Urban Husbandry and New Urbanism
Two Alternatives to Sprawl
A senior thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of a BA degree with a major in Modern Society and Social Thought, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Fall, 1998.
by Aaron Priven
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
Two important schools of urban thought have arisen in criticism of automobile-centered suburban sprawl in the United States. Four forces are notable in shaping today's suburbs: the suburban movement, new transportation technologies, Modernism in architecture, and zoning regulations. Urban Husbandry springs from community activists within large cities, and calls for the restoration of the center city. New Urbanism has its origins in architects who wish to build suburbs more like the pedestrian-oriented small towns of the 1920s. While these two schools of thought share an effort on the encouragement of pedestiran transportation instead of transport by private automobile, they are different in many respects.