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People Places Books

This is the People Places book section. These books are about making places more attuned to the needs of people. Topics include works in urban criticism, planning, architecture, cultural geography, and demographics. Many of the books have a link for a separate book notes page that provides more information.

	Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck Discusses the vitality of neighborhoods as improved by connections, mixed uses, human-scale and transit-friendly spaces. See book notes.
	The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald C. Shoup Shines the light on parking, shows how misguided policies drain cities of vitality, and advocates for fair-market prices for curb parking, the return of the resulting revenue to neighborhoods for public improvements, and the removal of requirements for off-street parking. See book notes.
	The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream by Christopher B. Leinberger Leinberger describes the option of walkable urbanism (human mobility-oriented land use, city design, transportation, and architectural emphasis) in this book, making a very clear and readable case for allowing human-oriented living environments. See book notes.
	How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken by Alex Marshall Shows how cities work by the confluence of people and goods moved about and concentrated by transit and how 20th century cities have focused on just one transit mode, automobiles, to the exclusion of others. See book notes.
	Cities by John Reader Explores 7,000 years of human history in city-making and shows that the results are messy and all-too human, but that a diversity of approaches and allowing emergent activities and interactions to give the city life seems a successful approach. See book notes.
	Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took over America, and How We Can Take It Back by Jane Holtz Kay Critiques the over-dependence on the automobile. See book notes.
	The New Geography: How the digital revolution is reshaping the American landscape by Joel Kotkin Discusses the transformation of urban areas from manufacturing and middle class enclaves to boutiques, showcases, and stages attractive to mobile digital and symbol workers. See book notes.
	A Certain Somewhere: Writers on the Places They Remember Edited by Robert Wilson Collected essays by writers telling about the special places they have come to love. The missing manual of modernism. See book notes.
	Making Places Special by Gene Bunnell Makes a case for planning as a positive force in making a sense of place, but emphasizes the visual appeal of places over substantial reform of automobile-centric thinking. See book notes.
	Notes on Cities and the Creative Class by Richard Florida Attempts to document his central thesis that "creativity has become the principal driving force in the growth and development of cities, regions, and nations" (p. 1). See book notes.
	Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida Creative people cluster to gain value--productivity, economies of scale, and knowledge-sharing--from proximity. See book notes.
	The Rise of the Creative Class And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida Describes a class of people, termed the Creative Class, which Florida claims are the key to economic development. See book notes.
	A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink Presents aptitudes for Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning as key to future success in a conceptual age. See book notes.
	The Culture Code by Clotaire Rapaille Claims archetype experiences of products and services can be captured in a code useful for marketing. See book notes.
	Ecotopia: The notebooks and reports of William Weston by Ernest Callenbach Fictional account of ecologically-sustainable society reflecting hippie social sensibility but also a comprehensive approach to sustainable transportation and affordable housing. See book notes.
	Streets for People a Primer for Americans by Bernard Rudofsky Documents pedestrian-oriented activities and the types of streets and street features which have centuries of demonstrated success. See book notes.
	Crossing the Expendable Landscape by Bettina Drew Provides a deeply personal perspective on a variety of built environments and reveals some insights about urbanism. See book notes.
	Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau Shows how Edge Cities--conglomerations of mixed-use buildings and grounds that often grow at major highway intersections--fulfill many of the same functions that traditional cities have served for thousands of years. See book notes.
	The Geography Of Nowhere: The Rise And Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler Critiques suburban and urban forms of the late 20th century and argues for human-scale architecture and urban planning. See book notes.
	Home from Nowhere: Remaking our everyday world for the 21st century by James Howard Kunstler Provides a personal and social context for challenges of public space, open space, and meaningful and human-scale urban forms. See book notes.
	The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition by James Howard Kunstler Tour of the urban history, cultural geography, and architecture in eight cities showing how the twentieth century city has often been terribly brutal to people--unnecessarily--through ignorance of history and human needs. See book notes.
	1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die: The World's Architectural Masterpieces by Mark Irving (Editor) Tour of notable stops in architecture worldwide over 5,000 years but with 47% 20th-century content (and bias). See book notes.
	The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century by James Howard Kunstler Oil will get scarce and expensive, collapsing the way of life dependent upon it. See book notes.
	The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg Informal social gathering places, Third Places, form and support environments where people can meet social needs for balance in their life and expanded social networks for ideas. See book notes.
	The wealth of cities: Revitalizing the centers of American life by John O. Norquist. Main point: human-centered cities can re-ignite the dynamic energy inherent in urban areas. The author was mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1988 to the end of 2003, and as of 2004 became president of the Congress for the New Urbanism. See book notes.
	City-Building in America by Anthony M. Orum. Main point: the building of cities is marked not just by the conflict between city growth and social equity, but also a life cycle that can be summarized by stages of growth and decline made more dramatic by city v. suburban conflicts. See book notes.
	The City: A Global History by Joel Kotkin Cities succeed when they can serve and balance needs for sacredness, security, and commerce.See book notes.
	Global City Blues by Daniel Solomon Moderism can be undone by re-orienting thinking about and building cities based on human experience and a sense of place. See book notes.
	Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis The natural, imaginative, and urban environment of LA works in a system of doom in which fear ultimately produces a combustible urban standoff. See book notes.
	Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World by Robert Neuwirth People build shelter illegally when they cannot obtain it otherwise. The resulting squatter settlements have grown to be a significant proportion of the world's population. See book notes.
	Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs Inattention to problems related to families, higher education, science, tax policy, and professional integrity may have dire consequences for communities. See book notes.
	Ideal Cities by Ruth Eaton Ideal city ideas often seemed marked by a obsessive symmetry out of sync with human needs and preferences. See book notes.
	Life 2.0 by Rich Karlgaard Flyover country can have its benefits: lower costs, appealing lifestyles, and business-enabling economies. See book notes.
	The Clustered World by Michael J. Weiss Geodemographics reveals how people who share similar lifestyle and consumer preferences tend to live together and the resulting patterns can reveal neighborhood makeup as well as marketing insights. See book notes.
	Get Urban!: The Complete Guide to City Living by Kyle Ezell Urban living can be a joy when you pick a place that matches your personality and reflects the diversity and human-scale ideals of urbanity. See book notes.
	A Better Place to Live: Reshaping the American Suburb (Paperback) by Philip Langdon The author suggests an approach in which historically-proven successful urban forms are used as guidelines for present needs, with a strong focus on human-scale architecture, mixed land-use policies, and multi-modal transit options. See book notes.
	The Strip: An American Place by Richard P. Horwitz Examines strip development in Iowa in the late 70's and the struggles of the workers there to balance their individuality with an increasingly rationalized business environment. See book notes.
	American Mania: When More Is Not Enough by Peter C. Whybrow Human brain chemistry lures people into the modern paradox of anxiety with abundance. See book notes.
	Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson Individual action adds up to more than the sum of its parts in emergence. See book notes.
	Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century by Hal Rothman Las Vegas develops from an obscure desert settlement to world entertainment capital in about a century. See book notes.
	Miami: City of the Future by T. D. Allman Explores Miami's history and transformation over time. The author participates in and immerses himself in Miami's vices, places, people, and fast times of the mid-1980's "Miami Vice" era. See book notes.
	The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream by Peter Calthorpe
	Repairing the American Metropolis: Common Place Revisited by Doug Kelbaugh Describes the built environment and design patterns used to shape it including New Urbanism, Everyday Urbanism, and Post Urbanism. Calls for public policy to reinvigorate urban centers, end automobile-centric policies, provide for regional and local transit, plan regionally, encourage granny-flats and live-work units in housing, and get funding/taxing policies congruent with supporting urbanism as opposed to sprawl and waste.
	Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence by Peter Newman, Jeffrey Kenworthy Examines cities throughout the world and shows how enabling less dependence on automobiles can help the sustainability of cities.
	The city after the automobile: An architect's vision by Moshe Safdie Develops its main point in the first 2/3 of the book, "As cars shaped the city, so the city itself is now shaped to require cars." (p. 127) Describes alternates to the private car: a U-car (utility car) which seems little more than a short-term rental car; and a linear city design including a retractable roof atrium and moving sidewalks.
	A Sense of place, a sense of time by John Brinckerhoff Jackson Argues that community sense comes from interaction rather than static, specilized dwellings.