Philip Langdon was the editor for the New Urban News and a freelance journalist. His articles have been published in The Atlantic, American Heritage, Planning, Urban Land, Planning Commissioners Journal, Preservation, Governing, The American Enterprise, Progressive Architecture, Architectural Record, Landscape Architecture, CityLab, and The New York Times.
For five thousand years, human settlements were nearly always compact places. Everything a person needed on a regular basis lay within walking distance. But then the great project of the twentieth century—sorting people, businesses, and activities into separate zones, scattered across vast metropolises—took hold, exacting its toll on human health, natural resources, and the climate. Living where things were beyond walking distance ultimately became, for many people, a recipe for frustration.