Why Smart Growth isn't as smart as it thinks it is

Not because I'm quoted, but because of the analysis, it's worth your reading Sam Smith's piece from the Progressive Review, about the issue of "smart growth," the Comprehensive Plan revision process, and what he identifies as an example of one of the densest, most integrated, mixed-use communities in the city, Capitol Hill, which was developed for the most part before the car--and the impact of the car on shaping planning.

To get a sense of why the Capitol Hill neighborhood is so great, check out the profile and 64 photos, from the great BeyondDC website.

And of course, despite the excoriation of historic preservation in so many quarters these days, it's likely that Capitol Hill would have been "renewed" just like Southwest DC too, were it not for the resident movement to preserve the neighborhood, in large part through their efforts under the rubric of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society.

If you don't believe me, think about the area south of the Southeast-Southwest Freeway, how the area was redeveloped along modernist principles, and a goodly amount of great historic building fabric was lost (as documented in photos now in the Kiplinger Library Collection).

I'm told that a group of real estate types bought and renovated houses (this is in the 1950s) to stave off the northward movement of the urban renewal regime.

In addition to the dissertation that Cameron Logan is working on at GWU, another student, at either Brandeis or Boston U, is doing hers on Capitol Hill and community organizing in the 1950s around preservation and anti-federal expansion (conceptual plans in the 1930s laid out the idea of extending the National Mall eastward beyond the U.S. Capitol to the Anacostia River).

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking