Before you begin crafting your discussion response for this week, be sure to read Chapter 4 in Global Public Healthand watch Episode One of the Designing Healthy Communities (Links to an external site.) PBS miniseries.
New Urbanism Principles describe a philosophy of community design taken from the book Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, your recommended reading for this week. The principles suggest that a community should promote walkability, the state of accommodating walking. To do that, the authors recommend the following: streets should be narrow and sidewalks wide; services should be located close to residences; garages should be in back, off of alleys; houses should be close together and close to the street; and a mixture of homes of varying sizes and costs should be spread throughout the community to promote diversity. The design of the homes themselves should encourage interaction with neighbors and a sense of place.
A full list of the principles can be found here: https://www.cnu.org/who-we-are/charter-new-urbanism (Links to an external site.)
New Urbanism proposes a “smart growth” development plan of the country’s sprawling suburbs. The article Neighborhood Design and Walking Trips in Ten US Metropolitan Area (Links to an external site.) discusses how neighborhood design impacts walkability in U.S. cities.
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