As BUZZ Builds in Denver, There's still time to register
for URbanism's Main event
package in Denver post says New Urbanist principles
"will dominate development patterns as we emerge from
the recession
With CNU 17 ready to kick off in Denver next
week, Denver Post columnist Susan Barnes-Gelt introduced
a great package of opinion essays in the paper's Sunday Perspectives
section, highlighting how much has changed since the last
time the Congress for the New Urbanism held its big annual
gathering in Denver.
In 1998, Stapleton airport was 7 square miles
of abandoned runways. Lakewood's Belmar neighborhood was
a dead shopping center. The Central Platte Valley was an
industrial floodplain behind downtown's historic Union Station.
Barely 1,000 people lived downtown and a surfeit of surface
parking lots — the detritus of failed urban renewal policies
— defined downtown.
Now, far from being eschewed as elitist, the
principles of new urbanism are not only widely accepted,
they also have become a recipe for survival.
 Read
Susan's
essay and those from fellow CNU 17 participants :
Norman Garrick: Stapleton,
Belmar redefine "community"
June Williamson: Denver
tops in retrofitting suburbia
Peter Calthorpe: The
Stapleton paradigm admirable
And if you have been too busy to register for
CNU 17 and its four urbanism-packed days, there's still time.
Registering only takes a few minutes. Do
it now.
02
Policies that perform
The CNU 17 agenda reforms transportation and housing to
deliver benefits we all need more than ever
If handled well, the reurbanization of America
won't be just a necessary response to crises in the economy,
energy sector, and the environment. It will reward Americans
with communities that provide more — more affordable transportation
costs, more value from their investment in their homes, more
convenient access to daily destinations, and a range of housing
types to serve the needs of an aging population (and younger
households as well). Through the  careful
application of the principles and strategies of New Urbanism,
the reurbanization will yield diverse, livable communities
full of valuable urban activity and humanizing parks and public
spaces.
The theme of accelerating a livable reurbanization
of America will be highlighted in Wednesday's opening
plenary and will weave through sessions and events across
the four days of the Congress. In particular, a set of sessions
will tackle strategies for aligning government policies with
new urbanist principles.
CNU 17 is your chance to help shape and advance
this agenda. Register and plan on attending the following
sessions:
“What we’re talking about is a vision for high-speed
rail in America…” (Thursday) The American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act: Dispatches from the Front Lines (Thursday)
CNU Legislative Strategy Session (Friday)
CNU and HUD: Opportunities for Innovation in Affordable Housing
(Friday)
New Urbanism and the Transportation Reauthorization (Saturday)
Read about
the CNU 17 agenda.
03
Master new urbanism's advantages with the movement's leaders
The Congress program offers four days of tours, experiences
and invaluable exchanges on the most relevant topics in the
world of development and planning
Learn how the CNU 17 program
can help make you better at what you do, whether the topic
is retrofitting
sprawl, urbanism
for a green recovery, sustainable
transportation networks, code
reform, or innovative
housing design. Read about speakers
led by Victor Dover, Carol Coletta, Peter Calthorpe, Elizabeth
Plater-Zyber, Mayor John Hickenlooper, Mayor Patrick McCrory
Ray Gindroz, John Norquist, and Leon and Rob Krier. Explore
CNU 17's exclusive up-close-and-personal, on-site learning
Experiences.
Check out Zerista,
the social networking site for all CNU 17 attendees that hundreds
are already using to connect, share ideas and make preparations
to meet up in Denver. CNU 17 attendees are using Twitter
and Facebook
to connect as well.
Here's the full
list of sessions, tours and experiences approved for continuing
education credits.
And Partner sessions — such as High-tech/High-Touch Charrettes
—build on the considerable expertise of those in the New Urbanism
Movement
Partner sessions offer specialized training
on urbanist topics such as Form-Based Coding, Sustainable
Urbanism, the Original Green from urbanists with extensive
expertise in these areas. Read about these
sessions.
A great example is "High-Tech/High-Touch
Charrettes: Facilitation Tools for Public Design Workshops."
This partner event on June 10, by the National Charrette Institute
and PlaceMatters, is a half-day guide to high-tech tools for
charrettes, the collaborative working meetings that serve
as the essential starting point for so much top new urbanist
planning and development. For the first time, NCI and PlaceMatters
will show how to use most advanced high-tech tools in charrettes.
Find out how visualization, computer mapping, and collaborative
networking tools can increase charrette productivity and community
involvement. Read more and register here
.
Don't miss CNU 17
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