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Is Urban Planning An Oxymoron?

Topics: Lifestyle & Culture | 1 CommentBy admin | June 16, 2009

Does your town seem like it occurred by accident? Maybe you should try living in an Intentional Community


Does this look intentional to you?

Are you living in an accidental community? In spite of that mysterious field of study known as urban planning, most cities I’ve lived in have felt like a brilliantly averted catastrophe, plagued by things like congested freeways, war-zone-like crime areas, extortionist parking management, and excessive taxes that don’t seem to benefit anyone but government employees and contractors. Maybe it’s time to revisit the idea of intentional communities. Although historically these are often assembled by extremest fringe Christians or new age nutjobs, the idea – at least in the abstract – isn’t a bad one. We wrote a while back about an interesting project in Detroit that had this kind of potential. Perhaps there could be a new kind of homesteading in which the government supports citizens who develop urban renewal and reclamation projects. Am I just another ignorant utopian, or does this actually sound like a sane idea?

Read Comments

  1. Posted by jeannie beanie on 06.16.09 8:33 am

    Does it count if your born an accident? ridiculous.
    There is no Utopia, not that I have ever seen, heard of, except in books. Like you didn’t know that, right? Intentional communities. I’m all about that. As long as people are sharing the intention. I have been part of a small community in London, working in consensus to get things done and that was really hard.
    I’m not sure that as much gets done when you sit with a large group and work hard to get everyone on the same platform, sharing the same intentions. (Unless it’s the train platform and your wavin’ goodbye.)
    I’m all about renewal plans, First, some of the big cities need to give the land back to nature for awhile. plow all the shit under and start all fresh and nice. like organic gardening. I thought there were cities where this kind of urban downgrade to upgrade is happening.
    Mostly, you could do intentional community right in your own neighborhood, if you could get everyone together and share a vision. Most people are too near sighted or far sighted to imagine such a thing into being. No trust.
    ah… I could ramble
    later gator.. I intend to be really nice to everyone today.