Reading about community

Chapter 5: Housing and Community

This reading helped me understand the complex process of building neighborhoods and communities, and why so many suburban neighborhoods are built the way they are. It also suggests that the larger a community is the less unified people are in them.

One thing I tried to understand while reading this is how communities affect the people in them. The researchers found that members of the community will try to the behavior they see around them, whether it is positive or negative.

The chapter explains in detail how community development regulations affect the building of housing. The strict regulations can protect the quality of a neighborhood, but it can also contribute “to problems of housing affordability and to the reduction of personal freedom to make use of one’s own property.” I don’t think I could live in a neighborhood that controls what color or style my house could be, what kind of fence I could have, or even what the shed looks like. Factors of these homes and yards are sometimes held to a standard that it locks out middle and lower income families.

Also, houses and neighborhoods are built to be further and further apart, which wastes resources. Power lines and other utilities have to stretch further distances, making those communities more expensive.

That brings us to the idea of New Urbanism, which seems like it might be a way to build stronger communities. It says that a neighborhood should be no longer than a 10-minute walk, which gives it a human scale. There should be different family types, income levels, and lifestyles. This means that families can grow and change and still remain in the same neighborhood. Also, having stores and public transportation available in the community means that residents don’t have to leave get those things.