Oregon is experimenting with a new urban village in Orenco. Right now it's just a field of grass with a railway station. Is this planning, or fantasy?
Alan Ehrenhalt, executive editor of Governing magazine and author of "The Lost City" writes a New York times Op-Ed that Orenco is actually the latest in a string of closely watched New Urbanist experiments. In the 1980's, there was Seaside, the small Victorian re-creation on the north Florida Gulf Coast. In the late 1990's, there was Celebration, the Disney-backed traditional town built from scratch near Orlando. All told, there have been several dozen efforts in various parts of the country to establish or retrofit communities in a traditional direction, with walkable streets, downtown shopping, front porches and the numerous other accoutrements of New Urbanist values and ideas.
Thanks to Laura Krafft
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research