To Europeans this New Urbanism isn’t remarkable. One of the examples in his slides is Leidseplein in Amsterdam. I frequently go there just to be there, like James Howard says. In fact, I often walk through Amsterdam just to enjoy the atmosphere, and it’s one of my favorite things to do. It’s not because the city of old per se, it’s the way its put together and the diverse activity it breeds. I also experience this in newer cities built with the same mentality.

When I’m in the US I often feel like a tiny part of a big machine. Most US cities are extremely disconnected and make me feel unhappy and lost. They tend to have separate neighbourhoods for everything and the transitions between them are harsh. Sometimes it’s like you’ve stepped into another zone in an MMO like City of Heroes… one moment you’re in richtown and the other moment you’re in bumville, and all that’s missing is a line on the pavement to mark the border. More integrated cities obviously also have different neighbourhoods, but they transition more along a gradient, and I imagine different demographics being less segregated there.

Maybe this is why many people are so interested in places like Main Street Disneyland, or say Googleplex, which are artificial places that attempt to compensate for the general lack of ‘place’. (It’s pretty interesting that one of the big examples of New Urbanism is in fact a town created by Disney.)

Thinking about New Urbanism in the context of peakoil as this guy does also makes total sense, although this is probably a future reality that most people aren’t thinking about.

Anyway, when I think something is interesting I quickly start babbling, so I’ll stop here. I don’t even know if I’m making sense. So: good stuff, and thanks for recommending!