Nobedan

Nobedan is a style of Japanese paving for long stone path segments using cut stone, natural stone, or a mixture.

This post has nothing to do with Nobedan, but it shows that one can run into problems with New Urbanism anywhere these days. 

 I was at a Nobedan path-building class over the weekend and wound up sitting between a retired city planner from Eugene and a newly minted landscape architect from UC Berkeley. The conversation between them was mainly about sustainability with assumed agreement on everything related to urbanism and smart-growth and the color of the sky.  Suburbia is anathema to architects, planners and their cohorts, and I am a suburbanite, a person who represents all that is wrong with the world.   By my cheerful comments about being an unrepentant suburbanite, I did not make any friends that morning; clearly I did not fit into their club.

But I am not a minority in what I think and how I feel.  Our cities, and the discussion about what society should do to be sustainable, or even what the definition of sustainable is, has been hijacked by a powerful group of adherents to the New Urbanism code.  Here is an article that explains the division between how city planners work against the population they are supposed to serve.

The chasm is wide, and the stakes are high.  What is best for some people is not right for others.  Should we all live according to design policies promoted by people who aren't a part of our club?