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Tag Archives: cities
People Habitat
People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities© 2014 F. Kaid Benfield304 pages The built environment can have an enormous effect on human happiness, facilitating it or obstructing it; think of the frustration of taking care of errands … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged cities, essays, Politics-CivicInterest, sustainability, urbanism
1 Comment
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town© 2021 Chuck Marohn 272 pages Chuck Marohn is a licensed engineer and urban planner who, in 2008, began sharing his concerns that the current approach to both building and financing … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged Chuck Marohn, cities, civic awareness, infrastructure, transportation, urbanism
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Of Darwin, dinosaurs, and Denisovians
I expect to leave the recovery-suite of the hotel at the end of this week and eturn home, though I’ll be returning to Birmingham every two weeks for checkups for the next few months. During this multiweek siesta, I’ve mostly … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews, science
Tagged anthropology, cities, cosmology, evolution, livin la vida anthropocene, natural history, science
8 Comments
2022: A World of Cities
I’m posting this largely for planning purposes. (I’d made the header at some point last year….bit of a shame not to use it!). I have a few titles already in hand for this, and hope to pursue it further in … Continue reading
Victorian London
Victorian London: The Life of a City, 1840 – 1870© 2013 Liza Picard504 pages As far as immersive English social histories go, I would heretofore have called Ian Mortimer the champion standing, but if Victorian London is any example, Liza … Continue reading
Posted in history, Reviews
Tagged cities, history, Liza Picard, London, social history, Victorian
4 Comments
Romance of the Rails
Romance of the Rails: Why the Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need© 2018 Randal O’Toole300 pages “These are the 1930s again, with all the charm and romance, all the gaiety! That was a carefree world, Danny, and … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged cities, Politics-CivicInterest, trains, transportation, trolleys!
6 Comments
Walkable City Rules
Walkaable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places © 2018 Jeff Speck312 pages In Walkable Cities, Jeff Speck argued for the virtues of a city optimized for pedestrian travel, and offered ten general guidelines for making it happen — … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged bicycles, cities, Politics-CivicInterest, urbanism
5 Comments
Happy City
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design© 2013 Charles Montgomery368 pages City air makes one free, but — happy? Throughout the 20th century, Americans fled the urban centers seeking Arcadian bliss. They didn’t find it, and despite an abundance … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews
Tagged cities, civic awareness, politics, Politics-CivicInterest, urbanism
4 Comments
Short rounds: of cybercities and medicinal ectasy
Recently I’ve read a couple of books that I wasn’t particularly impressed with, but they weren’t stinkers enough to merit one of those rare-but-fun-to-write negative reviews. They’re in that “I can manage a paragraph of mixed interest and disappointment” grey … Continue reading
Fares Please!
Fares, Please! A Popular History of Trolleys, Horsecars, Streetcar,s, Buses, Elevateds, and Subways© 1941, 1960 John Anderson Miller204 pages With her high starch collar and her high-topped shoes, and her hair piled high above her headShe went to find a … Continue reading