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, See book notes, for a separate book notes page that contains a short review I wrote and provides more information and links.

1642832545	Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It by M. Nolan Gray Zoning has been a means to "break" the American city by limiting what can be built, where it can be built, and for whom. The author calls for an abolishment of zoning and instead offers alternatives to unleash the power of cities. See book notes.
0385262094	City: rediscovering the center by William H. Whyte Through a study of pedestrian behavior and dynamics, principally on Manhattan sidewalks, Whyte observes the attraction of people toward each other and the center--an agora of streets and plazas. See book notes.
B00N4QPMX2	Bootstrap New Urbanism: Design, Race, and Redevelopment in Milwaukee by Joseph A. Rodriguez Rodriguez re-examines the history and discourse patterns in Milwaukee's urban issues and finds an underappreciation for the diverse urban strategies undertaken in the city. See book notes.
B01K3WN4TI	The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-and What We Can Do About It by Richard Florida Florida examines the new urban crises and advocates for an urbanism for all in which investments in clustering, infrastructure, affordable housing, worker skillsets, people, and places work. See book notes.
	Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit by Christof Spieler Presents profiles of 47 US metropolitan areas that had, at its writing, rail transit or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and comes with a remarkable, concise overview of transit concepts and an agenda for the future of transit. See book notes.
B07CGSBWT5	Parking and the City by Donald C. Shoup An exploration of the economics of parking in cities with a summary of Shoup's 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking and new chapters on removing off-street parking requirements, charge the right prices for on-street parking, and parking benefits districts. See book notes.
1884829988	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.
0525429840	Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow By identifying how people could make better use of the entire space of the street in safer, more efficient, more equitable, and more productive ways, the author and her team achieved remarkably fast and significant improvements in safety, crime reduction, business improvement, transit choices, and quality of life for citizens. See book notes.
0865476063	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.
159726136X	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.
0865717729	Why I Walk: Taking a Step in the Right Direction by Kevin Klinkenberg The author states his personal reasons for why he walks for fun and transportation and the resulting benefits he sees in his life. He advocates for cities to be designed so that others have choices for walking. See book notes.
1621064867	Why We Drive: The Past, Present, and Future of Automobiles in America by Andy Singer Public policy and economic interests have invested in car culture at the expense of human culture. See book notes.
0199360146	Dead End: Suburban Sprawl and the Rebirth of American Urbanism by Benjamin Ross Land use policies restrict the power to unleash the inherent strength of cities. See book notes.
0071806075	Charter of the New Urbanism (Second Edition) edited by Emily Talen New Urbanism collects knowledge and practice to transform the built environment of the region, neighborhood, and block in order to strengthen economic vitality, community, and environment. See book notes.
1594488827	Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen Owen reveals dense cities like New York City as paragons of environmental sustainability. See book notes.
0292752407	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.
0871138980	Cities by John Reader Explores 7,000 years of human history in making cities 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.
1610914457	Parking Reform Made Easy by Richard W. Willson Provides practical guideance to unleash the strength of cities. See book notes.
1250078253	Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities by Ryan Gravel Shows how how a strong and resilient community can form around infrastructure through the development of the Atlanta Beltline See book notes.
159420277X	Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier by Edward L. Glaeser Advocates for the city as the way toward health, wealth, and prosperity as long as false choices are not followed and the support of human imagination and interaction is maintained. See book notes.
0520216202	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.
0976637200	Sprawl Kills: How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health, and Money by Joel S. Hirschhorn Critiques the political system that favors sprawl. See book notes.
1603580646	Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service--A Year Spent Riding across America by James McCommons Provides an overview of passenger rail, showing the public policy and operational issues involved while at the same time evoking the experience of train travel. See book notes.
189044958X	If Cars Could Talk: Essays on Urbanism by William H. Fain An architect and urban designer presents essays on urbanism.See book notes.
1576603202	The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream by John F. Wasik Identifies the delusions leading to high resource use inherent in the housing bubble of the early 20th century and suggests alternatives in sustainable communities centered on the human scale. See book notes.
1610914945	Urban Street Design Guide by National Association of City Transportation Officials It is possible to design city streets that are usable for a variety of users and uses. See book notes.
1930066880	My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America by Darrin Nordahl Public transportation should delight its clientele with vehicles and interiors that serve well as public spaces and connect community members to the cultural landscape as well as each other. See book notes.
0745644228	After the Car by Kingsley Dennis and John Urry Shows how the car system is inherently unstable and may eventually yield to a more diverse system of mobility worldwide. See book notes.
0375501991	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.
037550849X	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.
1884829589	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.
0307474372	The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City by Alan Ehrenhalt Some people are choosing to live in urban areas versus suburban areas, reversing a long period of urban decline and suburban growth. See book notes.
0805080651	The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America by Daniel Brook People struggle to maintain a high-end lifestyle that conforms to their aspirations and education. See book notes.
0415948878	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.
0465003524	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.
0465024769	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.
1573223085	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.
0767920562	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.
0553348477	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.
0442278403	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.
1555972799	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.
0385424345	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.
0671707744	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.
0684811960	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.
0684845911	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.
1591845254	The End of the Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving by Leigh Gallagher Suburbs no longer attract as much money, attention, or interest as they have in the past because of demographic, economic, and cultural changes. See book notes.
0789315645	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.
0871138883	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.
1569246815	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.
0738201340	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.
0813308437	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.
0679603360	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.
1559631848	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.
0805051066	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.
0679735941	The Experience of Place: A New Way of Looking at and Dealing With our Radically Changing Cities and Countryside by Tony Hiss People have a continuity of experience of places that can inform architecture and urban design. See book notes.
0415933196	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.
1400062322	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.
0500341869	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.
1400046076	Life 2.0 by Rich Karlgaard Flyover country can have its benefits: lower costs, appealing lifestyles, and business-enabling economies. See book notes.
0316929204	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.
1931868670	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.
1558491066	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.
0803223323	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.
0393059944	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.
0684868768	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.
0415926130	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.
0871132273	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.
1878271687	The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream by Peter Calthorpe
0295982047	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.
1559636602	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.
0465098363	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.
0300063970	A Sense of place, a sense of time by John Brinckerhoff Jackson Argues that community sense comes from interaction rather than static, specilized dwellings.