Along with the hype, the ambitious experiment—building a “car-free” neighborhood in one of the most auto-dependent population centers on the planet—has aroused skepticism. An article by the nonprofit advocacy organization Strong Towns, for instance, contends that Culdesac is a far cry from “the incremental urbanism and thickening our cities need. A dozen or even a thousand Culdesacs can’t solve that problem,” because they would lack long-term growth benefits including “the resilience of a system where many hands have built the neighborhood and have a financial stake in it” and would reflect “a zoning and finance stream that favors industrial over incremental production.”

But these critics don’t live there. Those with more proximity see the place as a big plus.