Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Streetsblog

New Urbanist Silverback Andres Duany and the Young Locusts

3148846111_5714b08775.jpgIz in ur city uzing ur urbanizm. (Photo: St0rmz via Flickr)

If you've been roaming the urbanist blogosphere this week, you may have happened upon the comments made by one of the progenitors of New Urbanism, Andres Duany, in an interview with the Atlantic. Duany, apparently, has a problem with young people coming into a city and using it in a way that he disapproves of:

There's this generation who grew up in the suburbs, for whom the suburbs have no magic. The mall has no magic. They're the ones that have discovered the city. Problem is, they're also destroying the city. The teenagers and young people in Miami come in from the suburbs to the few town centers we have, and they come in like locusts. They make traffic congestion all night; they come in and take up the parking. They ruin the retail and they ruin the restaurants, because they have different habits than older folks. I have seen it. They're basically eating up the first-rate urbanism. They have this techno music, and the food cheapens, and they run in packs, great social packs, and they take over a place and ruin it and go somewhere else. 

It's a perplexing statement at best, and it would be interesting to hear Duany questioned more closely on this point. It certainly plays into the argument that his carefully planned brand of urbanism bears but faint resemblance to the organic creation of a real, chaotic city such as Rome or New York.

Yesterday on Greater Greater Washington, contributor Dan Reed, a native of the D.C. area, posted a response to Duany's comments:

Dear Mr. Duany,

At 22 years old, I qualify as a Millennial. I enjoy loud music and cheap, greasy food, among other things. I also love cities, including Washington, D.C., the one I was born in. I can't afford to live there, so I live at home with my parents. Yet, according to what you recently told the Atlantic, I'm ruining the place...

But you know what really kills a city? Keeping people out. Making it prohibitively expensive by demanding it look or feel a certain way. A city cannot be planned all at once or dropped from the sky. A city is the accumulation of years and years of small changes made by many, many people of all kinds, creating a unique, irreplaceable product.

Searching for more intelligent commentary on Duany and his Atlantic interview? Head over to Strassgefühl and mammoth.

More from around the network: Another young lover of cities, Rob Pitingolo at Extraordinary Observations, writes that urbanism and environmentalism are not the same thing. Car Free Days posts on Bike to School month. And Reimagine an Urban Paradise celebrates nine car-free years, in Chicago, D.C. and Pittsburgh.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

DOT Boss Defends Adams’s ‘Vision Zero’ Record As Agency Fights A Bike Lane in Court

Traffic fatalities are down and the DOT is taking a victory lap — even as it argues against a protected bike lane in court.

July 2, 2025

Cyclist Arrested After Crash with Electric ‘One-wheel’-Style Unicycle

Carolyn Backus is charged with fleeing the scene of a crash causing serious injury, but the details are murky.

Wednesday’s Headlines: Return of Summer Streets Edition

Summer Streets is back and bigger than ever. Plus more news.

July 2, 2025

How Will Mamdani Govern? His Earlier MTA Advocacy Gives Some Hints

Mamdani spent his initial years as a state assemblyman cultivating relationships in and around the MTA while crafting his vision for "fast and free buses."

July 2, 2025

Brooklyn Judge Once Again Declines to Rip Up Bedford Ave. Protected Bike Lane… For Now

Well-connected lawyer Frank Seddio argued against the Bedford Avenue protected bike lane in court on Tuesday.

Money for Something: Funding OK’d, But Details Missing For ‘Dept. Of Sustainable Delivery’

The mayor got the Council to sign off on $6.1 million for the long-awaited “Department of Sustainable Delivery." But what's it mean? No one is talking.

July 1, 2025
See all posts