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Transit-oriented developments are touted as providing a variety of social benefits, but personal benefits to residents are underresearched. The authors surveyed 51 residents before and after a new light rail stop was constructed in their revitalizing Salt Lake City neighborhood. Residents anticipated and then later experienced increased housing and neighborhood economic values, enhanced sense of community, and improved neighborhood reputation. Residents experienced greater than anticipated pedestrian and child safety after rail service started. Compared with resident perceptions of walkable neighborhoods elsewhere, the Salt Lake residents perceived their neighborhood to be denser, and offering less land-use diversity and more crime safety problems. Perceived walkability increased, with residents reporting greater land-use diversity and neighborhood satisfaction after rail stop completion. However, residents said more stores, parks and trails, and trees would improve walkability. These results show the personal benefits residents desire to make transit-oriented living a satisfying residential alternative.

Guided walks near a light rail stop in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, were examined using a 2 (gender) × 3 (route walkability: low-mixed-, or high-walkability features) design. Trained raters confirmed that more walkable segments had more traffic, environmental, and social safety; pleasing aesthetics; natural features; pedestrian amenities; and land use diversity (using the Irvine-Minnesota physical environment audit) and a superior social milieu rating. According to tape-recorded open-ended descriptions, university student participants experienced walkable route segments as noticeably safer, with a more positive social environment, fewer social and physical incivilities, and more attractive natural and built environment features. According to closed-ended scales, walkable route segments had more pleasant social and/or environmental atmosphere and better traffic safety. Few gender differences were found. Results highlight the importance of understanding subjective experiences of walkability and suggest that these experiences should be an additional focus of urban design.

Neighborhood revitalization efforts include building new subdivisions in declining neighborhoods, but few studies have asked the incoming residents about the success of such new housing efforts. We examined neighborhood confidence and place attachment among residents of such a new housing subdivision ( n = 56) and compared them to newcomers ( n = 99) and old-timers ( n = 271) in the surrounding neighborhood. The new subdivision attracted comparatively wealthy, married, home owning residents. Compared with residents in the surrounding neighborhood, new subdivision residents had more neighborhood confidence, especially those who perceived few incivilities and satisfactory neighborhood services. Subdivision newcomers had higher place attachments than newcomers to the surrounding neighborhood and as high attachments as old-timers in the surrounding neighborhood. Although largely attracted by affordable housing, new subdivision residents may become important neighborhood contributors, given their levels of place attachment and confidence.

New Urbanists believe that front porches, along with narrow streets, back-alley garages, shallow setbacks, and street trees, may promote small town neighborliness of the 1920s. Critics dismiss such design ideas as simply nostalgic yeamings. Social uses of 1920s era and more modem porches were studied to add data to the debate. Although reported porch use has declined over time, porches still provide a leisurely setting for conversing with one's neighbors or simply watching the neighborhood. However, the New Urbanists have underestimated the other positive functions reported by front porch users. Residents enjoy the setting as a place to be alone, with multiple members of the household, or with neighbors. A variety of fond memories are attached to the front porch, even in the modern era with the multiple competitors for free time.

Altman's territoriality theory was used as a framework for examining neighborhood attachment. We hypothesized that attachment would be manifested in interrelated patterns of neighboring behaviors, attitudes indicating that the block was a secondary territory, and individual and communal displays of holiday decorations. Design features of cul-de-sacs were hypothesized to contribute to greater degrees of block attachment on cul-de-sacs than on through streets. Attachment was assessed through interviews with female residents and observations of holiday decorations on the target home and its block at Halloween and Christmas. Analyses indicated that attitudes and behaviors did combine to reflect degrees of neighborhood attachment, and neighborhood ties were stronger on cul-de-sacs than on through streets. Decorating at both Halloween and Christmas tended to be a block phenomenon (if the target home was decorated, so were the neighbors' homes); decorating at each time was related to aspects of neighborhood attachment. The results indicated that attachment can be a multilevel phenomenon that is related to the street's environmental design. The influence of street form is discussed as a facilitator rather than a cause of attachment.