New Urbanism

In many ways, the contemporary movement toward New Ruralism is an outgrowth of New Urbanism. If you are not familiar with New Urbanism, it “is the revival of our lost art of place-making, and promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities, towns and neighborhoods”. There are already a number of resources available for people in this movement that we might also find useful.

• NewUrbanism.org, a central resource for information on New Urbanism: www.newurbanism.org
• Congress for the New Urbanism, the leading organization promoting New Urbanism: www.cnu.org
• New Urban News, the leading news source on New Urbanism: www.newurbannews.com
• Leyland Alliance, developers of traditional neighborhood communities: www.leylandalliance.com
• The Waterfront Center, published Intown Living and leader in waterfront developments: www.waterfrontcenter.org

This is just a partial list of websites I have found helpful. Feel free to add your own list in the comments section.

Financing the New Rural Economy

Getting financing in this economy is difficult.  How can we get financing for a new concept like New Ruralism?  In the last ten years, rural places have been vacated as farm and manufacturing jobs have left the country.  People are moving to urban centers to participate in the “creative economy”.  While this is generally a positive move, is there anything we can do to sustain rural life in America?The Federal Reserve Board of Kansas City began researching these issues in its publication Proceedings – Rural Conferences.  Deborah Markley wrote a particularly helpful article called “Financing the New Rural Economy“.  This twelve page article analyzes current economic trends in rural communities and the financial options available for helping rural communities adapt to these economic trends.Please let me know if you find these resources provided by the Kansas City Federal Reserve helpful.  I haven’t had a chance to  read all of their articles yet.  Let me know if you find any other reports helpful.