index
Nodal centers
The deepest and most important grammatical difference, one which does much to counter pressures for conformity and homogeneity, is that a New Urbanist neighborhood's center is different from once dominated traditional towns. New Urbanist principles encourage centered but not isolated places, as can be seen from the movement's regional-level recommendations.
Though New Urbanist neighborhoods have centers, they remain nodes in the network, not its end points. They exist through links for jobs, for shopping, for communication and self-definition beyond the local community. There, as elsewhere, we live in a condition defined by forces operating in multiple networks.