Re-Newing New Orleans: A Look at Why New Urbanism is the Key to Rebuilding New Orleans
The widespread destruction of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina represents a unique opportunity to rebuild the public infrastructure and residential landscape of a major city on a different set of principles for urban planning and design. This exploratory article reviews the social and demographic condition of the city of New Orleans before and after the national disaster, presents new urbanism as a potential framework for urban renewal, and provides a case study of the Hill District in Pittsburgh as a model for local policymakers.
New Urbanism in the Inner City: A Case Study of Pittsburgh
Abstract This article argues that community development efforts can be significantly improved through careful attention to urban design. One potential design application is New Urbanism, which offers promising principles for integrating affordable housing into inner-city neighborhoods. These points are illustrated through a case study of four New Urbanist projects in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, New Urbanists have been involved in community-based, inner-city revitalization efforts for more than two decades. This is often overlooked in a critical literature that focuses only on New Urbanist communities in the suburbs. While it is too early to pronounce final, comprehensive judgments on these Pittsburgh projects, they illustrate an important new direction that is worthy of close study by urban planners, community development officials, scholars of urban affairs, and urban designers. Like the best-selling first edition, this report offers specific design guidance to planners, developers, and others involved in laying out, regulating, and reviewing proposals for “traditional neighborhoods.” For this edition, Arendt revised the model ordinance and subdivision regulations to make them easier to implement. Illustrations on the CD-ROM are directly tied to the provisions of the regulations. The CD-ROM also includes the author's running commentary on the regulations.
The Role of Democratic Politics in Transforming Moral Convictions into Law
Professor Michael Perry's new book, Morality, Politics, and Law, is an ambitious attempt to address the extent to which moral and religious beliefs in a pluralistic society, such as ours, can legitimately influence law. He departs from the common opinion in legal circles that moral beliefs are a matter of taste or "values," and defends an older conception that it is possible to attain moral "knowledge." ' He also departs from the "liberal political-philosophical project," 2 which claims that it is possible (and desirable) for governments to steer a neutral course between competing moral understandings of the good. This, he suggests, is an illusion, and a disguise for the imposition of a particular moral structure without opportunity for open deliberation and reflection. Professor Perry brings some refreshing common sense to these riddles of moral philosophy. His "naturalist" approach has obvious roots in Aristotle-not a bad place to begin thinking about ethics. His dismissal of