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 of gravity is different from that of a traditional town. 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, not anchors. 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 in multiple networks.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001