BOOK REVIEWS
Books are important. CharacterTowns.org selects and discusses current publications and works from previous generations that still hold wisdom for contemporary city-building. The review also includes published reviews and Youtube links to discussions by or about the author. Books are selected from the attached Suggested Readings.
“Missing Middle Housing: Thinking Big and Building Small to Respond to Today’s Housing Crisis” by Daniel G. Parolek
OPTICOS DESIGN FOUNDER DANIEL PAROLEK inspired a new movement for housing choice in 2010 when he coined the term “Missing Middle Housing,” a transformative concept that highlights a time-proven and beloved way to provide more housing and more housing choices in sustainable, walkable places. Called “Missing” because these residential homes have typically been illegal to […]
“Next Generation Infrastructure: Principles for Post-Industrial Public Works 2nd Edition” by Hillary Brown
Despite being five years old, the ideas and insights offered in Next Generation Infrastructure are useful when deciding how to proceed with public works infrastructure improvements. Ms. Brown addresses infrastructure issues from the perspective of sustainability and systems thinking. The optimization of goods and services balanced with economic and financial conditions offers insights into the […]
“Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life” by
“A Paean to public architecture and the buildings and places that bring us together, Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People shows how modest undertakings and subtle, insightful design can strengthen communities. The book makes the connection between the much decried decline of civic life and the spaces that help us support each other—especially in neighborhoods where social connections have been severed by […]
“Palaces for the People” by Eric Klinenberg
Character towns rely on social infrastructure. “In Palaces for the People, Klinenberg, a sociologist and director of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge, builds upon his 2002 book, Heat Wave. That work reported social isolation and neighborhood breakdown as key reasons so many people died in Chicago during one torrid week in the summer of 1995. […]
“Parks and Recreation System Planning, A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities” by David Barth, PhD
FROM CharacterTowns.org… David Barth has provided the city-building professions with a holistic guide for developing a great parks systems while using it to develop a great city. The power of the parks and recreation system to address the full range of social issues is presented in terms of tactics and aspirations. A great and useful […]
“Parks and Recreation System Planning, A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities” by David L. Barth
FROM CharacterTowns.org… David Barth has provided the city-building professions with a holistic guide for developing a great parks systems while using it to develop a great city. The power of the parks and recreation system to address the full range of social issues is presented in terms of tactics and aspirations. A great and useful […]
“Parks and Recreation System Planning, A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities” by David L. Barth, PhD.
FROM CharacterTowns.org… David Barth [1955-2022]has provided the city-building professions with a holistic guide for developing a great parks systems while using it to develop a great city. The power of the parks and recreation system to address the full range of social issues is presented in terms of tactics and aspirations. A great and useful […]
“Place and Prosperity: How Cities Help Us to Connect and Innovate” by William Fulton
CT.org looks forward to the soon to be released work that addresses connections and innovations as important parts of every cities’ desire to be an interesting, pleasant and prosperous place for residents, businesses and visitors. “There are few more powerful questions than, “Where are you from” or “Where do you live?” People feel intensely connected […]
“Plastic Game Changer: How to Reduce Plastic in your Organization to Make a Difference to Plastic Pollution” by Amanda Keetley
Introduction. Less Plastic is an organization founded by people concerned about the permanence of plastic in our oceans. Their book, Plastic Game Changer, and the website, referenced below, address the problem and offer actions to mitigate the damage. Amazon says: Our beautiful oceans are filling with plastic. Devastating marine wildlife and disrupting fragile ecosystems; it is also threatening to […]
“Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works” by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin
Strategy is the game. Michael Porter inspired A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin to write a book about strategy; namely, Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works. Lafley and Martin present strategy as “an integrated cascade of choices” with five questions: “What are our winning aspirations? “Where will we play? “How will we win? “What capabilities […]
“Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large-Scale World” by Ross Chapin
From CT.org… Pocket Neighborhoods and Micro Cottages, the marriage of special living styles suitable for a unique workforce housing application in an urban setting. From Amazon… “Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World introduces an antidote to faceless, placeless sprawl ― small scale neighborhoods where people can easily know one another, […]
“Power Failure: Politics, Patronage, and the Economic Future of Buffalo, New York” by Diana Dillaway.
Ms. Dillaway, a professional city planner with twenty-five years of experience has many publications and presentations to her credit. As a native of Buffalo, she turned her talents toward her hometown to try to understand the diminishment of a once fine and prosperous city. Her story is compelling and should give pause to every prosperous city of the early […]
“Project Management for the Design Professional: A Handbook for Architects, Engineers, and Interior Designers” by David Burstein and Frank Stasiowski
Project Management for the Design Professional continues to be the go-to book for professional designers to learn how to manage projects. From marketing and selling the job to contracting, staffing, producing and budgeting, this book sets out a useful program. The book is supported by the Project Services Management Journal [PSMJ] which is an industry […]
“Public Libraries and Their Communities: An Introduction” by Kay Cassell
From Amazon… Public Libraries and Their Communities: An Introduction provides an overview of public librarianship today. It covers library organization, policy development, staffing, fiscal organization including funding sources and budgets, the legal framework, relationships with local and state governments, advocacy, services and service development for different age groups and for different groups of users, development […]
“Regenerating Older Suburbs” by Richard Peiser
“How can aging inner-ring suburbs remain vital and attract investment from private development? This book describes the strategies and solutions employed by 10 inner-ring suburbs—some experiencing significant redevelopment and others striving to attract redevelopment.” FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail
“Silent Spring Revolution” by Douglas Brinkley
New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. With the detonation of the Trinity explosion in the […]
“Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson
In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover magazine. From CT.org… Ms. Carson revolutionized global thinking on environmental issues. The original printing in 1962 was reprinted in 2002 with an extensive introduction by Linda Lear; an excerpt follows. Ms. Lear’s introduction plus […]
“Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Land Planning and Site Design” by James A. LaGro Jr. Wiley
From Amazon, From the Back Cover The complete guide to site analysis—for better plans and better projects Context-sensitive site planning leads to better development proposals and, ultimately, to higher quality built environments. By responding to inherent site opportunities and constraints, context-sensitive development—and redevelopment—creates attractive and pedestrian-friendly places to live, work, and play. The expanded and […]
“State-Building, Governance and the New World Order in the 21st Century” by Francis Fukuyama
State-Building, Governance and the New World Order in the 21st Century is a compact book written by Professor Fukuyama after 9/11 but before the global financial crisis of 2008. Yet, he grasps the fundamentals of the world and its order; and provides an enduring framework for analyzing individual nations and their interactions. He posits that the fundamental […]
“Streetfight, Handbook for an Urban Revolution” by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow
SUMMARY The author’s experience working for Mayor Bloomberg in New York City is inspirational. The transition for a car-dominant transportation system to one with more respect for transit, bicyclists and pedestrians shows that conversions can be made in the toughest of settings. Carving out exclusive bus lanes, paths for bicycles, expanded sidewalks and open spaces […]
“Superforecasting” by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner
The Art and Science of Prediction The theory, simply put, is that an organized collection of well-informed people can predict events as well as professional prognosticators. If so, think of the possibilities of organizing and informing a large citizenry about issues of concern and relying on their judgement to explore solutions; absent professional input. Can […]
“Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation”
by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler From Amazon….“Cities can make us sick. They always have—diseases spread more easily when more people are close to one another. And disease is hardly the only ill that accompanies urban density. Cities have been demonized as breeding grounds for vice and crime from Sodom and Gomorrah on. But cities […]
“Sustainable Urbanism, Urban Design with Nature” by Douglas Farr
Mr. Farr has done a great service by linking sustainability and the New Urbanism. Of particular interest are the five attributes of neighborhoods: definition, compactness, completeness, connectedness and biophilia. From Amazon… “Written by the chair of the LEED-Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) initiative, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature is both an urgent call to action and a comprehensive introduction to “sustainable urbanism”–the […]
“Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character” by Charles R. Wolfe
Somewhere, between character and caricature, there exists an authentic–a truly unique–urban place, that blends global and local, old and new. Yet, in a dramatically changing world dominated by crises of climate change, maintaining public health, and social justice, finding such places–and explaining their relevance–may be easier said than done. Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character […]
“The Affordable City” by Shane Phillips
From Los Angeles to Boston and Chicago to Miami, US cities are struggling to address the twin crises of high housing costs and household instability. Debates over the appropriate course of action have been defined by two poles: building more housing or enacting stronger tenant protections. These options are often treated as mutually exclusive, with […]
“The Art of the Long View, Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World” by Peter Schwartz
Peter Schwartz has written a book that benefits every futurist. The subtitle, “Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World” describes the value added by his description of scenario planning. As he describes it, his colleagues predicted the 1971 oil crisis; and he predicted the fall of the Soviet Union; both using scenario planning. The methods discussed relate directly […]
“The Character of Towns, An Approach to Conservation” by Roy Worskett
Summary The Character of Towns, though written nearly fifty years ago, offers many great ideas and examples for preserving and enhancing small cities and towns with prodigious sketches and photos. His examples and experience is British, but the lessons to be learned from his work are universal. His work spans the spectrum of urban design from the town planning scale […]
“The Company Town, The Industrial Edens and Satanic Mills that Shaped the American Economy” by Hardy Green
This is a big book. Story after story of exploitive towns, utopian towns, satellite industrial towns, and towns dominated, but not owned, by a single company. The history of company towns spans nearly two hundred years from Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1820s to Oak Ridge, Tennessee in the 1940s to Greer, South Carolina [BMW] in […]
“The Excellence Dividend” by Tom Peters
Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last The inimitable Tom Peters has produced another thought provoking and insightful book focused on taking care of people. For the few who have not done so, check out In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman […]
“The Firm, The Story of McKinsey and its Influence on American Business” by Duff McDonald
Purpose of the Firm. A book about a business consulting firm may seem off-point to the creation of a knowledge base on Character Towns; but consider that The Firm is a consulting firm. Most cities hire and manage consultants and many city planners are or have been or will be consultants. Also consider that McKinsey […]