Bess has long served as an unlikely apostle to New Urbanists and conservatives alike, neither of whom seem to get the other. He tells New Urbanists that building good neighborhoods is a necessary condition for building good communities, but not a sufficient one: they must integrate their architectural vision with a broader vision of the good life. To put it in an Augustinian way, you can\u2019t build a city fit for man without a vision of the city of God.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrbanism is about human flourishing, and human flourishing requires virtues, which are character dispositions that lead toward certain goods. People aren\u2019t passive receivers of urbanism,\u201d\u009d he says. \u201cNew Urbanists do a lot of things right, but good urbanism is more than bioswales\u201d\u009d\u201d\u201denvironmentally friendly alternatives to storm sewers\u201d\u201d\u201cbike lanes, good coffee, and olive oil.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Yet the bigger challenge, from Bess\u2019s point of view, is to convince conservatives that New Urbanism is something they should embrace. In a 2005 address presenting New Urbanism to the right, Bess made the familiar Aristotelian claim that \u201cthe best life for human beings is the life of moral and intellectual excellence lived in community with others.\u201d\u009d The built environment is an indispensible foundation for that.<\/p>\n