If you’ve been reading The New Orleans for a while, you’ve watched a lot of this take shape. Posts about the Village Test, third places, and getting around Orléans without a car have all been feeding into something bigger starting over Summer 2026: a book.
It’s called New Suburbs: Life in the Modern Village, and I’m writing and releasing it one chapter at a time. The running draft that includes the first chapters are out today.
The book uses Orléans as its example of what car-dependent suburbs get wrong, and what it would take to turn them into walkable suburban villages.
You can read the Preamble, and the start of the Introduction and Chapter 1, for free at newburbs.com. The full chapters are on Patreon, and new ones will follow one at a time.
If my writing has resonated with you over the last year and change, I’d love for your support and to hear what you think.
Help shape the book
This book is still being written, and your feedback shapes it. If something is unclear, wrong, or missing, or you have a story or example from your own neighbourhood that belongs here, I want to hear it. Email me at [email protected], or write in through newburbs.com.
Support the book on Patreon
Start reading for free at newburbs.com, and back the book to get every chapter in full as it’s written.


Start the discussion at forum.theneworleans.ca