I'm sitting in the bar (no, this isn't a joke) at the Hil at Serenbe because the place is packed and my table wouldn't be ready for another half-hour... so I found an open table in the bar and ordered there. Steve Nygren, the Serenbe Town Founder, walked in a minute ago. I told him I'd had a delightful day, but expressed the concern some New Urbanists have with Serenbe, assuming that everyone works in downtown Atlanta, 35 miles away. So I asked him: "Where do these people live?" The bar proper was off to my left. He started at one end and worked to the other. Every person except two lived within 4 miles of Serenbe, and 2/3 of them lived in Serenbe... within walking distance. And almost all of the ones who live here also work here. He named off their businesses, which I'd seen during the day. This has very much the feel of the countless little pubs I found in England last summer while traveling there after DPZ's Hertfordshire charrette.
Steve indicated that if we walked out into the packed dining room at the Hil, that it would be the same story. Our conversation got interrupted once as a group of patrons were leaving. It was a prominent Noonan, GA family celebrating a special event that would previously have had to drive to Atlanta for fine dining, but can now find it nearby.
It's now 9:45, and the place is still hopping, filled with locals. I asked Steve about some of the people I'd met during the day, like the delightful fellow that runs the market underneath my unit. He lives less than 4 miles away. As does almost everyone that works here, according to Steve. Most live within Serenbe.
For transect aficianados, there's a handful of T-3 lots and a number of T-4 lots, but the greatest number of lots are actually T-5! Put that in your formula and churn it! Bottom line... the aerial photo that caused several New Urbanists to go postal simply doesn't tell the story. It's important to see a place at ground level, because most of us simply aren't so good at reading aerial photos today.
