Social Engineering And Totalitarian Myth

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Myths
Steven Greenhut of the OC Register offers his thoughts on New Urbanism. In Greenhut's column, he claims that, "New Urbanists are reacting against the suburbanization of American society. In their world, selfish Americans abandoned the inner city, with its joyful mix of high-rise living and neighborhood stores, and took up residence in ugly, look-alike tract houses rimmed by Wal-Mart-encrusted strip malls. Suburbanization embodies everything they hate about our society: consumerism, automobiles, the triumph of low culture."

Reality
New Urbanist Phil Bess, Graduate Director of the School of Architecture, University of Notre Dame, responds to Greenhut's claims about New Urbanism's promotion of totalitarianism. He points out that, "New Urbanists promote traditional town planning and urban design in the context of a culture that is simultaneously both hostile—and, n.b., legally hostile—to traditional towns and city neighborhoods, but nevertheless is vaguely aware that something has gone terribly wrong with how we make our built environment."

Last edited by Johanna Nyden.   Page last modified on July 08, 2005