Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
main street shopping district has seen considerable turnover and vacant premises.
In some cases, formerly upscale stores have disappeared to be replaced by cheap
'dollar stores'. So critics suggest that NU in North America has failed to understand
the continental consumer mind set, where shopping behaviours are more regionally
oriented and preferences centre around large malls and increasingly around big box
store power centres than local community shops (Jones and Simmons
1987
; Steiner
1998
). However in the rather unique Quarry Park example there are considerable
employment opportunities, but since the development is still under construction it is
not yet known whether a large proportion of the workers in the adjacent offices will
choose to live in the community. Preliminary queries about the housing construction
in the area suggests that some entry-level detached single-family homes are priced
at well above the city average, so it is quite likely that there will be affordability
barriers to a large proportion of the office workers. It remains to be seen whether
multi-family apartments and condominiums, which will eventually comprise the
majority of the housing stock in Quarry Park, will increase affordability relative to
other areas.
2.7.3
Nostalgia
New Urbanists insist that the way forward for more liveable areas is to look to the
past for inspiration, to historical European towns and small towns in North America
to create what amount to nostalgic town scapes. In these places the urban communi-
ty was at a more human scale, environments were highly pedestrianized, residential
and retail/commercial functions as well as land uses and houses were mixed, and
the social fabric was more diverse and more authentic. This vocabulary of a 'time-
less ways of building', the pattern language of urbanism (Alexander et al.
1977
),
and authentic urbanism, lies behind much of the way in which TND attempts,
through designs and codes, to emulate the past. However, critics argue that the NU
approaches have a distorted and misplaced view of the past, and rather than a time-
less way of building, the planners and developers have adopted a selective look at
history, choosing only those features that seem to be saleable or commodifiable
in 'catchy packaging' (Grant
2006
; McCann
1995
; Till
1993
; Thompson-Fawcett
1996
; Knox
1992
). However New Urbanists generally insist that the aesthetic and
architectural codes of such developments should be sensitive to local tradition and
vernacular architecture. Yet many of these references to tradition or the vernacular
are either selective, or fabrications. In some cases these developments begin with
a thematic history that is artificial, with invented family histories and regional nar-
ratives (Till
1993
)—what Frantz and Collins call a form of 'Disneyesque imagi-
neering' (
1999
)—and represent little more than a nostalgic imagination based on
what amounts to retrogressive sentimentality. Some also criticize the historical or
reference points as being elitist; traditions and design traits are often defined by
historical communities populated by those of higher incomes. The same arguments
have been applied to the architecture within many NU developments, with some
