It’s easy to brag about South Orange, but this time it isn’t just based on love for my hometown, the great experiences growing up here, or the amazing people who live here. It’s actually based on the accumulating professional and scientific evidence expounding the benefits of certain types of downtown development and urban/suburban planning.A recent article entitled “Ditch Your Car Step 1: Move to a Mixed Use Neighborhood” by Kaid Benfield in Sustainable Cities Collective talks about the difference between older suburbs that are generally constructed around walkable downtown cores and newer ones generally connected by highways or large arterial roads:

New research from Southern California has found that residents of neighborhoods with a central core of shops and services – a pattern typically found in older, traditional communities – walk nearly three times more often than do residents of neighborhoods whose nearest shops and services lie along a major arterial roadway – a pattern typically found in newer suburban development. Residents of traditionally styled and centered neighborhoods also drive less than their counterparts residing in the newer pattern. Continue Reading