(cont)

Evidence that new urbanism does not address the issue of providing a place for lower income people is in the literature surrounding it. For instance, an article in the New York Times entitled “Why New Urbanism Isn’t for Everyone” discusses downfalls of these developments that include people wanting big back yards, swimming pools, and the desire to escape high density living” (Johnson). The article also discusses the inconveniences of the new urbanist lifestyle, such as increased walking and more emphasis on community oriented thinking. These are the moans of the rich and the lazy. Other problems include quarrels between residents. “Developers have found that residential, retail, and office users compete for parking, the essential columns in multi-story buildings interfere with an open-store layout used by retailers, and residents complain about noise from delivery trucks” (Gogoi). What is ignored in all this is that along with any new theory comes the need to work out problems that are only found when test of the theory are carried out, in this case when people inhabit the development. New urbanism demands for its residents to work collectively to solve these problems instead of people pointing out annoyances while doing nothing to change them. New urbanism is a design that is supposed to encourage community involvement and local mindedness, yet people who inhabit these developments seem to live partitioned off from one another. The focus of society, especially in (progressive and) planned communities needs to be taken away from individual wealth and status with those same values placed on a network of people. If people were spending a much higher percentage of their money within a mile or two from their residence they will be more likely to see that money spent benefiting both directly and indirectly. The beauty of new urbanism is not the architecture, but how people interact with one another within their social environment.

(cont)

“Social justice is a movement based on fair treatment of all people and a just share of the benefits of society” (www.wikipedia.org). This statement poignantly addresses the uneven distribution of wealth in today’s world and naturally demands that sustainability standards meet social requirements that include all citizens. A pattern in today’s society shows that city planning efforts heavily weigh the economic impact of possible uses for land. We have recently seen a housing boom that has concentrated on middle and upper class housing, and new urbanism developments are no different. New urbanism needs to remain loyal to the ideals of social justice to be considered a sustainable model of development that will be a viable option for planning future urban sites. I do not intend to dismiss new urbanism whatsoever, on the contrary, I am only analyzing this method to better understand the role of sustainable development in social organization. A major force influencing the role of new urbanism in a sustainable society is property values in the area of development. A problem with this is that these communities “offer no mechanism to ensure any stock - never mind an adequate, permanent stock - of affordable housing” (Roseland 143). If we wish to advertise the benefits of new urbanism to everyone we must be able to provide access to these developments for people of all income levels.

random 2.5 pages, not in order

Where Are The Poor in New Urbanism
New Urbanism has been touted as the sustainable development model for planning communities, but where are the poor in these developments? This community design does not address economic class for the people living there the way it addresses environmental issues wherever “there” happens to be. We need to accommodate an area that encompasses more than just mixed use; sustainable development calls for mixed users. If we planned all of our urban areas according to the New Urbanism model we would be forgetting a major part of the population and ignoring our duty to provide sustainably for all people. Sustainability protects the environment in a very complete manner, but environmentalism is not the primary purpose energizing this theory. The call for social justice is the bottom line in a sustainable world. Environmental justice is a complement to sustainable human society. Because this approach provides our species with the highest quality of life we strive to have a symbiotic, rather than a parasitic relationship with our home planet.

Ethics

I just read over the materials concerning the ethics of how one should respectfully use another person's comments, ideas, and identity for writing research papers. As a double major in anthropology I have read these and similar codes of ethics before and I am familiar with following these guidlines. I doubt that I will use other people in a face-to-face manner while conducting the research neccessary to complete my paper, if an oportunity arises where I will need to, though, I am prepared to treat them ethically, as laid out by these codes.

Bibliography (cont)

Shutkin, William A. The Land That Could Be: Environmentalism and
Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. MIT Press, Cambridge. 2000.

Thomlinson, Ralph. Urban Structure: The Social and Spatial Character of Cities.
Random House Publishing, New York. 1969.

Tringham, Ruth. Urban Settlements: The Process of Urbanization in
Archaeological Settlements. Warner Modular Publications,
Andover, MA. Book 5, 1973.

White, Richard. The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River.
Hill and Wang, New York. 1995.

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States 1492-Present.
HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 1980.

Bibliography (cont)

Kemmis, Daniel. Community and the Politics of Place. Oklahoma University
Press, Omaha, NE. 1990.

Merchant, Carolyn. Ecology: Key Concepts in Critical Theory. Humanity Books,
Amhurst, NY. 1994.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the
Future (1913). Dover Publications, Mineola, NY. 1997.

Olson, Steve. Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins.
Mariner Books, Boston. 2002.
Roberts, Paul. The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World. Mariner/
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston. 2004.

Van der Ryn, Sim and Stuart Cowan. Ecological Design. Island Press,
Washington, DC. 1996.

Sardar, Ziauddin. The Revenge of Athena: Science, Exploitation, & the Third
World. Mansell Publishing, London. 1988.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Perennial/ HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 2002.

Schor, Juliet B. and Betsy Taylor. Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-
First Century. Beacon Press, Boston. 2002.

Shiva, Vandana. Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. South End
Press, Cambridge, MA. 2002.

Bibliography

Works Cited

Armstrong, Jerome, and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Crashing the Gate: Net Roots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics. Chelsea Green Publishing Co, White River Junction, VT. 2006.

Bollens, John C. and Henry J. Schmandt. The Metropolis: It’s People, Politics,
and Economic Life. Harper & Row Publishing, New York. 1965.

Bunch, Roland. Two Ears of Corn: A Guide to People-Centered Agriculture
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Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia: A Novel. Bantam Books, New York. 1975.

Chang, K.C. Settlement Archaeology. National Press Books, Palo Alto, CA.
1968.

Chua, Amy. World On Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds
Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. Anchor Books, New York. 2003.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W.
Norton & Co., New York. 1997.

Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Penguin
Books, New York. 2005.

Gowlett, John A.J. Ascent To Civilization: The Archaeology of Early Humans. Roxby (McGraw-Hill) Publications, London. 1993.

Heinberg, Richard. The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial
Societies. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada. 2003.

Kellert, Stephen R. and Timothy J. Farnham. The Good in Nature and Humanity:
Connecting Science, Religion, and Spirituality with the Natural World.
Island Press, Washington, DC. 2002.

Abstract

i will have this posted on thursday when i better know the finer details about what i'm writing about

Paper Topic

Sustainable development is my concentration within the IDS Department, so naturally I would like to make that the focus and slant for the interpretations i derrive from the research sources i choose to include in my final draft. I do not wish to write a research paper, rather i intend to due substantial research to write an original scholarly paper on the topic of city development and sustainable city planning. My subject of interest within the realm of sustainable development is social justice and i would like to focus the goals that embody the principles of social justice in city planning, organiztion, and management. Since cities are expected to occupy 35% of the land area in the US by 2050, i would like to assess how sustainable theory and prctices can be applied to city design and a nation that is spotted with urban centers. To complete this i will i will need to lightly touch on many topics while going into more depth about only a few. I will decide which topics will consume the majority of my time as the paper develops thorugh out the semester. The topics I intend to evaulate will range from energy consumption to Economics to Forest Management to Architecture to Agriculture to Social Issues and so on. I would like to create a theory that will create a socially just and ecologically sound idea for city planning. I would like to discuss this in the body of my paper and discuss relevant issues such a a city that has followed a pattern of Smart Growth, New Urbanism, or other sustainable planning initiatives as a case study within the paper as well.

a past paper

i read anne furr's senior project about ------- i also looked at ----------- project about ---------- because he/she wrote a dual paper for an anthropology and an ids paper project. i read these because i thoght they would give me the best insight about what i should do to complete my paper in the best possible manner. reading a past paper that recieved a good grade helped me understand what it is that i should expect to do to suficiently complete this paper. this helped me with organization, citation, layout, and structure.

about me

hi, i'm bob kollm. i started at app state in 2002 to participate in the watauga college program. throughout my studies here i have become very interested in sustainable development issues mainly in the realm of social justice. i have a second major in anthropology with a concentration in sustainable development, so i have been exposed to many issues dealing with inequality all over the world. one of the most startling things to me is the affect of our american lifestyle on a large portion of the rest of the world, especially in the global south. i have recently taken up an interest in economics and i believe that solutions to change this trend that will have the quickest results will come through this sector of everyday life. there is much to do and i am hoping to have a role to play for the good of mankind.