QUESTION: You know I LOVE books on cities, urbanism & city-building. I even made a “Best 100 Books” list back in 2013 (needs updating) & started the #UrbanismBookClub hashtag. Here’s my question — what’s the ONE BOOK that MOST changed how you think about better cities? www.planetizen.com/node/66462 - ThreadSky

brenttoderian.bsky.social • 62 days ago

QUESTION: You know I LOVE books on cities, urbanism & city-building. I even made a “Best 100 Books” list back in 2013 (needs updating) & started the #UrbanismBookClub hashtag. Here’s my question — what’s the ONE BOOK that MOST changed how you think about better cities? https://www.planetizen.com/node/66462

Comments

macequantex.bsky.social•62 days ago

Curbing Traffic @modacitylife.com inspired me so much that I began speaking directly with my city council about road design. Two days ago my newly elected mayor & I had a meeting where he informed me he was going to try to create a group to update the city street design plan & that he wants me on it

andknud.bsky.social•61 days ago

This one!

"Cognitive Architecture - Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment"

rebeccachesley.bsky.social•62 days ago

I would argue that this book should be on the list. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/533225/teardown-by-dave-meslin/9780143197058

akrubic.bsky.social•62 days ago

just starting in this field, but this one had an impact

kunzea.bsky.social•62 days ago

land take! cloverleaf ramps severance of habitat...

akrubic.bsky.social•62 days ago

that impact is better covered in this one

johnlakeman.bsky.social•62 days ago

Crossings is the answer for me as well.

kunzea.bsky.social•62 days ago

and fewer roads, smaller roads...less damage to Earth

kunzea.bsky.social•62 days ago

tx, weird title...

akrubic.bsky.social•62 days ago

didn't think so - it's about roads blocking wildlife crossings

kunzea.bsky.social•62 days ago

severance of ecosystems, the effect is far worse than visible wildlife .. a very long list.

tabatha.bsky.social•62 days ago

My local urbanism group is reading this one for boom club this month

bonrod.bsky.social•62 days ago

Happy cities, architecture of communities, and death and life

bonrod.bsky.social•62 days ago

In that order, so number one is Montgomery's HC

mattfromfarnham.bsky.social•62 days ago

Andreas Faludi was my go to when knocking out the planningg applications in provincial england in the 80s. Or may be not. Anything by Peter Hall is worth reading

urbanismnow.com•62 days ago

"Movement: how to take back our streets and transform our lives"

urbanismnow.com•62 days ago

PS: I write a weekly urbanism roundup to bring you the best ideas from around the world to inspire action where you (c)are.

https://urbanismnow.com

camdencyclists.bsky.social•62 days ago

Great read

kunzea.bsky.social•62 days ago

tackle the Lattouf issue paralysing road management - hostile to pedestrian desire line & all road user safety...stuck in rigid formulas without thought, recent example: floating bus platform Oxford St at Brisbane St. Are they open to review? no.

aliceferguson.bsky.social•62 days ago

Seconded

mdb-idf.org•62 days ago

French translation very much needed

jjsilverspallina.bsky.social•62 days ago

Suburban Nation. But I see it only made #37 on the top 100 list.

clismo.bsky.social•62 days ago

Not exactly urban, but it made realise that we build for humans and not as some form of art

miguelvertriest.bsky.social•62 days ago

"Lelijkste land ter wereld" R. Braem (1968) and "Mobielste land ter wereld" K. Boussauw-T. Vanoutrive (2014), because you can't have one without the other.

andreareimer.bsky.social•62 days ago

Interesting. I asked a similar question a couple of years ago about what one book every newly elected local gov official should read. Can fish out the list of its helpful

bustersmart.bsky.social•62 days ago

Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of American Cities.

hansonthebike.bsky.social•61 days ago

I became mostly inspired by travelling a lot in my youth and coming to realise what was wrong with cities and only later in life started to read urbanism books.

johnlakeman.bsky.social•62 days ago

Could have done without Ayn Rand getting an honorable mention. Will probably start with the other 100+ books mentioned.

urbanistyann.bsky.social•62 days ago

Towards and Urban Renaissance. This is the book that changed it for me, but I also believe it had a profound impact on how we viewed and designed cities in the UK

laskajan.bsky.social•61 days ago

📌

gkam.bsky.social•59 days ago

I really liked 5 Rules for Emerging Cities by Patrick Condon

diegorupolo.bsky.social•62 days ago

📌 Pinning this to view later!

lyndallc.bsky.social•61 days ago

Happy City by Charles Montgomery.

y2skot.bsky.social•62 days ago

Most things written by Lewis Mumford, but definitely “The City in History”.

eversdavid.bsky.social•61 days ago

I’m reading that now. A true humanitarian and scholar of yesteryear- magnificent prose, opinion and fact intertwined and virtually no citations. His fervent praise of the medieval city and society has changed how I think about cities.

cookting.bsky.social•62 days ago

https://archive.org/details/citiesnaturalpro0000houg

rob042.bsky.social•62 days ago

Street Fight seems an obvious choice for me; we're still seeing the same arguments/fears/concerns play out in London (everywhere?) over a decade later. Full of insight, best practice tips (ditch the "town hall meetings, guys), and a great story of what can be achieved.

expeditionworks.bsky.social•61 days ago

We absolutely need to ditch the town hall.

Performance dot gov gave me a grant to write a new community engagement toolkit, and it’s here:

https://tacticaldemocracy.com

rob042.bsky.social•60 days ago

Our local authority organises its engagement and consultation events along exactly the lines described in the book - reviewing plans around small tables (across multiple events, if there's demand); people are civil, more constructive, and no one gets to grab the microphone to pontificate