Building community in an 'anti-social' age

Radburn was designed to bring neighbors face-to-face

Radburn is famous for protecting pedestrians from motor vehicles. But The Atlantic’s February cover story, “The Anti-Social Century,’’ reminds us of the importance of another of the planned suburb’s primary goals – building a sense of community.

The magazine says Americans suffer from a lack of face-to-face encounters outside the home with friends, neighbors and the odd stranger – exactly what, a century ago, Radburn was designed to encourage.

Atlantic writer Derek Thompson shows that for decades Americans have been spending less time socializing, and more time alone at home.

A key reason for this is the same one that spurred Radburn’s development in 1929: the car. After World War II, says Thompson, “Americans used their cars to move further and further away from one another’’ into suburbia. Once they got there, they went inside and turned on the TV.

When they did go outdoors, their backyards had private patios, even pools. And almost every technological innovation from air conditioning to the smartphone has accentuated the trend toward solitude.

Yet Princeton sociologist Patrick Sharkey says being home alone is associated with “a strong reduction’’ in happiness.

Hanging, Inside and Out

Isolation isn’t good for us. Take kids, who don’t hang out nearly as much as they used to; the percentage of those who say they meet up with friends almost daily outside school has declined by almost 50 percent since the early 1990s.

They hang out constantly online. But, Thompson argues, “sharing videos or texting friends is a pale imitation of face-to-face interaction.’’ The best form of social learning comes through play, and “the best kind of play is physical, outdoors, with other kids, and unsupervised, allowing children to press the limits of their abilities while figuring out how to manage conflict and tolerate pain.’’

Paradoxically, family members may be tighter than ever. Parents spend more time with their children than several decades ago, and when they are apart many relatives keep in constant touch via phone or text. And, at the other end of the social spectrum, the likes of Facebook and TikTok “keep us plugged into the thoughts and opinions of the global crowd that shares our interests,’’ Thompson notes.

Here’s the problem: although home- and digital-based culture has strengthened these “inner’’ and “outer’’ rings of human connection, Thompson writes, “it’s wreaking havoc on the middle ring of ’familiar but not intimate’ relationships’’ that form what sociologist Marc J. Dunkelman calls ‘’the village,’’ composed of neighbors, co-workers and members of your community.

We need to know these people, and increasingly we don’t. Our fractious politics may be one result.

The Radburn Plan

These kinds of “middle’’ or “village” connections were what Radburn was designed to foster. It’s site plan, according to historian Daniel Schaffer, provided “the potential to create a face-to-face village atmosphere in a modern industrial society.’’

In his 1949 memoir, Toward New Towns for America, Radburn’s co-planner Clarence Stein explained why: “Small neighborhoods are essential for eye-to-eye democracy. This is basic, not only for local contentment, but for national freedom and world-wide security.’’

Here’s how Stein and his co-planner, Henry Wright, tried to promote “eye to eye democracy:”

• Homes, yards and driveways were relatively small and in relatively close proximity, so neighbors would literally see each other more clearly and more often. (Yard fence heights were capped at three feet.)

• The spacious interior parks, with their pools, playgrounds, paths and benches, would attract residents away from the street and give them a chance to meet on foot.

• Three Radburn neighborhoods would be clustered around three elementary schools and shopping centers, each no more than a 10 minute walk from any home. (The Depression ended this dream of a larger Radburn.)

• Radburn’s system of self-governance – in effect the nation’s first home owners’ association – encouraged residents to volunteer and participate (despite, for many years, the lack of one-person, one-vote democracy).

In 1970 a study by University of Michigan economist John Lansing found that, compared to residents of nearby towns or post-war planned communities, Radburn’s drove less, and were more likely to walk to a grocery store or to stick around the community on weekends.

Recently, similar evidence has surfaced in a study by University of Wisconsin student Kent Brabant. Brabant, who grew up in Ridgewood, compared his town with Radburn, and surveyed residents of the two communities via Facebook. He got 148 responses from Ridgewood (population 26,000) and 53 from Radburn (population 3,100).

Compared to Ridgewood residents, Radburn people are much more likely to use public spaces; to walk around their neighborhood and to walk (rather than drive) to meet friends; to talk with neighbors; and to have close friends as neighbors.

Radburn children are more likely to play outdoors, and their parents are more likely to feel their kids are safe at night in community’s parks.

A prophecy without honor

After World War II, Americans largely rejected the Radburn plan, favoring private space over public space. But community is in Radburn’s DNA, and was embodied by its early residents.

George V. Denny, who promoted civil discussion of issues first at the Radburn Community Forum (held upstairs in the Plaza Building) and later on the national radio show America’s Town Meeting of the Air. The Rev. Bedros “Peter’’ Appelian built the Church in Radburn into a community institution. John O. Walker, Radburn’s first manager, sat down with all new residents to learn their interests. (That’s how he discovered Radburn had enough cricket enthusiasts for a team.)

And today, when Radburn residents volunteer for Family Day or attend a trustees’ meeting or simply stop to chat in the park, they’re living into what Stein and Wright intended: “a face-to-face village’’ in a society that needs them more than ever.

Editor’s Note: The photographs above of Radburn children are from the early 1930s.