Sunday, May 10, 2009

Winner of the Congress for the New Urbanism's Video Contest

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The annual Congress of the New Urbanism is meeting next month in Denver for its seventeenth congress. The annual Congress for the New Urbanism is the nation’s leading forum dedicated to advancing urbanism and promoting alternatives to sprawl. Click here for the CNU17 conference website.

New Urbanism is an urban design and development movement dedicated to implementing community-oriented principles of traditional town and city planning in contrast to the prevailing system of formless sprawl.

New Urbanist traditional neighborhood developments (called "TNDs", for short), like Omaha's first new greenfield traditional neighborhood development, Leytham, are compact and walkable, provide a diverse range of housing options, encourage a rich mix of uses, and provide welcoming public spaces.

As part of the Congress's program, a video contest produced this winning entry called, "Built to Last." The 3-minute video asks the question“What’s the greatest threat to our planet?” The creators' answer is not cow flatulence, but rather the ubiquitous cul-de-sac. The sometimes humorous and alway compelling video shows how reimagining our cities and suburbs to be sustainable and walkable will cut carbon emissions, commutes and calories. When it comes to saving the planet, "what we build is the greatest threat…or the greatest hope," say the filmmakers in "Built to Last."