Planning the Good Community: New Urbanism in Theory and Practice (review)

Unlike many others, Jill Grant began her career in anthropology and migrated to the planning field in an effort to solve some of the socio-economic problems (e.g., inequality and sustainability or powerlessness in cities) she observed. Her work history and interests span different locales in Canada from the United States border to the Arctic and in Asia from Papua New Guinea to Japan. She has exhibited a long interest in the values and core ideals planners bring to their work and her current book, Planning the Good Community: New Urbanism in Theory and Practice is an examination of the values and ideals of the New Urbanists in Europe, Asia (specifically Japan), and North America.

Exposing the subtle irony of New Urbanism is a recurring theme and an initial reading brings to mind a recent television commercial selling plumbing fixtures: picture a wealthy, 40ish couple, smartly dressed and seated across a multi-thousand dollar glass desk from the head of a large and successful architectural firm. The architect is quite the artist, with the obligatory collarless shirt and ponytail, hands steepled in deep thought as he prepares to respond to his new customer's request. If you have seen this Moen Faucets commercial, in which the rich clients commission an iconoclastic architect to design a new home around one of Moen's new faucets, then you will readily understand Jill Grant's deconstruction of the New Urbanism movement. Her book is divided into three sections containing a total of nine chapters. Section one critically examines the rise of new urban approaches that led to the New Urbanism movement followed by an in-depth discussion on New Urbanism in practice, providing case studies from the US, Canada, Europe and Asia in section two. In the third section Grant included few chapters, which offer future prospects for the New Urbanism by incorporating practice and theory.

As expected, Grant started her book by repeating the historical, conceptual and principles background information of New Urbanism. Her first table lays out the key values of planning in modern planning movements, and she lists all the past and current popular buzz words: garden city, neighborhood planning, healthy communities, sustainable development, New Urbanism, urban villages and the newest buzz word, smart growth (p 21). The buzzwords set the stage for an examination of what often goes wrong in planning. Whether it is planning development in new communities or planning military battles, the inevitable problem arises: the dichotomy between the tactic of choice and the applicability and potential success of the overall plan. Prussian General Helmut von Multke (New York Post 2008) compressed this dichotomy with his famous quote "no battle plan survives contact with the enemy." Peaceable municipal planners need only substitute "developers," "politicians," "media" and/or "economics" for Multke's enemy.

George Orwell (1948), who coined the term "newspeak," and Robert Moses (Kaufman 1975), the Planning Czar of New York City, must chuckle from beyond the grave at this example of covering word-smithing with the fig leave of planning for the public interest. The mantra hits all the key words. The bad to be avoided is disinvestments, sprawl, separation by race and income, and social and economic problems. The good is to introduce is economic vitality, community stability, and environmental health. Three of four key ideals are nearly mutually exclusive: the community should be diverse (yet the new community is too pricey for middle and lower income residents and poor residents are being displaced). Pedestrian travel, transit and cars must be accommodated (hopefully not all in same space, otherwise someone might get hurt). Common space brings the neighborhood or town together. Finally, local design must be supported (is that the English Village in Southern California or the New York Row Houses along the Florida Coast?). Grant's deft dissection of these diametrically opposed goals makes any attempt at describing them a crude bludgeoning.

It is no doubt...