Daybreak - Part I (New Urbanism Rant)

I recently had the opportunity to visit some people in South Jordan, Utah. South Jordan is home to a new development in the “New Urbanist” style - Daybreak. New Urbanism is (my definition coming) the idea that current social and enviromental problems can be solved if we remake our cities into what they used to be. New Urbanism hearken’s back to the time when we all walked and is rooted in nostalgia for a times and places that probably never exististed. Part I is more about new urbanism than it is about Daybreak specifically. Part II (and will I get to Part III) will be about the development specifically and even maybe a house plan.

Before I get too far along, I should probably say that I was initially enamoured with New Urbanism. I saw Peter Calthorpe lecture about it…I bought the book. I ate it up. But, something would keep me awake at night about it..and I could never quite figure out what that might be. Something wasn’t quite right. That something is really a few somethings. The first something is that it really came down to a few people telling everyone else how we should develop our land. They know better… The second thing that started to bother me was that all of the new urbanist designs were are traditional. Now, I can certainly appreciate “traditional” architecture. But “new” traditional always leaves something to be desired. Most “modern” traditional designs don’t understand the rules of classical architecture. What we’re left with are designs that are out of proportion and out of context. The new urbanists always said that “style” wasn’t part of new urbanism, but almost every example ever shown was in a “traditional” style. Finally, what really got me was that the idea won’t live up to the promise. The idea was based on nostalgia for a time and place that never exististed. It’s based on Mayberry. Mayberry is a fictional TV town that never was…so let’s design our cities and towns based on fantasy.

If you click on the new urbanism link, it’ll take you to the website for the Congress of New Urbanism. The home page has 10 “solutions” for what ales the earth. Unfortunately, most of these are based on socialist ideas and don’t account for market forces. Much of what they do is because they’re fearful of global warming (see climateaudit.org for some very detailed, technical information about the math and data behind the “anthroprogenic global warming” debate). New Urbanists are really “new socialists.” And, as socialists, they do not understand that market forces will always win over centralized planning.

Almost every New Urbanist project starts out with the idea that it will have diversity. Diversity is the Word. Diversity of races, incomes, businesses (but not really), transportation (as long as automobiles aren’t included). But what happens is that the places become desireable…and when that happens the costs go up. With costs that go up the diversity of incomes (and usually races) goes down. Since almost all new urbanist developments are privately funded they are designed to make money. If land prices and rents go up, then that’s great for the developers. A few of them manage to attract public financing for low income housing, but those places become very desireable, too…and difficult to get into. New urbanism just does not account for natural human behavior.

Part II - Daybreak isn’t a new urbanist community (but they like to think they are!)