Pitiful updates around here lately. Sorry about that; I'm trying to work out some delicate issues surrounding my thesis project. Hopefully I'll be able to post more soon.

In the mean time, I came across an interesting article in the Times that I thought I'd share. Apparently, the private sector contractors that build Army standard-issue housing have been listening to some New Urbanists:

One of the newer suburban developments in Fairfax County, Va., is the Villages at Belvoir.

Belvoir is Fort Belvoir, a military post. And the Villages, 15 New Urbanist towns, are on-post housing for soldiers and their families.

The first, Herryford Village, was occupied last year: 171 town houses and houses designed in a local Georgian Colonial style. It has a Main Street with shops and a clock tower, playgrounds, and village greens with open-air pavilions and centralized mailboxes where residents can socialize informally. There is not a tin hut or cinderblock house in sight.

One of those New Urbanists mentioned in the article is Calthorpe Associates here in Berkeley. It turns out the firm is right across the street from our Safeway grocery store. Kinda fun.

Anyhow, it pleases me that we're thinking again about building pedestrian-friendly towns with Main Streets and small shops. Unfortunately, the vast bulk of new development is not planned like the above, let alone our own local bastion of New Urbanism, Hercules. No, unfortunately, most new development is sprawly disorganized auto-centric bullshit like Frisco, Texas. Sigh.

At least there are some people trying to do things right...