Never at a loss for words, Andres Duany is. The New Urbanist guru tells the country, and his hometown of Miami, how to plan right in The Smart Growth Manual, the user-friendly sequel – out now -- to Suburban Nation.
But the co-originator of the charrette is having some second thoughts about public participation. It’s too often uninformed and results inconsistent, he’s concluded. Thus, a manual for the unititiated. (Co-authors are Duany Plater-Zyberk alumns Jeff Speck and Mike Lydon).
“If I did a public process like Miami 21 again, I would be handing it out by the dozen, the idea being, `Read this before you talk.' ‘’
Indeed. Here is my Q&A with Duany, which ran on the book page in Tuesday’s print edition:
Want to be green? Dump the cul-de-sac. Ban the mall. Leave the Prius at home. The best thing you can do for the environment is to push for dense, compact, attractive and walkable urban neighborhoods that mix homes, shops and offices, just like we used to.
That, in a sharpened nutshell, is the message delivered by The Smart Growth Manual (McGraw-Hill Professional, $24.95), an intentionally slim, readable, well-illustrated and portable how-to guide co-written by Miami architect, planner and pioneering anti-sprawl combatant Andrés Duany.
``The bumper-sticker problem of environmentalism is one of the things we're trying to mitigate, the search for the silver bullet,'' Duany said. ``The idea that we just make all the buildings green, or make every car electric, and we'll be OK -- it's not enough.''
See the whole thing here.
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