Historical Amnesia: New urbanism and the city of tomorrow

Journal of Planning History

Volumn 6, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 191-213

  Saab, A Joan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER   (United States)

Author keywords

New Urbanism; nostalgia; planning history

Indexed keywords

EID: 84993726016     PISSN: 15385132     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1538513206296409     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. This spring (2006), the Rochester Regional Design Center (RRCDC), “a group of design professionals, planners and citizens with a shared interest in defining, promoting and helping to implement design excellence and sustainability as outlined in the ‘Charter of the Congress for the New Urbanization’ and ‘AIA Livable Communities Doctrine,’ ” is sponsoring a series of lectures that look specifically at the relationship between urban planning and sprawl in Western New York. Among the invited lecturers are John Norquist; James Kunstler; Charleston, South Carolina, Mayor Joseph Riley; and the former mayor of Honolulu, Jeremy Harris. For more on the RRCDC and its lecture series, see its Web site: http://www.rrcdc.org/. In the spirit of full disclosure, I oversee a number of student internships at the RRCDC and, despite some of my critiques in this article, am fully committed to their project.
2. Definitions of “community” vary among historians. Drawing upon the work of German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies, Thomas Bender defines community as “an aggregate of people who share a common interest in a particular locality.” He builds upon Tönnies's distinction between the Gemeinschaft (communal society) and the Gesellschaft (associational society), asserting that “communities cannot be studied in isolation.” Thomas Bender, Community and Social Change in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1978), 5. For historian John D'Emillio, however, communities need not be site-specific. In Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), he explores the mobilization of an “allegedly hidden constituency” across space and time based on individual and group identity formation (p. 2). There is also a wealth of contemporary literature that decries the loss of community in contemporary America. See, for example, Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000). All of these models are nostalgic for a time before, when [imaginary] communities thrived. Another strain of theorizing the notion of community presents the very concept as untenable. See, for example, Maurice Blanchot, The Unavowable Community (Barrytown, NY: Station Hill, February 1988); and Jean Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991).
3. This definition of the New Urbanism comes from www.newurbancommunities.com, September 25, 2003. For a more thorough outline of the New Urbanist project, see Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (New York: North Point Press, 2000); Andrew Ross, The Celebration Chronicles ( New York: Ballantine, 1999); Dean Maccannel, “ ‘New Urbanism’ and Its Discontents,” in Giving Ground, ed. Joan Copjec and Michael Sorkin (New York: Verso, 1999), 106-30; Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton, The Regional City (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2001); Joel Garreau, Edge City (New York : Doubleday, 1991); and Dolores Hayden, Building Suburbia (New York: Pantheon, 2003), in particular Part Three, “ The Next Suburbs,” 201-48. John Archer places contemporary New Urbanist developments within an interesting historical framework dating back to seventeenth-century English villas in his recent book, Architecture and Suburbia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005).
4. For more on the etymology of the term nostalgia, see Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, 2001), xiii. Also see Peter Fritzsche's excellent study, Stranded in the Present: Modern Times and the Melancholy of History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004). Fritzsche compellingly argues that the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars mark a break in popular thinking about time, positing nostalgia and a melancholy yearning for a shared past as marking the emergence of a “modern” consciousness. He writes that nostalgia is “a product of shared historical consciousness of general displacement that is able to make parochial misfortunes and individual losses socially meaningful. It provides to lonesome strangers a common refuge in history, even while it says their losses are irreversible” (pp. 64-65).
5. Jackson Lears, “Looking Backwards: In Defense of Nostalgia,” Lingua Franca, December/January 1998, pp. 59-66.
6. Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory (New York: Knopf, 1991), 688.
7. Lears, “Looking Backwards,” 66.
8. Nancy Martha West, Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000).
9. See, for example, the promotional material for the Seaside Institute's seminar, “New Urbanism in Charlotte: The Legacy of John Nolen,” September 7-10, 2005, www.theseasideinstitute.org, which states, “Today Charlotte is perhaps American leader in New Urbanism projects…. Tours and work-shops will explore First Ward and Gateway Village in the center city, suburban live-work retail at Birkdale village, and new towns at Baxter and Vermillion—inspiring, practical lesions connecting old and new urban design.” Baxter is also prominently featured in Carolina Living's list of New Urban Communities. The caption under a photo of a woman handing out cookies from her porch reads, “Stop and Chat with your neighbor. New Urban design promotes community at Baxter Village in Fort Mill, South Carolina” (Carolina Living, Brochure, 2006).
10. New Urbanism is not a uniform project. I will address other varieties, notably the HOPE VI urban-infill projects taking place in Chicago, later in this article.
11. Schools have become a major site of contestation in many New Urbanist communities. For example, many residents of Celebration, Florida, were drawn to the town because of its progressive schools. Once they realized that this meant open classrooms and unstructured environments, however, many had second thoughts. See Ross, Celebration Chronicles, for a full account of this.
12. The idea of the panoptic house comes from Dean Maccannel, “New Urbanism and Its Discontents,” in Giving Ground, ed. Joan Copjec and Michael Sorkin (New York: Verso, 1999), 106-30. To further compound this idea, surveillance cameras are often part of the security of shared “public” areas, and for a bit extra, they can be built directly into the homes as well. For more on the idea of a “dream house,” see Archer, Architecture and Suburbia, particularly his conclusion where he writes, “The simplistic notion of a dream house as a ready to move-in commodity package not only masks the larger ideological contexts that are in play, it also denies the complexities of domestic life” (p. 350).
13. Lauren Berlant, The Queen of American Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), 5.
14. For more on American Utopian movements and the built environment, see Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias (New York: Basic Books, 1987); Robert Fishman, Urban Utopias (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982); and Dolores Hayden, Seven American Utopias ( Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1976). 15. Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck, 59.
15. Their idea of community is tied directly to concrete spaces. They continue, “Those who believe that Internet websites and chat rooms are effective substitutes vastly underestimate the distinction between a computer monitor and the human body. Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck, 60. 17. Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck, 107.
16. Community is a slippery term, yet it is loaded with social and cultural resonances. As Andrew Ross writes in Celebration Chronicles, “Community is one of the most emotionally ubiquitous and versatile touchstones of American life. As a result, it is one of the more overused words in our daily lexicon, relentlessly mined for all sorts of social, religious, and commercial purposes, and in most instances no more meaningful than a sugary advertising cliché” (p. 219).
17. Duany, Plater-Zyberk, and Speck, 107.
18. I discuss the 1939 New York World's Fair in much more detail in my book, For the Millions (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004). For more on the history of the Fair, see also Donald Bush, The Streamlined Decade (New York: G. Braziller, 1975); Robert Caro, The Power Broker; Paul Greenhalagh, Ephemeral Vistas (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1988); Martin Greif, Depression Modern (New York: Universe Books, 1975); Frank Monaghan, The Official History of the Fair (New York: Britannica, 1937); Robert Rydel, The World of Fairs ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993); and Terry Smith, Making the Modern ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
19. Lewis Mumford, as quoted in Joseph P. Cusker, “The World of Tomorrow: Science, Culture, and Community at the New York World's Fair,” in Dawn of a New Day: The New York World's Fair, 1939/40 ( Flushing, N.Y.: Queens Museum), p. 4.
20. Telecommuting plays an increasingly important role in Smart Growth and New Urbanism literature. For more on this, see Robert Atkinson, “The Rise of the Information-Age Metropolis,” The Futurist, July-August 1996, pp. 41-46; and J. Niles, Beyond Telecommuting: A New Paradigm for the Effect of Telecommunications on Travel, DOE/ER-0626 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy, September 1994).
21. In her recent book, A Consumer's Repu
22. blic, Lizabeth Cohen traces the emergence of what she calls the “landscape of consumption” and the creation of a “Consumer's Republic ” in postwar America. For Cohen, in the years following the Great Depression attaining the American dream of economic prosperity became a basic component of American citizenship. Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumer's Republic (New York: Knopf, 2003).
23. Futurama voiceover. Reprinted in General Motor's promotional booklet, in the collection of the author.
24. For more on Robert Moses's plans for creating a “motor-age metropolis” see Robert Caro, Power Broker; and Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air ( New York: Penguin, 1983).
25. The literature on the growth of the suburbs in the United States is vast. See Kenneth Jackson, The Crabgrass Frontier ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Herbert Gans, The Levittowners (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982); John Stilgoe, Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988); Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias; Gwendolyn Wright, Moralism and the Modern Home (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980); Gwendolyn Wright, Building the Dream( New York: Pantheon, 1981); and John Palen, The Suburbs (New York : McGraw Hill, 1995).
26. The entire mission statement is available at Mediaarts.com. To copy material from the site, one must sign an oath promising to use the information only in ways that reflect favorably on Kinkade and Media Arts. I did not agree to the conditions. The images included here come from eBay, where there is a thriving market for Kinkade's work. The text that accompanied this image reads,
27. Thomas Kinkade, Hometown Morning (Studio Proof). This beautifully framed, canvas painting measures 25.5” x 34” and is in the very rare Studio Proof (S/P) edition. I have spoken to several Kinkade Galleries across the country and some have been asking over $9,000 for this painting! The Studio Proof is the very special edition which Thom has personally hand sketched with an artist's pencil his trademark lightpost image. He has also personally highlighted a portion of the paint of the front of the painting. Only a very limited quantity of these were ever produced and released by Thom. Certificate of limitation and authenticity included. Shipping, packaging and insurance within the lower 48 states is $55. Please email me with any further questions at berkeleyart@aol.com. Please visit my eBay Store to view more great deals on artwork! Thank you.
28. Janelle Brown, “Ticky-tacky Houses from ‘The Painter of Light™’ ” http://salon.com/mwt/style/2002/03/18/kinkade_village/print.html.
29. Berlant, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City, 4.
30. On the history of public housing in Chicago, see Arnold Hirsch, The Making of the Second Ghetto (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). The most recent issue of the Journal of Urban History is devoted to reconsidering the Second Ghetto thesis. In 1942 the Cabrini site was known as “Little Sicily,” because it housed a large portion of Chicago's Italian-American community. By 1962, when the William Green Homes were added to the site, Cabrini Green was one of the largest properties in the Chicago Housing Authority's inventory, with a mostly African American residential population.
31. For more on the history of the Chicago Housing Authority, see its Web site, www.thecha.org. There are ample critiques of the plan. For example, see “Kicked Out,” Socialist Worker, June 7, 2002, pp. 6-7.
32. For the most comprehensive and even-handed treatment of HOPE VI, see Susan J. Popkin, Bruce Katz, Mary K. Cunningham, Karen D. Brown, Jeremy Gustafson, and Margery A. Turner, A DECADE OF HOPE VI: Research Findings and Policy Challenges (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, May 2004). For more on the links between New Urbanism and Hope VI, see Janet L. Smith, “HOPE VI and New Urbanism,” http://www.plannersnetwork.org/publications/2002_152_spring/smith. For more on the specifics of the Chicago Project, see the HUD news release at http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr01-090.cfm.
33. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60II/main532704.shtml.
34. The Cabrini Towers repeatedly have been represented as the ultimate source of urban blight. See for example, the award-wining documentary Hoop Dreams as well as the horror film Candyman. In adapting Clive Barker's short story, “The Forgiven,” to the screen, director Bernard Rose, transferred the action from the United Kingdom to Cabrini Green. The projects are represented as a horrific danger zone.
35. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60II/main532704.shtml.
36. Widespread displacement of public housing residents is one of the primary weaknesses of the HOPE VI projects. For example, in their comprehensive report on the first ten years of the HOPE VI projects, the Urban Institute advocated for the “continuation of the HOPE VI approach as a means of improving outcomes for distressed developments, residents, and neighborhoods” (p. 52) but concluded, “While acknowledging the HOPE VI's important successes it is also necessary to recognize where the program needs to be improved. Our review of the evidence indicates that the most serious problems have involved the relocation of the original residents” (pp. 49-52). Susan J. Popkin, Bruce Katz, Mary K. Cunningham, Karen D. Brown, Jeremy Gustafson, and Margery A. Turner, A Decade of HOPE VI: Research Findings and Policy Challenges (Washington, DC: The Urban Institute, May 2004).
37. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60ll/main532704.shtml.
38. Candace Howell, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60II/main532704.shtml.
39. Mary Schmich, “ Ex-Residents Slow to Accept Reborn Cabrini Community,” Chicago Tribune, February 27, 2001.
40. Howell, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/11/60II/main532704.shtml.
41. Quoted in Schmich, “Ex-Residents Slow to Accept Reborn Cabrini Community.”
42. For more on the lawsuits, see the articles on the Web site wethepeople.com, a Web site and newsletter developed and maintained by present and former tenants in Chicago's Public Housing. See also “Kicked Out.”
43. See, for example, the video Voices of Cabrini and the excerpts on http://www.gettogurl.com.
44. Vicki Foxx, as quoted in Jodi Wilgoren, “Hundreds Face Street as Chicago Housing Project Nears Demolition,” New York Times, August 7, 2003.
45. Popkin et al., A DECADE OF HOPE, 50.
46. Smith, “HOPE VI and New Urbanism,” 2.