An addition to the article on “The Village,” Cloughjordan, Ireland:

As our cities rapidly expand outward, middle-class people living in the suburbs are forced to travel further to get to jobs in the city center, creating increased pollution. Because of this many middle class citizens choose to stay in the inner city, moving into areas that previously housed low-income residents. This is called gentrification. As areas are gentrified and prices rise, low-income residents are forced to live farther and farther from the city jobs they depend on. As “bedroom communities,” suburbs on the outskirts of cities offer them few employment opportunities, while travel times and transportation costs to the city center are prohibitively high.

Developments modeled off “The Village” that integrate living and working as well as food production, could provide a model for new suburbs. Space for offices and live/work units are included on the square fronts, allowing middle-class residents to work nearer home. Low cost flats are included in the Cloughjordan design, and these residents could take up the jobs created by a thriving local economy, including in restaurants, as cleaning staff, and, assuming a reduction in machinery use, on the farm. Living in an integrated community would start to break the social barriers between classes, and might even begin to restore the dignity of work, even work that requires a low level of training. More localized food production and reduced travel alone would drastically reduce the environmental impact of these communities, but added measures like the ecological housing guidelines at Cloughjordan could be taken as well.