New Urbanism

Well, I'm back from my New Urbanism tour of the northeast, which led me
up I-81 from Knoxville, Tenn. to Ottawa, Ont. with stops in Martinsburg, W.
Va., Hagerstown, Md., Harrisburg, Pa., Scranton, Pa., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,
Binghamton, N.Y., Cortlandt, N.Y. (excellent raspberry-rhubarb pie!),
Syracuse, N.Y., Watertown, N.Y., etc. The side trip to Montreal was
interesting, as well, to visit Phyllis' enclave and check out the Nouvel
Urbanisme en route -- a la kilometers of billboard-sized "a louer" signs
along the entry to town.

To make this concise (being nearly 1:00 am) all the N. U. in the
world won't help a community that is dying economically thanks to
industries that have fled in search of low wages, tax incentives, free land
etc. Amazingly, there are still *people* - HRH's real live human subjects -
clinging to their homes and meager down-salaried service jobs at Hampton
Inn and Denny's. I saw Syracuse's N. U. downtown, with all its city
comforts,
about 10 years ago, freshly bricked and lamp posted. Today it looks kind of
decimated. Everyone's fled to the thrift shops or the shopping malls (not
very
nice ones, at that) or Atlanta. But (parts) of Atlanta look even worse.

Maybe it's all OK, and it was just the heat that made it look so hopeless.

John Young: good critique!