This idea is not new. Credit probably goes Lugwig Hilberseimer. He came up with the idea shortly after the First World War and further refined it at the Bauhaus and at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The idea is well documented in his books: The Nature of Cities and The New Regional Pattern. Both of these book were published by Paul Theobald Company in Chicago. They are probably out of print.

Hilberseimer developed these blocks, approximately three-quarter mile square mile each. His layout emphasized giving CHOICE to the residents to walk (up to a mile) to work, do local shopping, attend schools and go to church. The people also could also go to these places by cars. Another very important feature was that there was a clear separation of pedestrian walkways and streets with vehicular traffic. Hilberseimer even developed plans for Chicago. He showed how the exiting grid pattern of streets could be changed in stages to his version of super blocks.

Unfortunately, the main stumbling block to making people live close to their work deals with American value about the so called “freedom.” Does City of Houston not having zoning laws ring a bell. History documents well about Americans’ gross conflict between notions of freedom and justice.

I would like to cite the example of Stockholm. It was completely bombed during the Second Work War II. So the planning committee which consisted of citizens decided that their city should be planned in such a way that any citizen could to the downtown within twenty minutes, using public transportation, irrespective where he/she in the city. That meant that new city had to be compact. It used lot of high density, mixed-use development. It was all the infrastructure had be compact. I have learn that Stockholm still uses the original proposed plan as the city’s guide today.

It took years of neglect and ignorance to get us here, and it will take us years of effort and stamina to get us out of it, which we have neither (aka the fast food” mentality and / or the Obama “stardom” fantasy).

Sure there are new and unique solutions, just not a “one size fits all” solution.

Here is what you do: 1. Try on someone else’s shoes, work or volunteer for local government. 2. Get the facts by attending meetings / gather factual data. 3. Support the best solution (complete support, 100%). 4. Pay the man (nothing is free, most of all freedom).

We don’t need contests for tricky, innovative ideas because we already know what we need to do. It’s not all that complex; the technology exists. We just don’t want to do it.

At heart, all America needs to do is re-imagine itself. It’s a task that requires no resources besides gumption and creativity, but still, it is nearly impossible.