Detroit as it Was and as it Can Be: by Padriac Steinschneider

EDITOR'S NOTE:
This eloquent essay illustrates the mission of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) by using Detroit MI as an example of how disinvestment and then reinvestment can affect the trajectory of a city's story over time.

"We used to be a Nation of optimists and people who were willing to take the chance. In fact, Detroit was built by those people. After World War II, Detroit was heralded as one of the best cities in the world - and it was. 

What hurt Detroit was the Great Sprawl Experiment that began with Harry Truman's 1947 State of the Union Address, in which he promised to help everyone with the means the way out of the cities to live in nature able to get everywhere instantly in their automobile, and for those without the means, he promised to take care of them by destroying the neighborhoods in which they lived to be replaced with towers in the park. 

Luckily, the Great Recession helped bring that experiment to an end, and there is some hope that the damage done to the triple bottom line of the economy, environment, and culture did not bankrupt us all.

The Congress for the New Urbanism is all about reversing that disaster. CNU was created by a small group willing to take the chance of offering an alternative and, in the process, restoring value to our cities and communities. A frustration for some of us is that the earliest efforts were not within the existing cities, but instead engaged with greenfield development, but that was simply because it was there that the new ideas were able to be implemented and evolve. 

There was no mechanism in the 1980s to enable this group of believers to directly affect the most urban of areas in need of help. With great confidence, they persevered and, once their abilities to once again create great places and great urbanism had been demonstrated, they were finally able to start transforming the places like Detroit that were in such need. 

Before you assume that you understand what CNU is about, I recommend that you read the Charter, which is available on-line at www.cnu.org/charter. 

Its first sentence reads, "The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society's built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge."

We tend to expect too much too soon and the revitalization of Detroit into once again being one of the greatest cities in the world will not be easy and it will not happen overnight - but it is happening. There is still room for people to be part of it. Not convinced? I recommend that you come to CNU 24 in Detroit and see it for yourself."

Best Shopping Towns

It's so much fun to discover the ins and outs of a new town. Or to return to a favorite place and see what shops and restaurants are still there, new, or gone.
Way before the age of the blog, I've kept personal visual journals in my head of my favorite towns. What makes them the best? For me, it's walkability, beautiful surroundings, interesting unique local businesses, and the friends I make along the way.
Each one has become a sort of "home" town for me, and I look forward to adding new ones to the list.
For instance, Westhampton Beach, on the South Shore of Long Island, NY, is a Hampton that's often overlooked when people think of The Hamptons.

But it's long combined upscale shopping and dining with a simple, everyday life kind of atmosphere, and hosts one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It's also the closest Hampton to NYC, so the train or car commute gets you there much quicker.

Westfield, NJ , is considered one of the Best Towns to live in the U.S.


It artfully combines unique local shops and restaurants with upscale mall stores, which makes it a destination shopping and dining town for out-of-town visitors as well as locals. The street layout breaks out of the grid by featuring streets that open out on a diagonal, adding to the breezy feel of downtown.

Nestled along the east bank of the majestic Hudson River, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY , is one of the Rivertowns of lower Westchester County, NY.

It's a little village that time forgot, in terms of its quaint, walkable charm. Yet it's filled with commuters at the top levels of every profession, along with a large population of artists, writers, and musicians, who bring the sophistication and savvy of Manhattan to Hastings' cultural life. Along with the riverfront and its iconic views of the Palisades cliffs, Hastings-on-Hudson preserves a beautiful forest, called Hillside Woods, and the Old Croton Aqueduct, a linear park that runs through the town as it winds towards Croton-on-Hudson.


Sarasota, FL , is a cultural and geographical gem, curving graciously along the Gulf Coast of southwest Florida.

With over 7 live theaters, the world-class Ringling Museum of Art, several colleges, beaches famous for their crystalline sands and nightly sunsets, international dining, and dedication to providing a beautiful setting for every park, mall, and downtown street, Sarasota feels like a small town that calls itself a city.
In order to make some visual sense out of these wonderful towns, I've created a Blog for each one of them. If you want to see the updates as they happen, sign up to "follow" the towns you like the best. It's fun and it's free. Just go to Best Places to Shop & Walk to see the current list.
If you'd like to suggest a town for the Blog series, please enter it in the "comments" box to the right, and I'll add it to my list. Thanks!