Mueller Community in Austin, Texas: "Planners minimize the supremacy of the automobile and shape the environment around pedestrians."

I'm reminded of Tempelhofer Park in Berlin, where an airport was transformed into a commons. In this instance, it's a community.

(sighs and shrugs) ... Of all the current candidates for office in New Albany's municipal elections, how many (a) would support "smart urban design," and (b) even know what it means?

Perhaps Irv Stumler can ask Jim Padgett for a one-way definition.

With Porches And Parks, A Texas Community Aims For Urban Utopia, by John Burnett (NPR)

In Texas, a state where cars and private property are close to a religion, there is an acclaimed master-planned community that's trying something different.

When Austin's municipal airport closed 16 years ago, it created a planner's dream: 700 acres of prime real estate close to the city core. What emerged from years of public/private/neighborhood collaboration was the Mueller Community — often spoken of as a masterwork of smart urban design.

Mueller is the product of the "new-urbanism" concept: the idea that a built environment can create meaningful community. Planners minimize the supremacy of the automobile and shape the environment around pedestrians.