Citydweller

Well , if it's a fad, it's one I've been participating in for 20 years If you look a little deeper than the ususal media reports (including NYTimes) you will find both a clear set of principles and many useful strategies that are being used all over the country in infill, brownfeild, greyfield and greenfield as an alternative to degradation and sprawl. There is at least another 30 years worth of work to undo the mistakes of the previous 50 years (I hope you are young). The best place to start is CNU.org and then follow their links. Things are changing, and while New Urbanism is applied imperfectly, it is of great worth in making positive change.

Do they have a name?

and who is the charrette manager......?

No - I'm Bill Dennis (www.bdennis.com) the team leader from Bay St Louis - but I was helping Robert this past week. It went very well, and people are excited about moving foward. I hope to have a charrette for Bay St Louis in Septemeber. And now for the real story....http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=5094899&nav=6DJI

None of these buildings show aqny sense of place, only of time. These are buildings that could be in Berlin, Houston or Singapore. If there are to be tall buildings in the core of London, then they need to work harder to be unique to London, especially at the ground level, where so far, all of them are very inhumane.

A weak effort by conventional planners and builders. Kaufman and Meeks is a firm that actually applied for (and got) a patent for alleys! (yea, they did that..) You can see the plan at http://www.toolbase.org/tertiaryT.asp?Docu...CategoryID=1093 One of the greatest dangers for New Urbanism is being done badly by people who don't care.

Don't forget the element of time (something which New Urbanism is critisized for, as in 'you can't build a real town all at once!') Time can bring greater density, more mix of incomes and use, greater connections to transportation, and certainly the patina of 'real' places. Look at photos of Boston's Back Bay or Nantucket, or New York City's Upper West side in the early days. The reason even New Urbanist greenfield projects are more than just suburbs is that it is possible to walk once you are there (and interesting enough to walk from your house to any transit), and there is usually the opportunity for retail, office, civic and mixed housing, even if it is sparse in the beginning. It can evolve and change - in a good way. The problem with the suburbs is they are inert - they will stay the way they are forever. And even if you arrived to them by light rail, there is no 'there' there once you arrive.

High-rises are not inevitable - the communities have a choice. Ocean Springs, Pass Christian, Bay St Louis and Waveland are all places that have great support for lower buildings. They don't mind density, but of a height that is appropraite to the special place that they are. Paris has density without the need for high-rises - some communities (like Bilioxi) will chose to overconcentrate their density on the beach, others will chose to spread the density in a morer walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income way.

Waveland did NOT approve this - the county did. Waveland and Bay St Louis are very much against this project and others like it. Density can be created without high rises.

Hi rises are inevitable in some parts of the coast - part of Biloxi and Gulfport especially. The other towns should fight to limit them as much as possible. Again, density can easily be increased to what high rises along the beach would bring, with better urban structure. In Biloxi and Gulfport (Gulfport especially) the is a chance to tame these beasts at least at the ground level and tie them to the downtown structure, particularly if us 90 is developed as a true boulevard. Biloxi may have already approved too many bad projects to be able to shape the towers and tme the ground floors, but I expect to be involved in a charrette with Stefanos Polyzoides in late April, so we shall see. In all cases, there are opportunities outside the hirise andcasino zone for mixed use walkable neighborhoods and town centers - that is the true hope of the coast.

This is simply about greed. The area in question is all wetland - which is open space that would have to be open space regardless. It is in the county, not Bay St. Louis, and won't ruin the character of the town. Bay St. Louis' character will be preserved - they will not allow high rises - but they do want approporiate density and mix-use. The high rise condo-ization and casino - ization will kill the special character of the coast and reduce the long term economic value

Unfortunately, Bradford McKee gets it wrong again. If you look at the full report - http://www.mississippirenewal.com/info/plansReports.html - the team recomended rebuilding Point Cadet as a neighborhood NOT as a golf course; there is no support for Casinos as usual - they must be integrated into a mixed use downtown; and an existing golf course has been redesigned as a mixed-use, mixed income neighborhood. We have asked the new York Time s to correct these errors and others, but unfortunately the wire services are compounding the misinformation. Oh, and New Urbanists have to work with existing communities all the time - we listen and incorporate what the community likes.

There is a grade change from Main Street and Beach Boulevard and the beach. The idea is to build under the rebuilt road as well as under the new businesses. The garage will be at level with the beach (or slightly above) but will be masked by an arcade that can have cafes and other seasonal businesses. There will also be parking on the street (head-in and parellel) as well as Park Once areas within blocks. The renderings and section is in the report.

I am the team leader for the Mississippi Renewal Plan for Bay St. Louis (just got back from there). It is extremely unlikely that anything over 50 feet in the downtown and over 35 feet elsewhere will be allowed by the mayor or the citizens, EXCEPT around Casino Magic, which is isolated from the town and to the north across marshlands. It is a great town filled with artsy interesting people and it will come back with its unique character.

[quote name='Jacob Norlund - KC