The source for New Urbanism, smart growth, and walkable communities
Community life
and New Urbanism
Academic studies from Canada and Oregon have recently strengthened the case that New Urbanism has a positive effect on community life. Previous surveys of new urban communities Kentlands, Celebration, and Harbor Town came to similar conclusions.
New urban community promotes
social networks and walking
A study of Orenco Station, a large traditional neighborhood development in Hillsboro, Oregon, backs claims that new urban design fosters physical activity and adds to the richness of community life.
Celebration residents drive less, report quality of life benefits
The survey also reveals that a great majority of residents (90 percent) feel that the physical characteristics of Celebration contribute to and improve their quality of life.
Compared with residents in a nearby conventional suburb, Harbor Town residents reported having larger social networks.
The program resulted in dramatic improvements in poverty rates, unemployment, percentage of residents on public assistance, and especially crime in surrounding neighborhoods.
New urbanism is about better living
Comments on a study that gets back to the roots of the New Urbanism: the needs of people.
Cities less friendly? Phooey!
The authors of University of California study suggest that public officials should encourage more sprawl. As it turns out, the original claim of the study, that suburbs are friendlier places to live than cities, is inaccurate.
Celebration: The story of a town
Sociologists may be interested in the impressive level of civic activity in this young town, as well as Celebration’s surprising frequency of extended families (Lassell found one family with four generations in various parts of town).
It’s A Sprawl World, After All
The Human Cost of Unplanned Growth — and Visions of a Better Future
‘Cohousing’ bolsters new urban neighborhoods
An alternative to the solitary household finds a place in TND projects.
Orenco Station residents like
higher-density life
A survey finds social cohesion and above average use of transit among residents in the Hillsboro, Oregon, community.
More neighborliness, less driving in Canadian New Urbanism
New urban developments show lower automobile use, more walking, and higher levels of social activity and community satisfaction than corresponding suburban developments.
Residents walk in Orenco Station’s town center. Photo by Michael Mehaffy
Links
Study on Kentlands and community
Kentlands, a new urban project in Gaithersburg, Maryland, garnered high ratings in walkability, community attachment, social interaction, and community identity — four criteria that were assessed by a pair of academic researchers in a 1999 study.
A report on living in Kentlands
Particularly the description at the bottom of a day in the life of a 12-year-old boy.
"It'd be impossible to figure out if it was my daughter Angela's, my wife's or my life that changed the most," one Celebration resident told the Washington Post.
A marketing video with comments from residents of the new urban community in St. Charles, Missouri.
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