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chillcox15's review
4.0
A fascinating, informative broadside attack against suburban sprawl by some of the designers of planned communities that are built around the "traditional neighborhood" concepts that they espouse here. Some elements are definitely a sign of the time that the book was written, at the tail end of the 20th century, and there are some definite blindspots that the headstrong approach taken by the authors ignores, but hey, it's an ethos. Written clearly, argued strongly, this is a must read for anyone interested in planning and urban/community design.
stevenyenzer's review
4.0
Fantastic! I started this book not realizing that I had grown up in one of the communities planned by the authors and lived just down the street from another one. It was a pleasure to discover that the elements I appreciated in both of these neighborhoods were part of a deliberate design and in fact, a whole philosophy around urban planning.
mckinseyf's review
5.0
Fantastic book! A must read for anyone even a little bit interested in city planning, urbanism, American history, community building, geography, or what makes a place worth living.
A scathing indictment of American sprawl and terrible planning, Suburban Nation explains how the suburbs came to be and directly cause or exacerbate many of the worst problems of our time (e.g. physical and mental health, racism, income inequality, and environmental degradation). But it's not all doom and gloom. The authors often reference cities, both new and old, that are pushing back against sprawl using both traditional and innovative methods. The book also offers numerous ways to make changes, whether you're a city planner, policy maker, or concerned citizen.
Since this book was written in 2000, a lot of the statistics and information is likely out of date, but the core values and themes of this book are still true as ever. The supplementary pictures really helped to further explain some of the concepts - I only wish there were more of them.
A scathing indictment of American sprawl and terrible planning, Suburban Nation explains how the suburbs came to be and directly cause or exacerbate many of the worst problems of our time (e.g. physical and mental health, racism, income inequality, and environmental degradation). But it's not all doom and gloom. The authors often reference cities, both new and old, that are pushing back against sprawl using both traditional and innovative methods. The book also offers numerous ways to make changes, whether you're a city planner, policy maker, or concerned citizen.
Since this book was written in 2000, a lot of the statistics and information is likely out of date, but the core values and themes of this book are still true as ever. The supplementary pictures really helped to further explain some of the concepts - I only wish there were more of them.
icoltman7036's review
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
Doesn’t go in depth on any specific topic. Very broad. Just read Jane Jacobs and watch youtube videos lol
jupiterjens666's review
3.0
What went wrong with the built environment? Why are our cities bizarre dysfunctional dystopias where no one would ever want to live? A: CAPITALISM
Long answer: capitalism as expressed through the utter triumph of the automobile and how it rewrote the building codes and transformed our nation into a disjointed, isolated, broken nightmare state.
Long answer: capitalism as expressed through the utter triumph of the automobile and how it rewrote the building codes and transformed our nation into a disjointed, isolated, broken nightmare state.
mjfmjfmjf's review
3.0
I first skimmed this book a long time back presumably in a bookstore in Seaside, FL. There's a lot to like here and a lot of good ideas. But a gripping read this was not.
Adjusting to living in a non-sprawl neighborhood as described in this book would take some doing for me. Though I can imagine that if I truly was giving up my car it'd be a lot easier to consider. Having not lived in an apartment (except for a short time in 2006) or an attached townhouse (since 1993), I've been quite happy to not have neighbors above or below or left or right of me. And in my current house I effectively have only one neighbor on one side.
And yet I buy the argument of why this needs to be different. In any case - I could imagine referring to this book again - but not rereading it.
Adjusting to living in a non-sprawl neighborhood as described in this book would take some doing for me. Though I can imagine that if I truly was giving up my car it'd be a lot easier to consider. Having not lived in an apartment (except for a short time in 2006) or an attached townhouse (since 1993), I've been quite happy to not have neighbors above or below or left or right of me. And in my current house I effectively have only one neighbor on one side.
And yet I buy the argument of why this needs to be different. In any case - I could imagine referring to this book again - but not rereading it.
jessrock's review
4.0
I read Suburban Nation because of an endorsement from a friend. It's a book about the virtues of traditional, community-oriented town planning as contrasted with the current American tendency toward sprawl and single-use developments (i.e., big houses in one place, big office parks in another place, big shopping centers somewhere else).
I'm not quite sure how to assess the book, because in some ways I loved it, yet in other ways I felt like it kept repeating the same point ad nauseam and that it couldn't make up its mind who its audience was. I especially loved the discussions about the layout of pedestrian-and-community-friendly towns, because they made me realize how good I had things in the town I grew up in (I could walk everywhere I needed to go, and was able to ride my bike all over town too), and helped me critique the suburban towns my two colleges were in (both were semi-pedestrian-friendly but also had some intimidatingly wide, busy streets interrupting the flow of the community, and a tendency toward shopping centers). The book also enabled me to articulate reasons for why I'm more comfortable in some parts of Chicago than others, not because of crime statistics or creepy people on the street corners but just because of the way the streets and buildings are designed and placed. My new neighborhood feels a lot more like home than my previous one did, and it meets more of the characteristics of a well designed neighborhood as laid out in this book.
However, most of the details that made me look at my different residences with new understanding showed up pretty early on in the text. After that, I felt like the same ideas kept being stated over and over again, and by the last couple of chapters I was questioning whom the authors were writing for, exactly, as they waver between addressing architects and laypeople. I also got a little irritated with the authors' tendency toward cutesy acronyms, like "Nimby" (a person who says "not in my backyard" when faced with new development ideas) and "Lulu" (locally undesirable land use, such as a sewage treatment plant or a homeless shelter, which everyone agrees is necessary but no one wants nearby).
Overall I'd say I learned quite a bit about town planning, land usage, and the ways physical environment influences community and behavior, and I'm being more attentive to the built environment around me. However, while I eagerly devoured the earlier chapters of the book, by the end it seemed to be dragging on, and I felt like the authors were just stating and restating the obvious.
I'd definitely recommend the book for someone interested in how the physical environment can and does influence people's behavior and sense of community. If nothing else it will have you looking a little more closely at streets and houses you've passed by hundreds of times before.
I'm not quite sure how to assess the book, because in some ways I loved it, yet in other ways I felt like it kept repeating the same point ad nauseam and that it couldn't make up its mind who its audience was. I especially loved the discussions about the layout of pedestrian-and-community-friendly towns, because they made me realize how good I had things in the town I grew up in (I could walk everywhere I needed to go, and was able to ride my bike all over town too), and helped me critique the suburban towns my two colleges were in (both were semi-pedestrian-friendly but also had some intimidatingly wide, busy streets interrupting the flow of the community, and a tendency toward shopping centers). The book also enabled me to articulate reasons for why I'm more comfortable in some parts of Chicago than others, not because of crime statistics or creepy people on the street corners but just because of the way the streets and buildings are designed and placed. My new neighborhood feels a lot more like home than my previous one did, and it meets more of the characteristics of a well designed neighborhood as laid out in this book.
However, most of the details that made me look at my different residences with new understanding showed up pretty early on in the text. After that, I felt like the same ideas kept being stated over and over again, and by the last couple of chapters I was questioning whom the authors were writing for, exactly, as they waver between addressing architects and laypeople. I also got a little irritated with the authors' tendency toward cutesy acronyms, like "Nimby" (a person who says "not in my backyard" when faced with new development ideas) and "Lulu" (locally undesirable land use, such as a sewage treatment plant or a homeless shelter, which everyone agrees is necessary but no one wants nearby).
Overall I'd say I learned quite a bit about town planning, land usage, and the ways physical environment influences community and behavior, and I'm being more attentive to the built environment around me. However, while I eagerly devoured the earlier chapters of the book, by the end it seemed to be dragging on, and I felt like the authors were just stating and restating the obvious.
I'd definitely recommend the book for someone interested in how the physical environment can and does influence people's behavior and sense of community. If nothing else it will have you looking a little more closely at streets and houses you've passed by hundreds of times before.