Today we left the Adirondack's and went aboard the ferry across Lake Champlain into Burlington, Vermont. Once in Burlington, we went to Local Motion and rented bikes. Our professor, Patrick Hossay, then led us on a tour through the city of Burlington. On our tour, we stopped to talk about new urbanism and how it is utilized in Burlington. New urbanism is an approach to development that minimizes sprawl. Sprawl is when the necessary components of a community are spread out, and not in close vicinity to one another. These necessary components include schools, super markets, clothing stores, housing areas, and any other facility used in basic, every day life. When sprawl occurs, people are forced to drive more since these every day places are too far to walk or bike too. Burlington, however, has implemented many new urbanism tactics in order to combat sprawl.
In Burlington, biking and walking have been made the preferred methods of transportation. Places people go for their every day needs are within walking or biking distance. Newly urbanized communities, like Burlington, bump out the road ways, making it narrower. This signals to drivers that they are in a town center, and to drive with caution. Instead of painting lines on the street, newly urbanized areas will add texture to crosswalks with pavement or brick, making drivers more aware of pedestrians. During our day in Burlington, the mains roads going through the town were blocked off, so pedestrians could fully enjoy a festival that was taking place. The streets were covered with people, walking from store to store. A farmers market was set up, providing the people with some locally grown foods. People did not have to worry about walking through town and getting toppled by a distracted driver. This brought a feeling of safety to the town of Burlington, as I'm sure it does in most newly urbanized communities.
Downton Burlington.
Riding a bike is considered equal to driving a car in Burlington. This is a commonly used tactic in communities practicing new urbanism. There are specific bike lanes which you are required to use, and you must ride single file, just as cars would. Riding on the side walk is illegal. When bike riding, you are also subject to the same laws a person operating a car is. This means using hand signals to signify turning, and stopping at red lights. This all took a bit of getting used to while we were on our bike tour. If you are making a turn on a bike, you must get into the same turning lane the cars are using (after making the appropriate hand signal, of course). Coming from a community that has not implemented new urbanism, this was all a bit terrifying to me. Police heavily enforce these laws and will issue you a citation for breaking them.
The housing in Burlington also demonstrated new urbanism. There is no real separation between low income housing and middle or high income housing. All types of housing were integrated amongst each other, forcing people of different social classes to interact with one another. Rather then the typical cookie-cutter neighborhoods, Burlington has a variety of types of housing to give it a more aesthetic feel. Some communities of new urbanism will hire multiple developers, so the area can have all different styles of housing. In Burlington, we saw apartments, houses, and town houses, all mixed together. There are also a good amount of trees and plants placed through out Burlington. This gives the area a small town feel.
Another goal of new urbanism is to reduce the amount of brown and gray fields. A brown field is a patch of land that is undesirable for development due to some sort of contamination. The area may have previously used as a gas station, or landfill. A gray field is an area that has been previously been developed, but has since been abandoned. Good examples of gray fields are abandoned Wawa buildings or factories. To redevelop a gray field costs significantly more then to develop an untouched patch of land. This makes development much more harmful for the environment then it needs to be.
New urbanism is an excellent approach to development. People will be drawn to the town center, as was seen in Burlington, and generate economic activity. Yet, the town will be practicing more environmentally friendly tactics such as biking or walking rather then driving. New urbanism brings a sense of dedication to the people of the community. Rather then being secluded in their cars and gated communities, people are walking about and interacting with one another. This allows for people of different races, ages, and economic background to become familiar with one another. People living in areas that become segregated by race or income level have a fear and misunderstanding of one another. This is much less prevalent in communities of new urbanism. Unfortunately, the zoning ordinances of towns are usually restrictive, and do not allow for new urbanism. A towns zoning ordinance is the official plan of land use policies for a city, district, or county. An ordinance specifies where and how land will be used. An area can be put in the category of residential, industrial, agricultural, light industrial, commercial, high density residential, or other types of land use.
The zoning ordinances in a lot of towns has led to an incredibly wasteful, expensive way of living. When deciding how to zone, town legislators are going to do what will bring in the most revenue; large, identical houses, and lots of them! "Bigger homes can bring a lot more tax money to a small town that doesn't have much of a commercial tax base" says Christopher Solomon of MSN Real Estate. The worst part is that there is growing
evidence that people do not even want houses this large, but that is all that is being built. Through out the country is a McMansion backlash, claims Solomon. People living in these neighborhoods cannot ride their bike to work, they have to drive. Children cannot walk to school, they have to be picked up by a bus. Everything is sprawled across town. Low income housing is isolated from the McMansion owners. There is going to be little sense of community involvement and dedication. Changing the zone ordinance of a town is a hard process. The trick is to zone for new urbanism from the beginning, as Burlington did. The only way new urbanism will spread is if people show their town, district, or counties representatives that they want it. After visiting Burlington and experiencing new urbanism, I do not want to live anywhere that has not implemented it.
After our tour of Burlington, we headed the the Ben and Jerry's factory for a tour. We got to learn the history of the company, as well as how the ice cream is actually made. The companies founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, believed in taking social responsibility for their company. The dairy products they use are locally made, they hire local employees, and use Fair Trade ingredients. If something is titled Fair Trade is means that the farmers who grew the ingredients received a fair price for their harvest, and, in return, agree to use environmentally sound farming practices, implement fair working standards, and invest in their communities. Ben and Jerry's is a really good model for how companies, whether producing ice cream or not, should be run. They promote good moral values while still making a profit.
Tonight we are camping right off of Lake Champlain in Vermont.
Citations used in this post:
(http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13107733)
(http://www.benjerry.com/activism/inside-the-pint/fair-trade/)
In Burlington, biking and walking have been made the preferred methods of transportation. Places people go for their every day needs are within walking or biking distance. Newly urbanized communities, like Burlington, bump out the road ways, making it narrower. This signals to drivers that they are in a town center, and to drive with caution. Instead of painting lines on the street, newly urbanized areas will add texture to crosswalks with pavement or brick, making drivers more aware of pedestrians. During our day in Burlington, the mains roads going through the town were blocked off, so pedestrians could fully enjoy a festival that was taking place. The streets were covered with people, walking from store to store. A farmers market was set up, providing the people with some locally grown foods. People did not have to worry about walking through town and getting toppled by a distracted driver. This brought a feeling of safety to the town of Burlington, as I'm sure it does in most newly urbanized communities.
Riding a bike is considered equal to driving a car in Burlington. This is a commonly used tactic in communities practicing new urbanism. There are specific bike lanes which you are required to use, and you must ride single file, just as cars would. Riding on the side walk is illegal. When bike riding, you are also subject to the same laws a person operating a car is. This means using hand signals to signify turning, and stopping at red lights. This all took a bit of getting used to while we were on our bike tour. If you are making a turn on a bike, you must get into the same turning lane the cars are using (after making the appropriate hand signal, of course). Coming from a community that has not implemented new urbanism, this was all a bit terrifying to me. Police heavily enforce these laws and will issue you a citation for breaking them.
The housing in Burlington also demonstrated new urbanism. There is no real separation between low income housing and middle or high income housing. All types of housing were integrated amongst each other, forcing people of different social classes to interact with one another. Rather then the typical cookie-cutter neighborhoods, Burlington has a variety of types of housing to give it a more aesthetic feel. Some communities of new urbanism will hire multiple developers, so the area can have all different styles of housing. In Burlington, we saw apartments, houses, and town houses, all mixed together. There are also a good amount of trees and plants placed through out Burlington. This gives the area a small town feel.
Another goal of new urbanism is to reduce the amount of brown and gray fields. A brown field is a patch of land that is undesirable for development due to some sort of contamination. The area may have previously used as a gas station, or landfill. A gray field is an area that has been previously been developed, but has since been abandoned. Good examples of gray fields are abandoned Wawa buildings or factories. To redevelop a gray field costs significantly more then to develop an untouched patch of land. This makes development much more harmful for the environment then it needs to be.
New urbanism is an excellent approach to development. People will be drawn to the town center, as was seen in Burlington, and generate economic activity. Yet, the town will be practicing more environmentally friendly tactics such as biking or walking rather then driving. New urbanism brings a sense of dedication to the people of the community. Rather then being secluded in their cars and gated communities, people are walking about and interacting with one another. This allows for people of different races, ages, and economic background to become familiar with one another. People living in areas that become segregated by race or income level have a fear and misunderstanding of one another. This is much less prevalent in communities of new urbanism. Unfortunately, the zoning ordinances of towns are usually restrictive, and do not allow for new urbanism. A towns zoning ordinance is the official plan of land use policies for a city, district, or county. An ordinance specifies where and how land will be used. An area can be put in the category of residential, industrial, agricultural, light industrial, commercial, high density residential, or other types of land use.
evidence that people do not even want houses this large, but that is all that is being built. Through out the country is a McMansion backlash, claims Solomon. People living in these neighborhoods cannot ride their bike to work, they have to drive. Children cannot walk to school, they have to be picked up by a bus. Everything is sprawled across town. Low income housing is isolated from the McMansion owners. There is going to be little sense of community involvement and dedication. Changing the zone ordinance of a town is a hard process. The trick is to zone for new urbanism from the beginning, as Burlington did. The only way new urbanism will spread is if people show their town, district, or counties representatives that they want it. After visiting Burlington and experiencing new urbanism, I do not want to live anywhere that has not implemented it.
After our tour of Burlington, we headed the the Ben and Jerry's factory for a tour. We got to learn the history of the company, as well as how the ice cream is actually made. The companies founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, believed in taking social responsibility for their company. The dairy products they use are locally made, they hire local employees, and use Fair Trade ingredients. If something is titled Fair Trade is means that the farmers who grew the ingredients received a fair price for their harvest, and, in return, agree to use environmentally sound farming practices, implement fair working standards, and invest in their communities. Ben and Jerry's is a really good model for how companies, whether producing ice cream or not, should be run. They promote good moral values while still making a profit.
Tonight we are camping right off of Lake Champlain in Vermont.
Citations used in this post:
(http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=13107733)
(http://www.benjerry.com/activism/inside-the-pint/fair-trade/)
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