Smart Growth And The Ideal Communist City

Randal O'Toole compares smart growth communities with 1960's-era communist planning.

1 minute read

May 8, 2005, 5:00 AM PDT

"American suburbs are 'a chaotic and depressing agglomeration of buildings covering enormous stretches of land.' The cost of providing services to such 'monotonous stretches of individual low-rise houses' is too high. As a result, 'the search for a future kind of residential building leads logically to' high-density, mixed-use housing.

This sounds like typical writings of New Urbanist or smart-growth planners. In fact, these words were written nearly forty years ago by University of Moscow planners in a book titled The Ideal Communist City. The principles in their book formed a blueprint for residential construction all across Russia and eastern Europe. With a couple of minor changes, they could also be the blueprint for smart growth.

...Like the New Urbanists, the soviet planners saw several advantages to such high-density housing."

Thanks to Chris Steins

FULL STORY: Smart Growth and the Ideal City

Saturday, May 7, 2005 in The Thoreau Institute

Land Use United States

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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