Discoveringnewurbanism's Blog

Came across this great Ford Ad from the 50’s.  Watch and then read on…

Ok, now that you have watched let’s review. Below is an excerpt from the Ad:

‘… Like so many people these days we live in the suburbs and Dave needs the car everyday for business. When he was gone I was practically a prisoner in my own home.  I couldn’t get out to see my friends, couldn’t take part in the PTA activities, well I couldn’t even shop when I wanted to. I had to wait until Thursday night after Dave brought the car home. But that’s all changed now. Three weeks ago we bought another Ford: the new, low priced, Customline Victoria . . . It’s a whole new way of life! Now I’m free to go anywhere, do anything, see anybody anytime I want to. It’s just good common sense…’

Let’s take a look at the underlined areas:

‘Like so many…we live in the suburbs…When he (Dave) was gone I was practically a prisoner in my own home’  – How ironic that Ford points out how isolating the suburbs are when they themselves were a big reason and proponent of the suburbs.

‘I couldn’t get out to see my friends, couldn’t take part in the PTA activities, well I couldn’t even shop when I wanted to.’  Great!  Here it is only the 1950’s and Ford has discovered & identified the major problems with living in sprawl!  Now the problem can be solved…time to bring back Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND)???????

Nope. So their solution of course is . . . ‘But that’s all changed now. Three weeks ago we bought another Ford:…It’s a whole new way of life! Now I’m free…It’s just good common sense’

It’s taken 60 some years but thankfully just good common sense is returning with more sustainable, walkable, compact, diverse, transit oriented Neighborhoods, Towns, & Cities.

Let’s skip all the technical, historical, & philosophical jargon and get right to it with this simple, fun, catchy, & informative video from the perspective of a ‘Generation Y (Millennial)‘ student . . .

A question generated from my previous Post ‘Some thoughts on what it means to live in a New Urbanism Environment’  

As I have mentioned before I am currently living in Santiago, Chile and have found to date very few interested in the principles of New Urbanism.  And have been discouraged with all the development happening here not to see New Urbanism principles integrated but rather our USA type zoning and sprawl methods.

So I was encouraged to see in the TED video (by Hazel Borys) from my last post at 11:57 into the video a google map with a solo little yellow google map marker located in Chile marking one of the places around the world where form based codes are in the works.

Now my question is what city is this in Chile? The marker indicates a city in northern Chile.  This map appears to be part of the Code Study recently developed by Hazel Borys & Emily Talen.  To see if I could find out what city this was I went to the Code Study itself online.  But could not find it.  So I will now give a shot at sending an e-mail to both Hazel Borys & Emily Talen and see if I get a response . . .

Here is a recent TED talk by Hazel Borys, Principle, Managing Director of Placemakers. Hazel does a great job in a short period of time, 17 minutes, pointing out some of the important principles behind New Urbanism/Smart Growth.

Hazel touches on several important areas that would be good to understand in further detail.  Below I have listed out some of those areas with corresponding links for further understanding:

• Mixed use
• 5 minute walking radius that forms the neighborhood,
• Form Base Design
• The Smart Code
• Complete Streets
• Transect Zones