New Urbanism and the Agrarian Ideal

I have been in a dialoguewith Trevor from "Of Kirk and Ale" regarding some land/tax/economic issues. Trevor has some interesting ideas, although I can't say that I would agree with all of them. Of Kirk and Ale was where I first heard of New Urbanism. From Wikipedia:

New urbanist neighborhoods are walkable, and are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs. New urbanists support regional planning for open space, appropriate architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing. They believe these strategies are the best way to reduce the time people spend in traffic, to increase the supply of affordable housing, and to rein in urban sprawl. Many other issues, such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the renovation of brownfield land are also covered in the Charter of the New Urbanism, the movement's seminal document. Because new urbanist designs include many of the features (like mixed use and emphasis on walkability) which characterized urban areas in the pre-automobile age, the movement is sometimes known as Traditional neighborhood design.

and

1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at this center.
2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of roughly 2,000 feet.
3. There are a variety of dwelling types-usually houses, rowhouses and apartments-so that younger and older people, singles and families, the poor and the wealthy may find places to live.
4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.
5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, office or craft workshop).
6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their home.
7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling-not more than a tenth of a mile away.
8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination.
9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic, creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
10. Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a well-defined outdoor room.
11. Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
12. Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.
13. The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change. Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.
(can you quote that much from Wikipedia?)

This concept is very appealing to me, in a reserved way. I think New Urbanism and Agrarianism could easily go hand-in-hand. The fact is that the country needs the city and the city needs the country. Besides, you can be an Urban Agrarian. The ways in which these two systems could compliment themselves, and I will leave it to you to discover the possibilities. I think the ideal agrarian/urban relationship is one in which the city is dependent on the immediate surrounding land to provide the food for its urban residents. This means that the farmers always have a hungry market, and everything is local (yay!)

I am especially interested in the way the parish system could work in New Urbanism. It seems particularly well-suited for implementing a parish system and I would be tempted to see if it would work. 

¶ 4/26/2006 07:48:00 AM