Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design Hardcover
Author: Visit Amazon's Charles Montgomery Page - ISBN: 0374168237 - Language: English - Format: PDF, EPUB
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From Publishers Weekly
Can cities make us better people? Is the suburban American Dream really a nightmare? In this lively and accessible book, journalist Montgomery (The Shark God) marshals decades of interdisciplinary research into an effective argument against what he calls the dispersed city—the modern city/suburb designed around the automobile. The result is a succession of arguments meant to debunk individualism and show how citizens thrive on contact with others. In Montgomery's hands, urban design proves not only exciting, but integral to our future. He persuasively demonstrates that designing cities with social beings in mind can make them more pleasant places to live, and shows why suburbs are experiencing higher crime, as well as a significant happiness deficit. Furthermore, this passionate jeremiad argues that urban design often reinforces inequality, and Montgomery includes useful prescriptions for creating what he calls the fair city, as well as addressing issues like gentrification. For Montgomery, the city is a happiness project that exists in part to corral our conviviality and channel it productively. Though Montgomery's argument may seem strange at first, the book will likely make you a believer. 68 b&w illus. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, Fletcher & Co. (Nov.)
From Booklist
What is considered the happiest city on earth? Improbably, it just might be Bogotá, Colombia, where drug lords ruled, bicycles now roll, and pedestrians stroll in a city with a mayor committed to transforming his town’s image and its people’s lives. What’s the secret to his success? Not surprisingly, restricting traffic plays a huge part in Bogotá’s livability, but banning cars isn’t the be-all and end-all to urban bliss. As Montgomery illustrates through vibrant discussions of the physics, physiology, and psychology of urban, suburban, and exurban dwellers, multiple factors must coalesce before a city, large or small, can achieve perfection. All of which may become terribly muddled as climate change and resource depletion stress urban centers to an untenable tipping point. Touting extensive research tempered by anecdotal examples, Montgomery enumerates the mistakes made not only by the people who plan and govern cities but also by the people who live in them, and he offers cautious reassurance that it’s not too late to turn things around for all cities. --Carol Haggas
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DETAILS
- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 12, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374168237
- ISBN-13: 978-0374168230
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Urban & Regional
- #2 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Urban Planning & Development
- #2 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > City Planning & Urban Development
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4 Reviews Happy City Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design Charles Montgomery 9780385669122 Books Amazon caWe all joined this site more or less for this reason to get feedback on our art The whole point of submitting art online is for people to see it and hear what they Make Shift City Edited by Francesca Ferguson Make Shift City looks at urban design strategies that renegotiate and emancipate shared spaces and resources within the Accountancy Theory Bob Jensen at Trinity University My Accounting Theory Document Was Split into Two Files on December 15 2010 Please do what you can to lend Purdue students rate their professors online from eCampusNews com University is the latest to move course evaluations to the internet speeding feedback and saving In this black comedy Jim is an unsatisfied middle aged man on vacation with his family at Disney World While his family frolics through the park and is enthralled For the capital of Senegal see Dakar For other uses see Dhaka disambiguation The Paradox of Hope shows how clinicians families and patients employ hope in their illness narratives and treatment stories and indeed in their lives in general The Joseph Elizabeth Shaw Public Library will celebrate National Library Week from April 13 19 2014 This year 39 s theme is Lives Change your library Jul 22 2010 A directory of New York Times blogs Home Delivery 50 Off 12 Weeks All print options include free unlimited access
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