Apparently they’re masochists over in High Point, but they can’t seem to get enough of the charismatic new urbanist:
Part of Duany’s tailored aggressiveness is clearly schtick. He seems to like attacking his audience in an amusing way, and always manages to turn the attack around into at least a partial compliment.
..Duany said High Point remains uncool, and laid the blame on the university. He said High Point University doesn’t pay taxes, soaks up donations from the community and yet, catering to its students’ every whim behind its brick-and-steel walls, doesn’t make High Point a college town.
“Guess what?” Duany said. “Not really. The whole thing that’s unique about High Point University is that it keeps kids in … the whole premise of High Point University is amazingly well done, but it doesn’t help the city. The assumption of High Point University is that, if parents saw the center of the city, they wouldn’t send their kids here.
You know that’s right. Fair enough, the reason Duany keeps popping up in HP is the city –along with, ironically enough, HPU president Nido Qubein — have kicked in to hire Duany’s DPZ architectural firm to redesign downtown.
I’ll give High Point’s leaders some credit for at least being willing to hear the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts. But considering they’re 500k deep in this deal, they don’t really have choice.
