The Strong Towns Podcast Did New Urbanism Win the Debate But Lose the War?
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Nov 12, 2025 
Andres Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and a leading urban planner, engages in a lively discussion about the evolution of urbanism. He challenges New Urbanists to learn from suburbia's cultural dominance and critiques visual preference studies that overlook genuine suburban interests. Duany emphasizes empathy in engaging NIMBYs and the importance of addressing concerns first to build credibility. He also explores innovative solutions like redesigning grids to reduce car trips and treating garages as flexible workspaces, all while reflecting on New Urbanism's struggle to maintain its gains in urban planning.
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Learn From Suburbia's Marketing
- Study how suburbia sold itself to learn how to change large cultural systems.
- Andres Duany argues new urbanists should learn marketing and messaging from suburbia's creators.
Neo-Traditionalism: Combine Strengths
- New Urbanism began as 'neo-traditionalism' combining best practices from tradition and suburbia.
- Duany says successful designs allocate suburban management strengths while preserving traditional physical form.
Include Off-Ramps In Codes
- Design triage into codes: provide off-ramps to suburban solutions where appropriate.
- Write manuals that include decision trees so engineers can choose traditional or suburban approaches in context.
