Bradburn residents wheel their portable keg cart to one of their weekly park parties

You want to head out and have a beer (or two—three) with your buddies, but there’s a problem: you live in the suburbs, so here comes the rounds of “Who’s going to drive?”.  Standard suburban design, with housing separated from retail and office uses, forces people to drive for their every need, no matter how small.  One glass of wine in a nice establishment involves a minimum 10 minute car ride in most of suburbia, and any more to drink requires the presence of a designated driver. But things are changing, a neighborhood planning movement called new urbanism is creating communities all across the U.S. with design features that reduce the risk of drunk driving, so you can live in the suburbs and drink your beer too!

Promoting Community

30 to 40 adults stand talking in a small neighborhood park, their conversation knots are overlaid by the delighted shouts of almost as many kids carousing like dog packs in the warm summer’s twilight.  They are all neighbors. Every Friday night, residents of the new urbanist community  Bradburn Village in Westminster, Colorado gather for their weekly park party.  Adults socialize over beer and wine while the kids play together.   Bradburn is designed to encourage social interaction among neighbors, and judging by the packed park parties and the incredible number of social events here, it works.

Porch Party

Every home in Bradburn includes a large front porch—not just a token 2 foot concrete stoop.  Garages are all in the back, and homes here also have very small setbacks (the distance between the house and the sidewalk, or front yard), meaning the porches sit right above the sidewalks.  This means people sitting on their front porches easily see neighbors walking by, and they stop to talk, creating a community bond that is so elusive in most traditional suburban neighborhoods. 

Other community features that encourage social interaction among neighbors include  public spaces such as the many pocket parks—every home in the development is a 5 minute walk from one of these green spaces—wide sidewalks, and an interconnected street grid (no cul-de-sacs) that makes the community very pedestrian friendly.   As a result of these design features, Bradburn’s residents all know each other, and many have become close, meaning if you want to socialize with your friends over a few drinks,  you just wander on down to the park or walk 5 minutes to your buddy’s home.