Design promotes social interaction

As of late 1998, only about 20,000 people live in new urbanist communities. The movement is still very young, yet strong anecdotal evidence suggests that the New Urbanism encourages social interaction to a far greater degree than conventional suburban development (CSD). The enhanced social activity is easy to observe in new urbanist projects with significant numbers of permanent residents, i.e. Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Celebration in Orlando, Florida, and Harbor Town in Memphis, Tennessee. Interviews with residents confirm these observations. A roundtable discussion of about 20 Kentlands residents in August,1998, yielded strong endorsements for the sociability of neotraditional design. Their responses are typical of comments from people who live in new urbanist neighborhoods. “There’s a very rich street life in Kentlands,” says Victor Macdonald. “I have a friend who says he rides his bike across the community and it takes him two hours, because he stops and talks to so many people. It’s not a great way to get exercise, but it is a great way to meet neighbors.” Hope Walker refers to the “unbelievable circles of friendships in Kentlands. We have book clubs, dinner clubs, a needlepoint society, coffee klatches — all kinds of things that people are doing together.” According to Eileen Schlichting, “what makes the difference is that the planning truly enables these bonds to form. You run into your neighbors on the street.” Clyde Horton, who, along with his wife Marian, was one of two African Americans in the group, reports that he was reluctant to move to Kentlands. “I felt it was too contrived, too Disney-like, too phony,” he says. “I moved in because my wife told me to. But when I moved here I hooked into some emotional need that I had. Now I am one of the strongest proponents.” Like many other residents, Horton grew up in a traditional neighborhood, but moved to suburbia. “I felt so pent up, but I didn’t know why.” When the discussion touched on religion (Kentlands has one church, and at least one other congregation meets in its elementary school), Horton comments that the town helps fulfill his spiritual needs informally. “I walk twice a day, and see the lake flowing and the little animals running around. The neighbors and the children playing are all part of my spirituality that plays itself out day in and day out.” The main flaws cited by residents coincide with the town’s failure to live up to some goals of the New Urbanism. Kentlands’ condominiums were criticized for not being well integrated with the rest of the housing. “It’s a big mistake to have all of the multifamily in one location — to have one section that looks like it doesn’t belong to the community,” says Faith Kusterer. “It’s one reason why you don’t have as much (civic) involvement” from residents of the condominiums. Another criticism is the lack of a pedestrian-oriented, commercial town center. But one is currently under construction, and it will add restaurants, shops, a skating rink, a large town square and other amenities. The fact that Kentlands is about 20 miles from downtown Washington, D.C. — a long commute in rush hour, was also criticized. “It’s a fabulous place for children,” says Schlichting, “If it were 15 minutes from downtown it would be nirvana.” Studying Celebration As young as the movement is, the New Urbanism is beginning to come under serious academic scrutiny. Andrew Ross, a cultural anthropologist and professor at New York University, spent a year in Disney’s neotradi-tional town of Celebration, which opened near Orlando in 1996. Ross is working on a book based on the experience. “It’s pretty undeniable,” Ross says, “ that social relationships are built on proximity and do arise from the physical design of the town. Nobody would attest differently in this town.” The intense social interaction in Celebration has its tradeoffs, however. “Many single women live in the town and think of the town as a kind of coparent,” says Ross. “The downside is that they also feel that their behavior comes under more scrutiny, being in a small town. Despite Celebration’s marketing focused on “community,” some residents keep to themselves. “That’s a good thing in many ways, because it suggests that people who value their privacy can live in a place like this quite comfortably.” In Celebration “it is impossible not to know your neighbors” within about a two block area, says Ross. “Up to 70 percent of the people I interviewed have lived in a community where they could not say that.” The downside of a “robust community” like Celebration is that it “plays into people’s anxieties and fears and ambitions; all of these things become more animated,” Ross explains. Developers surprised by social interaction Phil Pearson began developing Historic Kirkwood, a neotraditional extension to the existing town of Kirkland, Illinois, mainly for aesthetic reasons. In Pearson’s view, all the talk of creating “community” was a bunch of hokum. “I didn’t believe all the sociological aspects of the New Urbanism,” he says. That was then. Now Kirkwood is 25 to 30 percent complete, Pearson is a resident, and he is a believer. “My wife and I lived in a conventional subdivision of 50 homes for five years, and we knew two neighbors,” he says. “Now we know everybody. That could be because we’re the developers, but the other residents know everybody as well.” The proximity of the homes — to the street and to other homes — makes a difference. Tony Bologna, project manager of Harbor Town in Memphis, Tennessee, moved to the neotraditional development from Midtown, Memphis, an older neighborhood that Harbor Town emulates architecturally. The Bolognas knew about six families. Now he estimates they know 150. Why do TNDs seem to promote greater social interaction than many of the traditional neighborhoods they emulate? For one thing, perhaps sociable people, i.e. those looking for “community,” are moving to new urbanist projects. But another reason is that TNDs do not just accommodate community interaction, they are built to actively promote it. Streets are extremely walkable. Well-proportioned neighborhood greens and squares are more common in TNDs than in traditional urbanism. Front porches are ubiquitous. In a social sense, TNDs can be thought of as potent distillations of traditional neighborhoods.