Approximately 10 years ago, a group of architects and urban planners launched a movement aimed at countering suburban sprawl. Through their organization, Congress for the New Urbanism, the movement's leaders have promoted development patterns modeled on traditional, mixed-use, walkable towns as an antidote to sprawl and as a means to foster community. Their advocacy of and building of such places seems to have generated more public interest than any design movement in recent memory. But as with any new idea, the proof is in the pudding, that is, in the examples that have come out. The town is small and compact, permitting residents and visitors to walk to stores and other public places.
Streets are narrow to slow down vehicular traffic and encourage pedestrian use.
Houses are close together without the spacious front lawns that have become such a fetish in suburban communities. Instead, porches are positioned near the street, encouraging neighbors to interact in a way that suburbia's private, fenced-in backyards do not easily permit. The Truman Show , a film about a man who has spent his life in a vast stage set without realizing it. Not about the attractiveness of New Urbanist small communities, but about the power of the movement to have any significant impact on the problem of urban sprawl. Most New Urbanist communities, Altshuler points out, are themselves located in suburban areas, making them high-density pockets within the very suburban sprawl their creators criticize.