Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time Author: Jeff Speck | Language: English | ISBN:
B008423170 | Format: EPUB
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time Description
Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability.
The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that’s easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at.
Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick. In this essential new book, Speck reveals the invisible workings of the city, how simple decisions have cascading effects, and how we can all make the right choices for our communities.
Bursting with sharp observations and real-world examples, giving key insight into what urban planners actually do and how places can and do change, Walkable City lays out a practical, necessary, and eminently achievable vision of how to make our normal American cities great again.
- File Size: 1257 KB
- Print Length: 321 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0865477728
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Reprint edition (November 13, 2012)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B008423170
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,061 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Urban Planning & Development - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Architecture > Urban & Land Use Planning - #5
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > City Planning & Urban Development
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Urban Planning & Development - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Arts & Photography > Architecture > Urban & Land Use Planning - #5
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > City Planning & Urban Development
At a recent book talk, I heard Jeff Speck discuss this book and his life's work, and was entirely compelled to read the rest myself. It turns out he really does have the life experience, numerous skills, wide exposure to various urban situations, and the concrete ideas to deliver the outcomes we want to create a walkable life.
I was particularly engaged by the three "E" features that were coming together: epidemiology, environment, and economics--that were clearly all in favor of urban density, mixed use, and transit oriented development (where it is appropriate). The book backs up these things with evidence on each count.
And then about a month later at a city meeting, here he was again. He's been working with my city planners in Somerville MA to turn our city into the top tier of walkable cities in the US. We are at the right place and right time: we are about to get several MBTA train stations, and currently have the chance to plan and strategize around them.
He acknowledges that we were born on 3rd base (and I don't dispute this). But he has evidence and methods that can help us be an incredibly walkable city. I think he has the goods. I hope we can act on it.
Certainly I have to admit that this book is delightful in part because it matches all of my cognitive bias (heh). I love cities (especially older ones), and I would love to live almost entirely without a car. Many of the examples he uses as both good and bad scenarios are places I've lived--so I know his facts are solid on those. But the text contains enough data and references that you can check the information with other sources, look at images on the web, and see that the story holds.
I wish it had contained more photographic evidence of some of the features he describes.
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