Tag Archives: urbanism

People Habitat

Posted on January 10, 2023 by smellincoffee

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 →

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Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

Posted on September 12, 2022 by smellincoffee

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 →

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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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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 →

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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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This Just In

Posted on February 24, 2016 by smellincoffee

During the weekend I said in comments here that I would love to see a book about spontaneous or emergent order that crossed disciplines. Well, by golly, now there is one — and it’s by Matt Ridley, who penned The … Continue reading →

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Crabgrass Frontier

Posted on October 3, 2013 by smellincoffee

Crabgrass Frontier:  The Suburbanization of the United States© 1985 Kenneth Jackson432 pages For thousands of years, people lived in either the country or the city, but with the coming of the industrial revolution that changed, and especially in America.   … Continue reading →

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Straphanger

Posted on April 6, 2013 by smellincoffee

Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile336 pages© 2012 Taras Grescoe The cheap energy era is over, unless someone invents a Star Trek replicator that can magick barrels of oil into existence. Cities across the world are working … Continue reading →

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Pedaling Revolution

Posted on March 25, 2013 by smellincoffee

Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities© 2009 Jeff Mapes288 pages That’s some serious wind resistance there, buddy. Governments across the world today are beset by problems common to all: rising fuel prices and obesity rates, the ever-present spectre … Continue reading →

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Walkable Cities

Posted on January 31, 2013 by smellincoffee

Walkable Cities: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time© 2012 Jeff Speck312 pages   For most of human history, cities were limited to the area that people could cover on foot within a day, but the advent … Continue reading →

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