The Town of Mt. Laurel
Mt. Laurel is a small community outside of Birmingham, Alabama known for its beautiful homes, Montessori schooling, and ecological planning. Mt. Laurel is a new urbanist community, geared towards creating a sustainable neighborhood that has a very unique identity amongst the other communities of Birmingham, Alabama. Unlike most typical housing developments, Mt. Laurel is build into the natural topography and has preserved the natural vegetation. Beyond this, the neighborhood has its own school, grocery stores and restaurants.
Mt. Laurel has transformed into a community that is extremely desirable to live in. With the high demand, buying or renting in Mt. Laurel is expensive. Though some would consider this a positive aspect, the market for houses in Mt. Laurel makes it so the average person would not be able to afford living there. Even in consideration of the apartments over the mixed use building, Mt. Laurel is too pricey for the average person and/or family. Some might say that the amenities of Mt. Laurel are worth the price considering that the community has a wide variety of accessible amenities.
Gentrification has been a large critique of new urbanism for a long time. Having these nice, walkable neighborhoods that are refreshing in comparison to suburban sprawl, drive up the price so that only the wealthy can afford to live in them. This critique is valid; however, it is unfair to expect that such a stark contrast to sprawl wouldn't become a highly desirable place to live. Though it is hard to think of valid solutions for this issue, embracing these types of communities instead of sprawl and making them more numerous might help to create a more affordable new urbanist community.
Another issue with Mt. Laurel (or new urbanism in general) is the fact that it is so isolated from the rest of Birmingham, specifically, for those who work Downtown or in other areas of Birmingham. This has been a critique of the community for a while, considering one of the main tenants of new urbanism is its walkability. The community is walkable inside of the community, but lacks connection to the greater Birmingham area. If Birmingham had public transit services that went from the outside of the city into the metro area, then this problem could be solved. But since there isn't any viable public transit options from outside of Mt. Laurel into the city, people are required to be dependent on their cars similar to suburban sprawl.
Personally, I am a fan of the structure and community that new urbanism creates. Spending some time in Mt. Laurel growing up has caused me to really appreciate it for what it is. Unfortunately, there are issues with new urbanist communities, but I don't necessarily think that the cons outweigh the pros. I think by showing people what they are missing in terms of good and walkable communities, we can inspire future generations to focus on crafting communities that are good for both the environment and people as a whole.
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