The community of Leidsche Rijn actually is subdivided in many different communities. In general there are the different housing areas, with their own name. Within these areas the architecture and ‘target groups’ differ. It is the city’s aim to create neighbourhoods that in which people with various backgrounds live next to each other. However, recently the newspapers mentioned that there are plans to increase the amount of expensive houses because of financial circumstances. The city of Utrecht stimulates the inhabitants to initiate their own projects, which has resulted in several projects, ranging from being one’s own commissioner in housing- and working projects, to initiating and maintaining virtual communication networks within the neighbourhood, to the organising of cultural manifestations..

Examples are:
- houses to be finished by the owners in order to have more freedom in designing the interior
- an ecological community
- a housing and working project for formerly homeless people
- a community for artists and art lovers
- houses for the elderly, with communal space
- communities dedicated to the themes: education, solidarity and ‘consuminderen’ (consuming less).

Of the planned 30,000 housing units (for 80,000 inhabitants) 5, 246 were ready for occupancy in September 2002. In order to get permission to live in Leidsche Rijn one has to have economical or social bonds to the city or region of Utrecht, although under special circumstances permission is granted for newcomers. Compared to the city of Utrecht, Leidsche Rijn has an extreme low level of inhabitants with a low income. The majority of inhabitants have a relatively high income, are well-educated and are politically oriented to left-wing parties. Most inhabitants are not satisfied with the physical environment (the amount of green space, amount of parking lots), but the architecture is very well appreciated. Currently Leidsche Rijn is still relatively ‘cut of’ from the old city and the outside world, since some of the more innovative projects are taking longer to implement than foreseen.

Social interaction with other inhabitants is not very common (knowing the neighbours, visiting them, having a social network within Leidsche Rijn), but differs a little bit from area to area. This given seems to fit very well in Arnold Reijndorp’s description of the homo Vinex. Reijndorp compares the inhabitants of Vinex locations with “tourists on a package tour.” (Archis 1, 2001, p. 1) He continues: “ There are two contradictory but equally pertinacious impressions of the Vinex district and its residents. The classic image of the suburb focuses on the built environment and attributes its qualities (‘dull’ and homogeneous’) to the people who live there. The other, more recent stereotype connects the Vinex district with a new, post-modern type of being. These nomads are no longer tied to a particular place. . .They can dwell in the city without being urbanites, or in a Vinex district without feeling like suburbanites. The new nomad, simply, is nowhere and everywhere at home.” (Archis 1, 2001, p. 1) Describing the type of urbanite these postmodern nomads are, he explains: “What homo Vinex does is to assemble his or her own city from the growing number of places where all manner of activities are enacted. This ‘new urbanity’ reflects the increased flexibility of the labour market, changes in personal relations, shifts in responsibilities within the household, cultural trends in dwelling and recreation. . .‘Encounter’ is less and less fortuitous or based on the route of regular places (the local pub), but is arranged at any moment and at any place by the mobile phone. In this way the public and social space of the urban field is getting more and more to be a space where small parties of tourists circulate and assume a place.” (Archis 1, 2001, p. 4)