UrbanMilwaukee.com spent June 1st through June 4th in Madison live blogging CNU 19. The Congress for New Urbanism brings together architects, urban planners, government officials, and interested citizens to learn about topic related to the New Urbanism. We took part in sessions covering topics such as transit, incremental urbanism, bikeability, economic development, tactical urbanism, stormwater management, and urban design. Take a minute to see for yourself what CNU 19 was all about.

One of the competitive advantages of urban living is having activities that are useful in many areas of your life. Biking is great example of this; people can ride their bikes to work, or go for a pleasure ride on the weekend. Both Milwaukee and Madison are leaders in providing great biking options and have been recognized on Bicycling Magazine’s “America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities”.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is holding their annual congress in Madison from June 1-4. The prominent group of planners and architects has kept “congress” as the name of their annual meeting instead of changing it to “conference”, as most organization do, for a specific reason: the open discussion of topics related to urbanism.

The Congress for the New Urbanism held its 18th annual meeting this year in Atlanta under the title “RX for Healthy Places” (RX referring to the medical terminology for a prescription). The title highlights the impact our built environment has on how we conduct our daily lives and how these patterns have a great effect on human health.

As a society we say “don’t drink and drive” but in this case actions speak louder than words. Zoning and land use policies have an impact on the built environment that often promotes driving and limits other transportation options. These regulations to some extent mandate how we get home from work and unfortunately how we get from the tavern, home.