said that our plans lack social focus, discourage meaningful interactions
among residents, promote separation among the classes, place unreason-
able limits on individual freedom, do not serve the special needs of teenag-
ers, single parents, or the elderly, and create no clear sense of place, unique-
ness, or history. We need, they say, to make better neighborhood plans.

Some argue that such plans existed in the past, that time has led us astray,
and that past living environments were, in many respects, better than those
of today. They point especially to the small towns of the nineteenth cen-
tury, each relatively self-sufficient, a walking environment, with houses dis-
posed around a central core of community facilities and stores. The new
town of Celebration is, at the time of writing, under construction in Florida.
Advertised as "just like the town your grandparents grew up in," it will have
its own school, hospital, golf course, and downtown with stores, post of-
fice, movie theater, and bank. It will offer a choice of estate, townhouse,
cottage, and village lots and six traditional house designs ( Marbella 1996). A
spokesman for the developers, the Walt Disney company, owns that "Cel-
ebration is not for everyone."

There is a popular argument today that cities should be constellations of
nineteenth-century-like small towns. This model has some important flaws.
First, it presumes that all city people want to live as part of a small commu-
nity; I will argue that some city people prefer a way of life that is substan-
tially different. Second, it equates social organization with built form, and
community with the appearance of community. I will argue that village-like
forms are neither sufficient nor, in fact, necessary to support a sense of
community. Third, it follows a tradition that looks for one "best" solution
for all people. I will argue that different solutions are best for different
people, that different ways of life call for different types of neighborhoods,
that there are as many types of good neighborhoods as there are estab-
lished life-styles, and that a city should provide good examples of all types.
One might argue that certain life-styles are less desirable than others, but
this decision properly belongs with the general public. Planners should be
capable of planning good neighborhoods for all.

What are the qualities that make neighborhoods good? They are, I sug-
gest, the qualities that support residents' preferred life-style. I will attempt
to identify these qualities, focusing the discussion on three areas where, I
suggest, life-style and neighborhood come together. The first is Ambience,
by which I mean the kind of land uses, the grain of the mix, and the spatial
and formal arrangement of the physical environment. These influence neigh-
borhood activity and give the place its look and feel. The second dimension
is Engagement--the way that residents engage and avoid engagement with
one another and the extent to which they are facilitated or obstructed in this

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