Over the past several years, the “new urbanism” has generated much talk, thought and debate. Subjects ranging from how we design, zone and build (or rebuild) our cities to how we think about city life (in general and in specifics) are all fair game when new urbanism comes up for discussion. The new urbanist school has generated its highlight examples (from Seaside in Florida, to Crawford Square in Pittsburgh, to Park DuValle in Louisville), its promoters and gurus, and even its Congress on the New Urbanism that meets annually in major cities across the United States.

Now it’s time for the city church (both its pastors and leaders) to enter the new urbanist discussion. In the articles that follow, you will gain both a better description of new urbanism and some good insights from urban church leaders who are currently thinking about new urbanism as it relates to local city congregations. SCUPE’s Dave Frenchak leads off with observations and questions, followed by an interview with Eric Jacobsen, author of “Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith.” We then hear from John Norquist, president of The Congress on the New Urbanism, including an excerpt from the Congress’s charter.

If you haven’t yet heard of CityVoices’ office relocation, realize that we are now part of SCUPE’s ministry and outreach. Continue to check out the CityVoices website (www.cityvoices.com) for some of the finest in urban church books and tapes. We are now working as a resource of SCUPE’s Association for Metro / Urban Ministry. If you haven’t already done so, please enter our new address and phone number in your contact list.

CityVoices / SCUPE
200 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 502
Chicago, IL 60601- 5909
(312) 726-1200, roger@cityvoices.com

God’s grace and peace today,
Roger Johnson, Editor – CityVoices

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Defining New Urbanism

What is the new urbanism? Emily Talen describes it as an “umbrella term” for an increasingly popular movement among planners that encompasses “neotraditional development” and “traditional neighborhood design.” New urbanists stress the importance of the built environment in fostering community but emphasize that there must be a change in mindset, design, and practice concerning how communities are physically constructed to overcome current civic deficits, loss of social capital, and a diminished sense of community. They argue that the organization of physical space is intimately related to the way in which persons are understood both as individuals and as social beings.

New urbanists contend that the main defect of standard suburban development (a.k.a. sprawl) is not aesthetic or even environmental but social: its tendency to undermine the building of community and intergenerational cohesion. For this reason, they insist that the planning profession (at all levels) must reinstate the community-forming elements of traditional neighborhood design in new town development and urban renewal projects.

Although the new urbanists claim that traditional towns and urban neighborhoods are more conducive to developing community and provide more life choices than contemporary suburban living, their critics counter that the new urbanist designs are artificial, elitist, and open the door to increased intervention by government.

Excerpted from the editorial by Stephen J. Grabill in Markets & Morality (The Acton Institute), Spring, 2003

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What Makes for Good Community in our Urban Environment?

(Dr. David J. Frenchak is president of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education in Chicago.)

Over the past ten years, a rather remarkable new movement has emerged around this informing question; the movement is called new urbanism. I personally find the philosophies and values of new urbanism promoted by the Congress of New Urbanism (CNU) to be very compatible with those advocated by many of us in urban ministry. In many ways the philosophies and values parallel those of many of the nonprofit organizations with whom we work in this city.

CNU, in its Charter of the New Urbanism, states that it “views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.” New urbanism, according to the Charter, stands for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns with coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments and the preservation of our built legacy.

New urbanism is primarily informed and endorsed by a growing number of urban planners and architects. Its primary focus is the design and use of space. As a movement, new urbanism has gained significant momentum over the past ten years and has established itself throughout the country as a viable economic, political and social alternative to the way we usually structure and design urban space. Noticeably absent from the movement, however, are significant leaders from the faith community and the not for profit organizations who represent the stakeholders of urban neighborhoods. The loss for new urbanism in not having these people involved is tremendous.

For instance, new urbanism created a new model community, called Seaside, in Florida. Contrary to initial expectations, Seaside has proven to be a rather phenomenal economic success. A visit to Seaside, however, reveals that there is little in the way of exchange and inter-relatedness that reflects healthy neighborhoods and community life among the residents. When assessed by the value of diversity in use and population promoted in the CNU Charter, Seaside is a rather dismal failure. While design of space is very important in the promotion of healthy community living, implementation of healthy community life cannot be done without the input and involvement of community stakeholders.

At the same time, I have found in my work with grassroots leaders from the faith community and the not for profit world in Chicago that there is a significant lack of awareness of both the movement and the influence of new urbanism. Such a lack of awareness contributes to an inability to enter into dialogue with the urban planners and city designers who are now informed by the philosophy and values of new urbanism. Additionally, when there is some awareness of new urbanism, often there is both an uninformed distrust and open skepticism of the movement that is neither healthy nor productive for communities. What seems to be clear is that there is a significant information gap between new urbanism and grassroots professionals and non-professional people of faith who may be working toward similar goals and objectives in urban communities. The loss for the communities that the stakeholders represent is equally significant.

Chicago, with its rich architectural and design history that includes the likes of Burnham, Sullivan, Wright and Mies van der Rohe is known throughout the world for its attention to the use of space. Perhaps this is the reason the Congress on New Urbanism has, this year, moved its national office to Chicago. Equally important is the fact that Chicago is known for its neighborhoods and communities, which is the reason Chicago makes one of the best cities in this country in which to do an urban ministries studies program. There is an opportunity before us to build on our dual history of architectural genius and being a city of neighborhoods, if we can find ways to bridge and connect the values of community stakeholders to the declared values of new urbanism.

There is at the present time, however, a rather large information and communication gap between the two. I believe this gap can be bridged and I would like to explore ways to do this. I would like to hear from others any stories or programs where attempts to bridge this gap have occurred. I would also welcome your thoughts and perspectives on this growing movement and the role the church might play to address both the positive and negative dynamics of the movement. Certainly we are equally invested in answering the question: What makes for good community in the city?

Contact Dr. David Frenchak, SCUPE, 200 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 502, Chicago, IL 60601-5909, (312) 726-1200, dave@scupe.com

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Eric Jacobsen: Speaking of New Urbanism and the Christian Faith

(Rev. Eric O. Jacobsen, Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Missoula, Montana, is the author of the groundbreaking book, “Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith.” [published by Brazos Press, 2003]. A member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, he is currently doing further studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Look to his website: www.sidewalksinthekingdom.com for further resources on new urbanism.)

Eric, you suggest “markers of the city,” rather than specific definitions. These include: public spaces, mixed-use zoning, local economy, beauty and quality in the built environment, critical mass, and presence of strangers. How important are those markers?

I think they’re pretty important. We’ve often used words and lost a sense of what they mean. We talk about the patterns of urbanization and how we’re becoming more and more urban throughout time. In this country, that doesn’t mean urban in a city sense, but in a sprawling sense – subdivision upon subdivision. In some sense, we’ve become less urban over the past 50 years. It’s important when somebody talks about urban or city, to know whether we’re talking about the traditional city which has these markers, or the newer American experiment of suburban living. The models are quite different.

The reason I use a loose term like “markers,” is because I’m fairly skeptical of a person or any institution that tries with an infusion of money or a regulatory system to build a utopian city. I’m skeptical of utopianism as I talk about cities: that we could somehow get the idea right and build a city that would be free of all problems. Cities form organically by the contributions of lots of different people over generations. For some reasons in this country (cheap gas, cheap land) we’ve experimented with suburban living, which has moved us away from these naturally-occurring cities. I’m an advocate of letting cities develop naturally again, rather than planning perfectly problem-free cities. I use “markers” as terms to help us identify when it’s happening outside of our control.

Do you find folk who are part of the new urbanism movement having a sense of utopian ideals?

I imagine there are some, but I don’t think that’s the dominant trend of the movement. They’re pragmatists in a lot of ways, who have lots of experience with communities. I don’t sense utopianism. Where they have built things, they have had to respond to the market. Urban renewal programs of the 1950s and 1960s were utopian, where entire downtown neighborhoods were razed, and projects put up in their place. Those utopian visions failed because they were the brainchild of social engineers who had no sense of how city life actually functioned. New urbanists have seen enough of that bad history to avoid doing any of it themselves.

New urbanism offers a refreshed way of looking at our cities. But what implication does it have upon our ethical lives as city Christians? Do we live differently in light of new urbanist thought?

It pushes us to think beyond the daily ad hoc decisions we make. You can read Matthew 25 and be convinced that we need to show compassion for the stranger. But if you’re a typical American you’ll get in your car in your driveway, drive on a freeway, get off at an exit ramp somewhere, and park in a garage at your work. You’ll go to your office, come back to that garage at the end of the day, drive back home, and never actually encounter a stranger. The places that you’ve chosen to live and work are all in a private sphere. You have no public sphere in your daily life. New urbanism challenges us to think, “Are you living and working in a setting where you actually encounter strangers on a regular basis, so that you can be faithful to Matthew 25?”

Won’t a new urbanist vision only prevent discriminated-against minorities from owning their own homes and achieving their own dreams?

Gentrification is one of the tricky issues in the discussion. Wealthier folks, both young and old, have rediscovered the city and bought up properties in traditional communities, raising the property values and forcing people out. That obviously hurts folks who are just trying to find decent housing. While it will be important for Christians to take action to help people stay in the neighborhoods where they are rooted, it is also important to realize that new urbanism isn’t just about housing. It does identify a certain kind of housing that works pretty well. It upholds the value of higher density living, which is a lot better for public transportation. It upholds the value of mixed-use zoning which allows for neighborhood coffee shops, markets, barber shops and those kind of things. People can have a richer life, and communities are empowered. New urbanism is really not new at all. It’s a rediscovery of what good, inner-city neighborhoods have been doing all along.

Within new urbanism, is there any dialogue about affordable housing?

There is. The phrase “mixed use” is a new urbanist term referring to mixing of residential and commercial. But it can also mean mixing residential types, so that a mansion can sit next to an apartment building, next to a small family-style house. New urbanists are very much in favor of “out-buildings,” like converted garages and apartments above stores. These options, while quite sensible, are illegal in most municipal codes. Fortunately attempts are now underway to make changes. A helpful new urbanist insight is that poverty in itself is not a social problem, but poverty in concentration can lead to social problems. Let’s spread out low-income housing and mix it in with higher income housing. New urbanists are not shy about including high- and middle-income housing when re-vamping a troubled neighborhood.

How open are people in the church to hearing a new urbanist vision? What do you sense?

There’s a fair amount of openness. I’ve found that a lot of people will see the point, “Yes, it would be nice if we could live a bit closer together and have daily interaction as people.” That’s the kind of town in which they grew up. But I get skepticism when Christians respond, “We can’t just turn back the clock. This is how it is and we can’t change things.” You sound a little “communitarian” to people when you start to talk about new urbanism, public spaces and relinquishing some of our individual rights to do whatever we want with our properties for the common good. There’s a bit of a suspicion among Americans in general and American Christians in particular over sounding too socialistic.

Dream with us, Eric. What role do you think creative Christians could play in the future of new urbanism and in efforts to re-make neighborhoods for human effectiveness?

Christians bring a lot of experience with living in cities and understanding urban people. Christians could add some legitimacy to the new urbanist conversation. At present, it has the potential of becoming an elitist movement. Christians who have experience in incarnational city ministries could keep it honest. Christians have a good sense about how to live as a community. We have a healthy acknowledgment of human depravity. New urbanists are aware that a lot of the problems that have been caused by suburban-style development are rooted in this grasping, greedy sort of American nature. We’ve had a need for more stuff – more space around ourselves. A theological framework that would assist in reconciliation among people would add a little sophistication to a new urbanist understanding.

What should a local pastor begin to know about new urbanism that could have a positive impact on his or her work in any urban community?

I think it’s important to realize that something’s beginning to change in terms of how people are seeing urban environments. For a long time the common wisdom said everyone is fleeing the city for the suburbs. There was a discouragement among city pastors: “You’re ministering in a dying realm.” But new urbanism is indicating a change. If you haven’t seen new people coming into your community, you will. Try to disregard the old assumptions about who is in your neighborhood and what your church’s mission is going to be. Try to get involved in these discussions, without dismissing new urbanism as either elitist or impractical. Jump in and see where the church can play a vital role. I’m looking forward to pastors from some of our largest cities jumping into the new urbanist discussion and finding out what’s exciting for them.

Any books you’re finding particularly helpful?

I really love Jane Jacobs’ “The Life and Death of Great American Cities.” She was looking at these classic communities (in New York City) that totally escaped the recognition of the urban renewal folks. She saw all the good in shopkeepers who lived above their neighborhood businesses, or helped keep watch over everyone’s kids, keeping the neighborhood safe. She saw all this good in what other people saw as scruffy neighborhoods that weren’t rational enough for their thinking. She’s a classic. You read her stuff and you can’t believe it was written over forty years ago.

Contact: Eric O. Jacobsen, Sidewalk in the Kingdom, 262 N. Los Robles Ave., Apt. 112, Pasadena, CA 91101, (626) 792-1127, eejacobsen@hotmail.com

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A New Urbanist Vision for Churches and Cities

(John Norquist is the President and CEO of The Congress for the New Urbanism. His work promoting New Urbanism as an alternative to sprawl stems from his experience as mayor of Milwaukee, 1988-2003. A leader in national discussions on urban design and educational issues, he has taught courses in urban policy and urban planning at the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and at Marquette University. He is the author of “The Wealth of Cities: Revitalizing the Centers of American Life,” Addison-Wesley, 1998.)

Given the wealth that cities possess, how should city churches and non-profit agencies best work to grow and enhance that wealth for the common good of everyone?

Churches and social organizations devoted to helping the poor can help in many ways including handing out money, food or shelter to the poor. I believe it is also important for churches to ask people they help for something. For example a church could invite a recipient of aid to join the church as a member or perhaps to wash dishes or sweep a floor, thus allowing the needy person the dignity that comes from contributing and not just receiving.

As quoted in the “The Wealth of Cities”--

The raw materials of cities – diversity, proximity, choice, community, and markets – are the ingredients of human civilization. U.S. cities, if they can solve their own problems and be freed from the problems foisted on them by a clumsy and intrusive federal government, can give Americans much of what they are looking for.

There is some evidence that the turnaround could be faster than the decline. Prosperity springs quickly from big reductions in crime in New York and Boston. Private investment follows the fiscal stability achieved by [Mayor] Ed Rendell in Philadelphia. And hope builds in Milwaukee and Cleveland as school choice empowers parents. The payoff for efficiency, safety, and excellence is almost immediate. As people see beyond the pathology of cities and notice improvement in the quality of lives, they also begin to notice the excitement, beauty, and value of cities.

The last fifty years have been difficult, yet cities have endured. Cities are resilient; they hold more lasting value than can be destroyed in a few decades, more lasting value than is found in the thin smear of suburban development intended to replace urban life.

I believe that a second, closer look will reveal that cities, U.S. cities, have much to offer our country in the twenty-first century. In fact, I believe that the twenty-first century will be the Century of Cities, a time when the world, and particularly the United States, will benefit from the wealth of cities.

Contact: John Norquist, President and CEO, The Congress for the New Urbanism, 140 S. Dearborn Street, Ste. 310, Chicago, IL 60603, (312) 551-7300, jnorquist@cnu.org

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Charter of the New Urbanism

(The Charter of the New Urbanism is the defining document of the new urbanist movement. It was developed and adopted at the 1995 Congress on the New Urbanism in San Francisco, and has since served as a fundamental guide to which new urbanists can always refer. What follows is merely the Charter’s preamble. Detailed principles and policy guides regarding the region (metropolis, city and town), the neighborhood (district and corridor) and the block (the street and the building) can be found at the Congress’ website: http://www.cnu.org.)

The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society's built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.

We stand for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy. We recognize that physical solutions by themselves will not solve social and economic problems, but neither can economic vitality, community stability, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive physical framework.

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car. Cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.

We represent a broad-based citizenry, composed of public and private sector leaders, community activists, and multidisciplinary professionals. We are committed to re-establishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design. We dedicate ourselves to reclaiming our homes, blocks, streets, parks, neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, regions, and environment.

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Introducing SCUPE!

SCUPE, the new host organization for CityVoices, was created nearly three decades ago as a resource for urban ministers. Three Chicago pastors – Ray Bakke, Bud Ipema, and Bill Leslie – had challenged a group of evangelical seminaries to improve the preparation they offered for students with a calling or interest in urban ministry. The Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education was created as a collaborative effort to offer experiential, contextual education for urban ministry, and the member seminaries sent students to SCUPE for one year out of their three-year M.Div. programs.

Over the years, SCUPE has been called upon to offer a broader range of education and resources for urban ministry. We still offer a contextual, experiential urban ministry program for seminarians - now called Graduate Theological Urban Studies, and offering options ranging from single intensive courses to a year-long program. We have also developed Nurturing the Call, a graduate program for working urban pastors who have never had a seminary education, and the M.A. in Community Development, a professional graduate program in partnership with North Park University.

SCUPE is the organizer of the Congress on Urban Ministry, a major training and networking event. SCUPE’s Association for Metro/Urban Ministry is a link to resources of all sorts for urban ministry and a membership network for those doing urban work. The Summer Urban Ministry Institute is a practical annual workshop serving laity and clergy.

To learn more, please check out www.scupe.com and www.amum.net, or call SCUPE at (312) 726-1200. We look forward to serving CityVoices readers in many ways!

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Must Read!

“One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches,” by George Yancey, InterVarsity Press, 2003.

As a Sociology professor at the University of North Texas, and as a Christian committed to finding what practically works in bringing believers of various races together in worship, George Yancey has emerged as a strong and knowledgeable voice on behalf of multicultural congregations. “One Body, One Spirit” highlights seven principles of churches that have managed to overcome obstacles such as inclusiveness, unity and reconciliation.

Yancey emphasizes inclusive worship and diverse leadership as two important principles in integrating all groups of a multiracial church. He goes on to analyze principles that are related to objectives and strategies. He then deals with skills needed in relating across cultures, the effects of local demographics, and finally, how a church should plan for integration if there is little or no diversity in its community. George Yancey is at once practical and visionary in his short and reasonably priced ($13) volume. Even if integrated worship has not been at the top of your ministry priorities, you’ll want to mull over his principles and get ahead of the game.

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Thanks for Reading CityVoices!

Next month’s CityVoices newsletter brings you another in our ongoing series of “City Profiles.” We take a look at the churches, agencies, politics and social history that has made Milwaukee – Wisconsin’s largest city – an example of ethnic and industrial ferment in the Midwest.

Remember to contact CityVoices for the very best in resources for city ministry. “Transforming Power” by Robert Linthicum ($14), and “A Theology as Big as the City” ($13) by Ray Bakke can be purchased by calling CityVoices at (312) 726-1200. Also contact us to purchase Mike Snow’s very helpful piece, “Transition in Ministry in Declining Congregations.” It also sells for $10. Please browse through the Bookstore section of the CityVoices website (www.cityvoices.com) for a complete listing of all available resources.

Thank You!
Roger Johnson – Editor, CityVoices / SCUPE
200 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 502, Chicago, IL 60601-5909