You have to also consider how much free time people have. Are those out on the plaza playing chess the retirees or the wage earner? Time is such a precious commodity that cocooning – where people spend more of their time indoors – contributes to in-home theatres and fancy furniture in preference to outdoor activities.

Yet another good book: “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” by William Hollingsworth Whyte. While its main focus is on plazas, parks and other kinds of public spaces, the ruminations on urban design in general and how it contributes to a sense of community are excellent and worthy of serious consideration.

Another good book on the subject: Jane Jacobs, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.”

Last night, I was walking around New York. In the course of two hours, I ran into four friends — one was walking home from the grocery store, one was waiting outside a bar for a friend to arrive, one was on a date at an outdoor cafe, and one was on her way to get a haircut.

That sort of thing can only happen in a city that’s designed for pedestrians. It’s pretty hard to meet people and establish a community at 50 mph.

A great — if depressing — read: “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream”
by Andres Duany.

Here are some decent links on the death of civic life in america:

http://architecture.about.com/library/weekly/aa042699.htm

http://architecture.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://user.gru.net/domz/duany.htm

http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-urbanism-sn.htm

So, what does technology offer us? Has the virtual town center ever come to pass or are we doomed to isolation when I can work from home, shop from home and even attend class… um, from home?

If you want to lay the blame at any one persons feet (for the loss of town centers in america, that is) then look no further that frank llyod wright. He was an adamant proposer of the suburban ideal, with each person owning their own little slice of paradise on the outlying edges of the city. The resulting cancer-like growth of single layer suburban developments has had more to do with the loss of town centers than anything else. The spread out silicon desert that I live in (and that wright wintered in) is a fine example of an expansive nowhere town where people are destined to hour long commutes and the aging town centers resemble lifeless morgues after rush hour.

Just ny two bits…

Ralph: Examples from Latin America? Almost any town will do. Aguas Calientes in Peru is a good car-free example. It is an otherwise insignificant town off the road network and connected only by train to the rest of Peru. It is just below the ruin of Macchu Pichu. For an example with cars… the Colonial Mexico region would probably be an easy place to start, e.g., San Miguel de Allende (near Leon/Guanajuato).

I live in a suburb of Montreal, Qu

Check out the book Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler. He examines the forces that led to the lack of human-sized infrastructrue in America.

Please see “The City in History” by Lewis Mumford. He talks about the plaza systems contribution to human scale in planning. Other than New England townships and the utopian and religious communities like New Harmony, etc., Mumford had little good to say about American development. He saw the interaction of people in the community as the reason democracy could flourish. Phil T.