on investment.

[DrummerBoyJason]

The current pattern of suburban sprawl is the furthest thing from market-induced development imaginable. It is subject to oppressive regulation and underwritten by the federal government (home mortgage interest deductions, highway funding, etc). Current market trends say people want to live in urban communities.