Must Reads: Foundational Books about Urban Planning
By: Daniela Shuman, Spring 2023The Death and Life of Great American Cities
By: Jane Jacobs
In the Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs provides us with a vision for urban communities. Published originally in 1961, Jacob begins her groundbreaking framework for urban planning principles with "This book is an attack on current city planning and rebuilding". During this time, cities were losing their grip on the value they brought to American life. Urban populations had been plummeting since 1945, and at this time, the "Edge City" was growing rapidly. But Jacobs was disappointed by this. She always asked "where are the people?" She built a picture of high-density, mixed use communities, where there is "intricate ballet" of people using the sidewalks as part of their life, just as much as their own home.
This book is quite a hefty read; it took me several months to get through. The writing is a bit dry until you hit Jacob's passionate stories and detailed descriptions of communities. This is a must read for all 21st century urbanists, and frankly, for anyone who wants to understand how communities can work successfully in the future.
Happy City
By: Charles Montgomery
Psycology and Urban Planning?! Charles Montgomery explores how urban design can influence behaviors of individuals in cities. How can we use the elements of design like the width of a sidewalk or the distance to a park to improve the enjoyment of living in an urban environment?
Charles Montgomery starts the book with a little story about his time in Bogota biking around the city with the former mayor Enrique Penalosa, who transformed the city into a bikeable one.
Golden Gates
By: Connor Dougherty
A foundational and riveting exploration of the housing crisis in San Fransisco, Connor Dougherty demonstrates the tragedy of gentrification and the frustration of NIMBYism in the Golden Gates city. This book walked through how the crisis reached the extent it is at today, offering anecdotes, history, and data to build out this complicated story. Several stories stuck with me: he demonstrates his points by building out a narrative of humanizing homelessness and introducing the leaders of YIMBYism.
I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is particularly interested in housing crises, as San Francisco is a great example of one of the worst kinds.
Street Fight
By: Janette Sadik-Khan
Fascinating recount of how Janette Sadiq Khan, lawyer by training but former Tranportation Chief of New York City under Bloomberg, redesigned the entire Manhattan street system to be more friendly to bikers. She goes into the technical details of how streets are designed to the foot. She describes in detail how participatory processes can be used to engage the community in making infrastructure changes, while still implementing large scale solutions. Some of the more fascinating projects were all temporary, that Khan used to make decisions about how infrastructure projects can impact the way individuals use public space. Absolutely fascinating!
