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PROVIDENCE, June 1. We're off and running - and as usual, proudly, in all directions. Welcome to the expanding world of New Urbanism and to the largest Congress in the movement's history.
CNU XIV officially begins today with some 1,500 planners, architects, and others in attendance. The schedule of tours, seminars, councils, meetings, salons, and a party or two takes up 11 printed pages. (See complete schedule here.) Which suggests you don't have a prayer of processing all the information crowded into these four days.
So we're here for you.
Every day we'll try to bring coherence to the unfolding events. We'll report highlights from the day before and point to opportunities ahead. We'll try not to make you feel guilty about what you missed. But we may nudge you to pick up on an emerging thread.
One obvious thread is the Congress theme this year: Developing the New Urbanism. It's time, says Providence developer Buff Chace, chair of the CNU XIV host committee, for developers to reclaim places of honor in American civic life (see Buff's welcoming essay here).
The timing for talk about implementation strategies couldn't be better. New Urbanism has been grabbing headlines because of its performance in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. While some communities of the storm-ravaged region have remained stuck in the storms, unable to turn tentative ideas into real action, those working with New Urbanist teams are passing new ordinances and launching ambitious rebuilds. Gavin Smith, director of the Governor's Office of Recovery and Renewal in Mississippi will tell us on Saturday that, largely because of the New Urbanist effect, planning and design played greater roles in this latest recovery effort than in any other disaster aftermath in history.
Check in, too, with those who've been refining the SmartCode, the form-based zoning code built on the theory of the wilderness-to-urban-center Transect. What they learned in the storm zone over the last few months is likely to accelerate SmartCode implementation in communities across the nation.
Note, too, that New Urbanists are turning the volume up on the affordable housing debate. Watch this week for broad-ranging discussions on everything from the role of Katrina Cottages to inclusionary zoning in making communities more affordable for a wide range of incomes.
Lastly, don't forget to use this time to appreciate the breathtaking sweep of
the New Urbanist agenda. We really are running in all directions, across geographic
boundaries and backwards and forwards in time. We gather in an old city to talk
about new ideas that encompass farming on the urban edge, inner city redevelopment,
and everything in between. We're still young enough as a movement, barely a quarter-century
old, to enjoy access to the people who inspired New Urbanism's beginnings - including
keynoter Christopher Alexander and plenary speakers Leon Krier and Andres Duany.
Yet we're far enough along to encourage those who will advance the ideas in the
future - the NextGen professionals, who already have their own sessions and their
own agenda.
At Wednesday's Next Generation Congress, the young, hip, and, talented made impressive presentations, networked, and planned where New Urbanism will be in 30 years. For a full account, check out the meeting summary.
Welcome to Providence and to everything that is old and new about New Urbanism.
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