‘People are happier in a walkable neighborhood’: the US community that banned cars

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 04:40:38 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2023/oct/11/culdesac-car-free-neighborhood-tempe-arizona>

"If you were to imagine the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in
the modern US, it would be difficult to conceive such a thing sprouting from
the environs of Phoenix, Arizona – a sprawling, concrete incursion into a
brutal desert environment that is sometimes derided as the least sustainable
city in the country.

But it is here that such a neighborhood, called Culdesac, has taken root. On a
17-acre site that once contained a car body shop and some largely derelict
buildings, an unusual experiment has emerged that invites Americans to live in
a way that is rare outside of fleeting experiences of college, Disneyland or
trips to Europe: a walkable, human-scale community devoid of cars.

Culdesac ushered in its first 36 residents earlier this year and will
eventually house around 1,000 people when the full 760 units, arranged in two
and three-story buildings, are completed by 2025. In an almost startling
departure from the US norm, residents are provided no parking for cars and are
encouraged to get rid of them. The apartments are also mixed in with amenities,
such as a grocery store, restaurant, yoga studio and bicycle shop, that are
usually separated from housing by strict city zoning laws.

Neighborhoods of this ilk can be found in cities such as New York City and San
Francisco but are often prohibitively expensive due to their allure, as well as
stiff opposition to new apartment developments. The $170m Culdesac project
shows “we can build walkable neighborhoods successfully in the US in [the]
2020s,” according to Ryan Johnson, the 40-year-old who co-founded the company
with Jeff Berens, a former McKinsey consultant."

Via What Could Go Right? October 19, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/poland-election-results-tusk-opposition/

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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