Tag Archives: cities

2022: A World of Cities

Posted on January 10, 2022 by smellincoffee

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 →

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Victorian London

Posted on April 22, 2021 by smellincoffee

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 , , , , , | 2 Comments

Romance of the Rails

Posted on March 21, 2019 by smellincoffee

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 , , , , | 5 Comments

Walkable City Rules

Posted on March 16, 2019 by smellincoffee

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 , , , | 4 Comments

Happy City

Posted on February 3, 2019 by smellincoffee

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 →

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Short rounds: of cybercities and medicinal ectasy

Posted on March 8, 2018 by smellincoffee

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 →

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Fares Please!

Posted on January 17, 2018 by smellincoffee

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 →

Posted in history, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Amsterdam

Posted on January 16, 2018 by smellincoffee

Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City© 2013 Russell Shorto369 pages In the early 14th century, a group of fisher-folk around the Amstel river came together with a dream: to build a place where people could smoke weed … Continue reading →

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A Burglar’s Guide to the City

Posted on September 18, 2017 by smellincoffee

A Burglar’s Guide to the City© 2016 Geoff Manaugh304 pages There’s really no resisting a title like that, is there?  Mind, it’s not accurate;  this isn’t a guide to how burglars read architecture, a catalog of vulnerabilities that homeowners and … Continue reading →

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Infrastructure: A Field Guide

Posted on September 14, 2017 by smellincoffee

Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape© 1999, 2014 Brian Hayes544 pages Here at last is a book for those of us who constantly gaze out the car window at the fixtures on utility poles, or drums mounted in … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments