Sunday, February 20, 2011

Retrofitting Car-Dependent Cities

New Urbanism for the Apocalypse (Fast Company, May 24, 2010)



(4 min You-Tube lecture, May 20, 2010)

Key Quotes:



Duany believes the metaphorical asteroid -- call it peak oil, climate change, the collapse of complex structures -- is on its way…America abounds with intentional communities -- golf course communities, equestrian ones, even the fly-in kind. So why not build one for locavores?”



“Agrarian urbanism.. is different from both urban agriculture (cities that are retrofitted to grow food) and agricultural urbanism (when an intentional community is built that is associated with a farm)…Agrarian urbanism is a society involved with the growing of food."

“they would have gardens instead of yards, or community gardens and window boxes if they choose to live in an apartment. Their commitment to "hand-tended agriculture" would be part of their legally binding agreement with the homeowners' association…. Instead of a strip mall in the town square, there's a "market square" comprised of green markets, restaurants, cooking schools, an agricultural university, and so on.”

“perhaps the next urbanism will be single-story buildings built on a cash (or barter?) basis, while jitneys and "bottom-up" forms of transportation will replace both cars and mass transit.”

"There's a reason we don't talk about population is because we're not going to do anything about it. There isn't going to be any protocols or policies. There will be the disasters and famines, and we don't how much social disorder will stem from that."
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