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alliallstar's review
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
read this for Content Club on third places! Confirming that we need to be friends with our neighbors, invest in public infrastructure and ride our bikes more :,)
alexgeorge's review against another edition
4.0
I will start by saying I was pleasantly surprised by this book; for once there was a fair amount of attention paid to how we can make better urban spaces (which I will go into shortly) and it was nice to have the central paradigmatic case study be Botoga, rather than the traditional examples of cities in the West like Amsterdam or Portland, although these were mentioned. I will say though that most of this example focused on a certain period in Bogota's history, so these changes do appear to have not necessarily been lasting, despite their positive effects. As for how we make happier urban spaces, whilst there is some mention of how this can be done by retrofitted sprawl and the like (which im not entirely conviced by, given that this focusses on small sections of sprawl and again falls into the trap of blaming the ills of sprawl solely on zoning, which isnt going to make areas of single-family homes more walkable, remains a form of profit-motivated development, and likely will not impact the socioeconomically uneven access to walkability) happier urban spaces seem to just happen by chance, and will continue to happen as people aim to live happier lives. This neglects how a lot of these changes were orchestrated by hired, rather than elected officials, and the work needed to incentivise the hiring of these invidiual groups, as well the grassroots movement that motivate change (instead choosing to focus on individual power to make change). There remains an issue that I personally have with books on this sort of topic, whereby the fact that car centricity was not motivated purely by profit, efficiency and competition is used to suggest that capitalism will sort itself out and reintroduce competition for cars, which I don't personally think is the case, given the current power of cars in society. Still, a good read for explaining which sorts of urban changes are most conducive to happiness, just overly hopeful for these changes happening naturally.
mrs_bonaventure's review
4.0
A dense but necessary and inspiring treatise on why we should try to live closer together and get to know our neighbours. The polemic is aimed very much at the U.S. (the author is Canadian) and coming from a European perspective, much of what he recommends seems obvious because we have been doing it for hundreds of years. However the basic truths - that we should walk, cycle, talk and smile at each other more - hold true and it's fascinating to read case studies from London and Copenhagen as well as American cities. Lots of encouragement to take the city planning back and part of exciting emerging debate on the power of mayors to shape cities for millions of people.
ktroney's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
dankeran's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Really enjoyed as an introduction into Urban Design and its interconnectedness with our happiness. Really made me think about how city planning can make or break resident morale.
groodoo's review
4.0
Too focused on North America. The basic ideas are good though. Could have been shorter.