Ruth Walker's blog

New Urbanists are going to have to be part of the effort to shrink America's carbon footprint, reduce VMT, and hold the line on climate change. But they're going to have to do it without talking about carbon, VMT, or climate change.

Now is the time to quantify the advantages of New Urbanism. "Numbers matter," Peter Calthorpe told the CNU17 morning plenary on "The Green Dividend Friday.

Architecture is not psychotherapy! That was one of the first points made during the CNU17 session on "Meta-Physical Planning: the World We Want." But the people who took part quickly got into issues of intimacy and spirituality, of masculinity and femininity.

But then the conversation moved to the question of

Here's a change New Urbanists can believe in: The new stimulus program gives 40 percent of the transportation money to rail, and only 60 percent to highways. This is a real shift

Even if they stopped building sprawl tomorrow, it will still be with us for decades. "We have to live with it."

"You really need to know who you’re speaking to."

The climate change discussion always makes Lizz Plater-Zyberk think of two different aphorisms, she said Wednesday during the DPZ pre-Congress workshop on "Settlements for the 21st Century."

CNU may soon be launching a new initiative if a show-of-hands vote taken during one of the Saturday afternoon breakout sessions is any indication.

A lot of dark clouds hang over the real estate market right now. But for astute New Urbanists, there's an abundance of silver linings too.

The "Mystique of Technique" and Other Tales of the Transect

Jottings from the session with Andrés Duany on "Green Solutions Along the Transect":