I recently
attended a meeting about a North Bay land-use project. As the group assembled and exchanged
greetings, one of the participants noted a copy of “The Smart Growth Manual” on
the table. He pointed to the name of
Andres Duany on the cover and made a derogatory comment about the size of
Duany’s ego. It seemed an odd comment,
especially from someone who claimed to share much of Duany’s philosophy, but
there was no opportunity to delve further.
Since then,
I’ve thought several times about the comment.
I can’t disagree with the factual assertion. Andres Duany is a notably egotistical human
being. I retain an image of Duany
wearing an unvented white tuxedo jacket and smoking a big cigar while leaning
against a wood fence at the concluding party after the 2013 annual meeting of the
Congress for the New Urbanism 21 (CNU 21). As a key founder of CNU and an aging lion of
the new urbanism movement, he was looking with pride over what he had wrought.
But as much
I agree that Duany has a giant ego, I can’t find a way to be disparaging about that
fact. To truly change the world requires
an idea whose time has come and the self-confidence to continually push the
idea even when much of the world isn’t interested in listening.
And Duany,
with his cohort of other new urbanists, truly is changing the world. The change is nowhere near complete, but the
tone of the land-use conversation has changed because of Duany and others. Which I think is a great thing.
Duany’s ego
and still fertile thinking were on full display in the plenary talk that he gave at CNU 21. Except a few Photoshop slides that he didn’t begin
showing until he was nearly an hour into his speech, the YouTube file is audio
only. I’ll understand if only a few
readers have the time or patience to listen to a 90-minute speech. But there are some remarkable ideas that will
reward the dedicated listener.
For those
who don’t have the time or attention span to listen, a few highlights are:
++ Because
the U.S., unlike Europe, still had areas of complete wilderness when the
environmentalism first arose, American environmentalism is fundamentally
different than other environmentalisms.
American environmentalism views every action by mankind as a negative,
while other environmentalisms acknowledge a place for human beings in the
environment. As a result, American environmentalism
is reaching a dead-end. CNU can lead a
way out of the dead-end by providing a role for human beings in the
environment. (Yeah, there’s a bit of ego
in that statement.)
++ LEED-ND (Neighbor
Development) may be technically accurate and valid, but if it doesn’t allow the
development of a new Charleston, South Carolina, then it’s fatally flawed.
++ Urbanism
is now a paradigm. Many people and firms
describe themselves relative to urbanism rather than relative to past land-use
paradigms.
++ The world
is excessively attached to high-tech solutions which are inherently
maintenance-intensive and unstable. It
will become increasingly difficult to live in a world dependent on
high-tech. A key part of the future will
be a reintroduction of low tech. CNU
owns low tech. A key role of CNU will be
to deliver a future in which the young can live.
++ The 21st century
began in 2008 with the collapse of the real estate bubble, the reaching of peak
oil, and the growing awareness of climate change. CNU has effective responses to all
three. The role of CNU will be to restore
idealism about the future.
As he heads
into his senior years, Duany remains a seminal figure. Absolutely egotistical and absolutely worthy
of attention.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
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