Picture this: a four-story home building perched atop an handmade coffee shop and a yoga studio, its micro-apartments stacked like shoeboxes in the name of” ecology” and “resilience”. Imagine a master-planned, picturesque area where every home has a front door, the streets are lined with fence fences, and everyone appears to have been taken straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. However, there are few if any houses of worship, the zoning regulations are restrictive, and the price tag guarantees only the elite you live it.
These are the two faces of New Urbanism, an ideology that, masquerading as” traditionalist”, conservatives have tolerated for far too long. On the other end, there is high-density urbanization, where developers cram as many people into apartment blocks as they can, removing cars and personal storage under the guise of conservation and a sense of society. On the other, you have the faux-traditional, greatly regulated communities of Seaside and Celebration, Florida, excessively expensive and unfortunately more arbitrary than the residential developments they criticize.
Despite their visual variations, both kinds of New Urbanism share a common purpose: reengineering American existence by discouraging ownership. The “planning and development approach”, as the Congress for New Urbanism puts it, champions “walkability” and “human-scale” design but, in reality, is about control — limiting choices and creating a transient, economically dependent population that tilts politics permanently leftward. New Urbanism further pushes for zoning reforms that enact crony capitalist “scholars” at libertarian think tanks and are led by figures like Andrés Duany and Charles Marohn, which increase housing costs.
A fanatical hatred of the automobile is at the heart of this movement. New Urbanists dream of a” car-free” America, where individuals are herded onto public transit or forced to walk and bike their way through life, regardless of their needs or preferences. DPZ CoDesign, founded in 1980 by Duany , and his wife , Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and the firm behind much of New Urbanism’s expansion, once gleefully tweeted,” We look forward to a’ car-optional’# Miami” ! ,
Cars, however, epitomize freedom and choice. They allow families to escape crime-ridden urban centers, access better schools, and enjoy homeownership in safe, thriving communities. That’s exactly why New Urbanists and their left-wing allies despise them. They yearn for us to be confined to dense housing and reliant on mass transit. Home ownership is viewed by Americans of all backgrounds as the foundation of the American Dream, providing stability, financial security, and the ability to build generational wealth.
Meanwhile, the cities that New Urbanists idolize, such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, are collapsing under the weight of crime, homelessness, and deteriorating infrastructure. Instead of addressing these failures, urban planners double down on the same policies that created the problems: more density, fewer cars, and an obsession with “public spaces” that inevitably become magnets for vagrancy and disorder.
Master-planned communities such as Seaside and Celebration, Florida, also sold a false bill of goods. Initial sales focused on quaint, walkable neighborhoods that would promote affordability and community. Celebration, just south of Walt Disney World Resort, envisioned as a nostalgic return to small-town life, now sees median home prices at nearly$ 619, 000, almost 50 percent higher than the average U. S. home price, while its per-square-foot price hovers around$ 332. In the small zip code that contains Seaside, arguably the ultimate showcase of New Urbanism, the median home sale price has surged to$ 1.1 million, with median properties selling around$ 500 per square foot. These developments have largely shut out middle-class families. Predictably, they have become bubbles where exclusivity triumphs over affordability.
The hypocrisy of New Urbanism’s leading figures is also staggering. James Howard Kunstler, one of the movement’s loudest voices, openly boasted that he chose to homestead in Greenwich, New York, complete with” a large garden, an orchard, and chickens”. Charles Marohn, founder of Strong Towns, resides in a single-family home in Brainerd, Minnesota, a quiet, prairie town. And then there’s Richard Driehaus, the late financier of New Urbanism, who endowed, among other initiatives, the now defunct New Urbanist column at The American Conservative. He owned multiple mansions, including a 40-acre estate in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which sold for a record-breaking$ 36 million in 2022. ( Two Driehaus Prize-winning architects designed Celebration, Florida. ) It’s high-density for thee, but sprawling luxury for me.
Now it’s time to knock down three New Urbanist pieces of propaganda. First, we don’t have a “housing crisis”. Politicians and developers who restrict supply to increase costs and further solidify Democrat voting blocs have created an artificial crisis. The solution is to eliminate bureaucracy and open the door to the free market to create more homes where Americans actually want to live. Report after report confirms that Millennials are fleeing the cities more quickly than a hipster from a chain restaurant, putting urban grit in place of suburban serenity.
Second, contrary to what New Urbanists claim, the suburbs aren’t some artificial contrivance foisted upon unsuspecting Americans. They are the result of people casting ballots with their feet. Suburban life offers homeownership, safety, and stability — values conservatives should champion. Yet Addison Del Mastro, formerly of both The American Conservative and The Bulwark, and his ilk sneer at the idea of single-family homes, dismissing many as” McMansions” and symbols of excess. Hilariously, New Urbanists cheered Houston’s lax zoning laws as the perfect stage for their grand urban vision. But when given the freedom to choose, people didn’t flock downtown but instead stampeded to the suburbs.
It’s blatantly absurd that conservatives who support family would consider cramming kids into tiny apartments with no yards. How precisely are parents supposed to rearrange multiple kids in a 600-square-foot house? Where should kids play, exactly? On a rooftop patio shared with strangers? Conservatives should be fighting for policies that promote more single-family homes rather than capitulating to left-wing planners who support this dystopian vision.
The reality, underscored by Covid lockdowns, is that the information economy has made living in the suburbs more affordable. Long commutes are also less necessary thanks to remote work. Suburbs offer less crime, less noise, and more privacy. A third piece of New Urbanist agitprop: Everyone must endure a” two-hour commute”. Really? Jobs exist in the suburbs.  ,
It’s important to keep in mind that the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Promoting Fair Housing rule was intended to reshape suburban populations under the pretext of promoting so-called equity. This initiative sought to impose dense housing in suburban areas, effectively reducing zoning laws ‘ authority. By transforming traditionally conservative suburbs purple and eventually blue, the true goal was to fundamentally alter the American political landscape. During the Trump administration, there was an opportunity to dismantle AFFH and defend the suburbs. Alas, some self-proclaimed” conservatives”, much to the delight of developers poised to profit from these changes, resisted efforts to repeal the rule. Their actions were in violation of the principles they claimed to uphold, all in the name of financial gain.
The right has mistakenly accommodated doctrinaire libertarians, neoconservatives, and, yes, New Urbanists. However, it’s time to unmask the New Urbanists ‘ left-wing assault on property rights and personal mobility just as we’ve exposed the deep state and fake news. The future of America is not a high-density, corporatist nightmare. It’s the spacious, family-friendly suburbs where liberty thrives.
New Urbanism was put on life support by the pandemic. Now it’s time to flick the switch. As true conservatives, we must stand firm and defend homeownership, a pillar of the American Dream.
